Is there something wrong with him??

My son's snake is about to shed. He isn't going into his hideout on the warm side and it's not too warm, I think its around 90 ish. He spends his days and nights in the cold hide which we can't seem to get over 75 ish. My son placed him on top of his warm hide yesterday to see what he would do and he remained there all night, didn't move an inch. This morning we thought we better put him inside his warm hide so he could be warm and he then came out and went over to his cold hide and thats where he stays. Both hides are the same size, but one is cardboard and one is plastic.
The other problem is the cold side temp, no matter what I do I can't raise it. We have put foam board around the outside and on the inside (3 sides) of the tank, we also just bought a 60 watt ceramic heat bulb, and covered 90 % of the roof with tinfoil and foil tape. What the heck? So now what? Has anyone built a tank?
Is there a better material? Should I line the bottom of the inside of the tank with foam board as well? Help please.:please:

What are you using to measure temps? My snake did that when I had the little round sticky guages...turned out, the hot side was way too hot so the cooler side was in a better temperature range for him.

Styrofoam or foamboard can help insulate.

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You should never be reading temps (ish). A digital temperature/hygrometer is $13 from Walmart. That will show your hot/cold side and humidity. Something is wrong with your husbandry. You just need the right tools to figure it out.

Regards,

B

Agreed +1 to both. You should invest in a digital thermometer, or a temp gun, to read temps more accurately. 90-ish isn't good...

I put a thermometer under his hot hide it was 91. I agree I should get a digitol thermometer.
The gun ones here are $50 though, haven't tryed walmart yet.
Should I take out the aspen and just put newspaper, maybe that would be better for reading temps because it could be hotter if hes al curled up in the aspen. So as for being on the cold side at 75, is he okay or is that too cold?

75 is about the coolest your bp should ever get. Its normally considered an acceptable nighttime low. Unfortunately, you're not going to get an accurate reading on whether that side is actually 75 until you at least have a digital thermometer.

Temp guns can be found online for $30 or so. I have a temp gun and an accu-rite themo/hygrometer. Ran me about $45 total but they're much more accurate than the stickies.

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That's pretty close to what you need. You might try covering up some more of your aquarium to try and get that number to 80ish. 75 is on the low side. My ambient temperature stays at 80 degrees on the dot. Perhaps you should try making two identical hides out of a plastic cool whip tub or something similiar depending on the size of your snake.

Regards,

B

Your snake is probably too hot. They don't really need you to try to guess whether they are too hot or too cold, they will move around themselves to regulate their temperatures. If you don't use a digital thermometer to read the temperatures or have some kind of temperature control device (rheostat or thermostat) to control the temperature, it would be a good idea to invest in them. Do you use a UTH on the warm side of the tank?

In regards to the issue of not being able to raise the temperature, I don't know what to tell you. I keep my BP in a 30 gallon glass tank. I did the foil treatment and I use a CHE to raise the temperature on his cool side. The foil treatment works great for me. Maybe try covering up a little more of the roof? That's about all I can think of. I'm sure someone more experienced will chime in and try to help. :)

Also, I'm not sure if this is possible, but maybe your BP prefers the texture of his other hide.

How hot can the hot hide be? How much more of the roof can I cover up? The foill covers the entire middle with 3 inches left uncovered on either end as well as an opening for the che, but that is pressed right up against the roof.

According to the caresheet (which you can find here):
http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...s%29-Caresheet
it should be between 88-94*F. I keep mine around 91*.

What I did with mine was I foiled and taped the entire top of my screen cover and I left a square about 6"x6" or so above the cold side, just big enough to fit my CHE and for air to circulate. I also didn't use the foil tape, I used HVAC duct tape (which is duct tape made specifically for air conditioning purposes i.e. ductwork and whatnot). I don't know if that would make a difference, though.

When you say he doesn't move, do you mean he really doesn't move? Not even when you take him out and handle him? If you take him out and put him on a table and read a book for 10 minutes, does he really not move AT ALL? Because that's potentially a sick snake.

