Possibly a new red tail owner? Need help!

[MixtSpice]

So, my boyfriend works at Petco and a guy came in saying that he has a 4 foot red tail that he can no longer keep and he's willing to give us the snake and the setup for free. My problem is that I've only ever had ball pythons and even that is a new experience for me, since I got my first bp in July.

He doesn't know if it's a male or female but has the snake on live feeders and it looks really healthy, but I'm scrambling to find out what setup it'll need, heat, humidity, etc. Can anyone help me out or point me to a caresheet?

Here's the picture the guy sent me



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[bcr229]

I would start here... http://www.redtailboas.com/content/


Initially the snake will be ok in his tank as long as you can maintain its heat and humidity. Eventually it would need a good quality reptile enclosure. Most people run their adult BCI's in either a 48"x30"x18" or 72"x24"x18" PVC enclosure.

[Neal]

Not the best picture, and either I'm drunk or I literally cannot tell anything about that setup.

I'll touch a few things with you and if you have more specific questions then I'll answer them if I'm able to. Females get larger than males, so if you're going for overall caging requirements, a female will need a bigger enclosure, however they're not the most active, so you don't have to go completely overboard. It's nothing for them to live 15-20+ years if cared for properly.

Caging:
I would recommend getting a cage from like APCages, Boaphile, NW Constrictors etc.. A cage 4 foot wide, 2 foot deep and a foot high can work, but if you want to give them more space top to bottom, they would use it, at least in the past the one I had did, though I had him in a huge aquarium and this was years ago. With you being in Florida you can likely find somebody to custom make you an enclosure for cheaper, and if that's the case I would go with a radiant heat panel, otherwise when I had my girl I used double CHE's, though if you don't know what you're doing this can be a disaster, so I would strongly recommend a radiant heat panel and definitely on a thermostat. With larger snakes, I always recommend getting a lockable cage, regardless of how puppy dog tame snakes are referred to as being. Also some hides would be appreciated by the snake, one on each end, with only one opening, nothing that's got more than one entrance.

Heating:
Cool side, 75-78ish, Warm side 85-88 with a basking spot of 90. I placed the water bowls in the middle of the cool and warm side so to try and make a balance, though this is just purely my preference. I would avoid using any heating that emits light, though people do this and it can be done. Belly heat works great if you don't want to go with a Radiant Heat Panel on a custom enclosure. Just make sure you have a thermostat as I cannot stress this enough.

Humidity:
60-70%, and having a large water bowl will definitely help with this.


Now you can use Aspen, News paper, CoCo Husk, Cypress Mulch, but you want to make sure if you're using the last two that they don't stay damp.

- - - Updated - - -

I would start here... http://www.redtailboas.com/content/


Initially the snake will be ok in his tank as long as you can maintain its heat and humidity. Eventually it would need a good quality reptile enclosure. Most people run their adult BCI's in either a 48"x30"x18" or 72"x24"x18" PVC enclosure.

You just completely killed my long post I typed

[MixtSpice]

Not the best picture, and either I'm drunk or I literally cannot tell anything about that setup.

I'll touch a few things with you and if you have more specific questions then I'll answer them if I'm able to. Females get larger than males, so if you're going for overall caging requirements, a female will need a bigger enclosure, however they're not the most active, so you don't have to go completely overboard. It's nothing for them to live 15-20+ years if cared for properly.

Caging:
I would recommend getting a cage from like APCages, Boaphile, NW Constrictors etc.. A cage 4 foot wide, 2 foot deep and a foot high can work, but if you want to give them more space top to bottom, they would use it, at least in the past the one I had did, though I had him in a huge aquarium and this was years ago. With you being in Florida you can likely find somebody to custom make you an enclosure for cheaper, and if that's the case I would go with a radiant heat panel, otherwise when I had my girl I used double CHE's, though if you don't know what you're doing this can be a disaster, so I would strongly recommend a radiant heat panel and definitely on a thermostat. With larger snakes, I always recommend getting a lockable cage, regardless of how puppy dog tame snakes are referred to as being. Also some hides would be appreciated by the snake, one on each end, with only one opening, nothing that's got more than one entrance.

Heating:
Cool side, 75-78ish, Warm side 85-88 with a basking spot of 90. I placed the water bowls in the middle of the cool and warm side so to try and make a balance, though this is just purely my preference. I would avoid using any heating that emits light, though people do this and it can be done. Belly heat works great if you don't want to go with a Radiant Heat Panel on a custom enclosure. Just make sure you have a thermostat as I cannot stress this enough.

Humidity:
60-70%, and having a large water bowl will definitely help with this.


Now you can use Aspen, News paper, CoCo Husk, Cypress Mulch, but you want to make sure if you're using the last two that they don't stay damp.

- - - Updated - - -



You just completely killed my long post I typed

Yeah, I'll definitely make changes to the setup he gives me. But thank you for all that info, I have a CHE and a UTH from when I had my first bp in a tank and I also have an extra acurite, I'll need to get another thermostat and a big waterbowl if the guy doesn't have those already.

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