New BP owner blues

[zina10]

Oh, btw.

Don't ever leave "live" food unsupervised unless its young enough not to cause injury to the snake. I have left "dead" (frozen thawed) overnight and the snakes will often take it just fine, even hours later.

But never live food.

Now, I have left mice hoppers with the hatchlings while they figure out what to do (first feeding). But I leave a piece of "rat food" or "dog food" in the tub for the hopper to work on. And I peeked in the tub with a red light to check on things...

[MissterDog]

Sounds like you have one of those Ultratherm heat pads... I read that everyone in the UK loves them so I thought why not and started out with one of them for my gecko a few years ago. I had the exact problem you are describing and ditched it for a better UTH. Absolutely awful!!!!

Aw really? I've only had good experiences with the Ultratherm heat pad so far and actually have the same size as OP's. I found they work very well if installed properly. I bumped into the same issue and shared a solution in an earlier post. It sounds like it's working fine for OP now?

That being said I am curious which uth did you decide to go with?

[Zincubus]

Thank you so much @zina10, this really helped me out, and @zincubus, thank you for the kind words <3.

So I have a lot of really good news !

Coco is 100% stuck-shed free! I used the wet cotton bag and warmish paper towel method to help get the stuck shed off of her head. The head was difficult as I wanted to get it to start to come off of her snoot instead of going against her scale grain (which I stopped going against the scale growth once I saw that it would tug on her eye scales going the "wrong" way). I put her in the cotton bag and got her to "push" through the neck of the bag as I used just enough pressure as to where she would have to force her head through the material a little and start the shed in the proper direction. Once I got this going, I took her into the bathroom and used a slightly warm, wet paper towel and very gently went between holding the wet paper towel against the stuck shed, and very gently, rolling the shed back. I mainly used the paper towel to roll the skin off her face, my fingers would slip too much and I didn't want her to jerk her head away violently, which she did a couple times, as she was scared. It was slow going, though I avoided the skin tearing around her heat pits and nostrils, and her little nose was clean as a whistle once the stuck shed came off. Her eye caps came right off and in one piece. She was surprisingly docile, no hissing, no striking! Of course she pulled her head away a lot at first, though maybe she just started feeling less uncomfortable as that stuck shed came off of her head. Worst thing, I think she peed on me, LOL! There was a sudden drip of liquid in a not dripping wet bag XD!

The other pleasant surprise, she didn't gasp a single time as I was working to get the shed off and that was for about 3 hours. I'm going to passively monitor her, though I am still going to take her to the vet in the next week or so to be positive she doesn't have a Respiratory issues. Like zina pointed out, the stuck shed may have obstructed her nostril(s).

I also took the opportunity to line her tub with Aspen since my big issue was humidity and now she'll be able to burrow if need be. I figured one last little bit of stress today is better than stressing her out another time to adjust her home. Hopefully she'll eat next week!

Two questions, she had a poo and wee in her hot hide yesterday morning. There wasn't anything stuck to it and I spot cleaned, should I clean it, or just leave it? Also, the breeder had been giving her live hoppers, should I try that ,or try F/T on her since I'd assume she'll be ravenous at that point?

Thanks again everyone, I appreciate your experiences and knowledge!




Still using the reptile basics for thermometer, though looking to get an Acurite that does temp and humidity.


Some stress wandering, hopefully will pass as she acclimates.

Congrats !

Looking good as well

I'd seriously consider swapping substrate to Orchid bark ( maybe called ReptiBark over there ) as it holds moisture really well for the humidity and the dark substrate will make the snake look even more eye catching !!




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[Zincubus]

Continued ..

White on black




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[tttaylorrr]

OP Quahog: i was gone all weekend so i couldn't help, but you got a bunch of solid advice from other awesome members, and Coco looks so good with a fresh coat of paint!!!

you're doing a great job, and it seems you're learning something new every day! everyone makes mistakes, but the important thing is to learn from our mistakes. i just want to say: YAY!!!

[Quahog]

Thanks so much everyone! I'm so fortunate to have this knowledge base of people to help me get this figured out! I've learned a ton going through all this. Part of me wishes it hadn't happened, but happy I could learn and hopefully help other people in the future!

@zina10: Okie doke, I'm tending to side with you on this with the vet situation. I'll give her a look over this weekend, as besides giving her fresh water, I'm leaving her alone After she's eaten a couple times, I'll consider some new substrate like the Orchid or Coco bark that you and @Zincubus are recommending The idea of mold is...NOPE!

As far as the UTH go, besides my "derp" moment measuring heat in the wrong place(thanks @tttaylorrr and @MissterDog for helping me get this sorted)!, I haven't had much trouble with my current UTH. More me just being a doofus. I won't rule out not trying another UTH in the future. If in the next few months it's not keeping temps up as it gets cooler, I may switch. I just want my lil' noodle to settle in more before I make any other adjustments.

I think my bigger issue equipment wise is an inaccuracy with my hygrometer and a "cheap" Ryobi heat gun (USD $29.99). I spent the extra $$ and got a Klein Tools temp gun($59.99 USD), the Kelin tools has better readings and is backlit so I can see it better in low light. I was using a Reptile Basics ($24.99 USD) temp/hygrometer, and it was reading went from 55% to 72% a few days before her shed. So when I found out she was in a horrendous shed / dehydrated, I went "Wait, but my hygrometer looked fine". Maybe I just got unlucky with a bad hygrometer, though it was stressful for myself and Coco. The RB hygrometer is also SLOW af when it comes to changes in the environment, no bueno, espcially if things go awry! Put in the Acurite ($59.99 USD), immediately read a 10% difference, and it's quick to update. Winter is coming as well, and it gets very dry. So I don't want Coco to look like an old man again!

IMO, If you're a newbie like me, spend the extra money on your environment monitoring tools! It'll help when the wonderful people on this forum help you troubleshoot husbandry issues!

Thanks again to everyone who helped and gave great suggestions !

[Quahog]

Just a follow up on Coco, she took her first F/T overnight Monday-Tuesday! So she's a shy feeder atm, though very happy she took the F/T!

I thawed the hopper just outside of her tub for a few hours. After about 6 hours, I put the hopper in a plastic bag, and submerged the bag in hot tap water in a small dish for about 20 minutes. I put it in her tub and put a hand towel over, checked in the morning, and the hopper was gone !

I also removed the aspen. She was wrapping herself around the outside of her hides and smashing herself between the side of the tub and her hide, and laying on her side with her head hooked around the corner of her hide instead of going inside the hides. As soon as I removed the Aspen she began using her hides again.

Had a brief handling session this morning, and after an initial moment of stress, she was happily exploring and tongue flicking. And no signs of R.I., just a jaw stretch. No bubbles, no wheezing, no head elevation.