A healthy snake, even one that's in shed, will take care of their own thermoregulation. All you have to do is provide the warm spot. Don't heat the cool side unless your house temps are really well below 70F. 75F is more than fine. If he wants a temperature in between, he can find it himself. You can provide a tube or a log (packing tubes from the UPS store work well, but you have to cut them) as an 'intermediate temperature hide' in the middle. He'll find the temperature he wants on his own, and if he wants the 75F cool side, that's what his body is telling him.

But if he's really not moving at all, even when you handle him, I'd take him to the vet.

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Originally Posted by ocean girl

I put a thermometer under his hot hide it was 91. I agree I should get a digitol thermometer.
The gun ones here are $50 though, haven't tryed walmart yet.
Should I take out the aspen and just put newspaper, maybe that would be better for reading temps because it could be hotter if hes al curled up in the aspen. So as for being on the cold side at 75, is he okay or is that too cold?

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Temp guns are not 50 bucks.
$25.00 http://lllreptile.com/store/catalog/...mperature-gun/

$35.00 (I have this one, it's amazing) http://lllreptile.com/store/catalog/...un-with-laser/

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Originally Posted by LGray23

Temp guns are not 50 bucks.
$25.00 http://lllreptile.com/store/catalog/...mperature-gun/

$35.00 (I have this one, it's amazing) http://lllreptile.com/store/catalog/...un-with-laser/

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They might cost that where she is.

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Originally Posted by ocean girl

How hot can the hot hide be? How much more of the roof can I cover up? The foill covers the entire middle with 3 inches left uncovered on either end as well as an opening for the che, but that is pressed right up against the roof.

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Are you using an Under Tank Heater (UTH)? If so, do you have it connected through a thermostat, a rheostat or a dimmer switch? If you have an unregulated UTH on the hot side, your temps are most likely too high. Those ZooMed under tank heaters that most pet stores will sell you with a new snake will get up to 120 degrees or so if they're not regulated. And if you are measuring temps with an analog thermometer, you're probably measuring air temps above the substrate rather than the surface itself, which is what the snake will feel. Check out the Accu-rite weather station from Walmart. As said before, it's about $12 and has a probe to measure the hot side temp, a sensor on the unit to measure cool side temp, and measures humidity. And if you do have an unregulated UTH, I'd recommend at least a lamp dimmer switch (another $8 or so) to lower the power to it.

This is what I do to make my tank hotter or cooler depending on my ROOM temp. Because I don't have a heater or ac in that room I have a devised a system that works great but looks like crap. lol.

1. I have a carboard box with small sqaures cut out on top that are flaps. About the size of a quarter. This box leaves about 3 inches uncovered on my COLD side.

2. I have a queen sized flanel type sheet that I put OVER the cardboard box & the rest of the tank EXCPET the 3 inches of the screen that is uncovered. It covers the front back and one side of my tank.

During the day if its atleast 70 - 80 in his room i take off both the sheet & box. If its not atleast 50 -60 in his room I put the box on top or if my temps are at 70 on his cold & 80 on his hot I put it on(never below 74.5 degrees has it been). Then on nights like this where its 30 degrees out, I put both box & sheet over his tank. It keeps in his heat very well. I also have a piece of tinfoil with a hole cut out on top of his tank for his lamp. I also have a UTH which is right smack dab in the middle of his tank beacuse I stupidly put it there when I wasn't payin attention. But it works great.

Thats how i keep my temps regulated till I can get his Tub set up. I don't like his tank beacuse of the flux in that room that keep going on. His tub will be moved into the livingroom where the heat/ac is regulated.

These are quick fixes and not meant to be used long term.

My snakes tank is set up with ideal temps, I have digital thermometers on both the hot and cool side, and 55% humidity. My snake is the same way. He will hang out on the cool side all day and night and will even feel cool to the touch until I get in the tank and get him out and get him active then he will go over and lay on the warm side. He doesn't spend any time in his hides either. He is what I call lazy. Too lazy to go over to the warm side but I figure if he's cold, he'll move eventually. :D
It's not that he never spends time on the warm side, he just is usually lounging on the cool side.

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Originally Posted by ocean girl

The other problem is the cold side temp, no matter what I do I can't raise it. We have put foam board around the outside and on the inside (3 sides) of the tank, we also just bought a 60 watt ceramic heat bulb, and covered 90 % of the roof with tinfoil and foil tape. What the heck? So now what? Has anyone built a tank?
Is there a better material? Should I line the bottom of the inside of the tank with foam board as well? Help please.:please:

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I had a problem keeping the cool side warm enough too. What i did was get another UTH and put a dimmer on it so it warms up that side but doesn't let it get too hot.
Hope that helps!

Wow, thanks everyone for all reply's. I have had a very tiring night. I went to Rona, picked up a dimmer switch, I don't know how long it takes to lower the temps but it's dimmed to the lowest and is still in the 100's!
Then I thought, well, maybe I will go buy a really big clear rubbermaid container and switch the snake into that instead of the tank, then things would be easier. I found the perfect size at walmart, but... there was no lid!! Ahhhh! So I then searched, Rona, Home Depot, Canadian Tire, Superstore and Staples, NO ONE had the size I wanted, can you beleive it! I did find a digital themometer at one store for $10, I have it in the tank right now but I'm not sure yet if it's accurate, we will see, I may be returning it and getting the one someone else here recommended, ( I just read the post about 5 mins ago).
As for the snake, someone asked if he moves about, Yes, he does move. We put him on the bed and he was zooming around. Actually when I got home, I went into the bedroom to check on him and he was just coming out of his hot hide and he saw me, he got scared, hissed and went back into his hide. I felt bad that I scared him, poor thing! I'm so stressed out though that he will die becuase of his bad temps, I feel like I'm going to have a heart -attack!
Doesn't seem to matter how hard I try to make things right, it just aint working. I even made him some hides out of that clay recepie on here, but in the end, they are almost too small, and we bought the spray paint to paint them and both cans were faulty and didn't spray, so, I had to return those tonight too, and drag my 2 kids with me! So, I will keep trying till I get it right. Hang in there Oden, don't die on me!

We had our snakes in tanks and recently changed over to the tubs. They are WAY easier. Now when I look at the tank and what all we spent on trying to get it to be adequate it was way more than the tub and the rack.

Oh and I am pretty sure that my baby Les (lesser BP) got a respiratory infection from the heat fluctuation in the tank, and that was with keeping a room heater around 73 in addition to the tank heaters, which made the room pretty miserable for the human occupants. I am watching him closely to make sure it don't get worse. (only sounds and two yawns, mouth looks normal) but hopefully the new tubs and environment change will correct the problem. :please:

Moshballs- So as far as a tub goes, how big is it and do you put a UTH under it? I'm assuming you don't need a heat lamp on top?

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Originally Posted by ocean girl

Moshballs- So as far as a tub goes, how big is it and do you put a UTH under it? I'm assuming you don't need a heat lamp on top?

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http://www.animalplastics.com/

We got the Economy rack with 6 shelves (1753-6). Juvenile Adult Rack. (cost $225 + shipping, Tubs not included) It will hold 12-15 qt tubs, or 6-32qt tubs, or any combination of the two. Since we only have the three snakes right now we have 3- 32 qt tubs and 6 -15 qt tubs in it.

The rack came with flex tape. We just had to get a thermostat to regulate it so it doesn't get too hot. I was surprised to find that I actually see the snakes more now than when they were the tank because they feel more secure and I can even glimpse them in their hides. Plus cleaning them is WAY easier! and if we buy more snakes or other reptiles we will be ready for them now.:gj:

And now we no longer need the heat lamps. Which is great because now the bedroom is much more comfortable for humans (less heat, more humidity) and the tubs are more comfortable for the snakes (more heat, more humidity)

You can get the tubs at Target
32 qt
http://www.target.com/s?keywords=Ste..._1_1&x=16&y=15
15 qt
http://www.target.com/s?keywords=Ste...bx_1_1&x=0&y=0

Oh I forgot you need to poke holes in the side of the tubs. A soldering iron works best but I bet you could do it with a glue gun (minus the glue of course). Just a few along the sides. The rack will cover the top. :)