Ball Python 'searching'? Stress and how to treat

[Craiga 01453]

All good points made above. Also, a side mounted heat mat (aka UNDER tank heater or UTH) is unfortunately pointless. UTHs are designed solely to provide a hot spot and not for ambient temps.
So unless your snake is spider man that heat mat is not helping in any way.

[Auriea]

Plastic hides they both fit snug tho she is growing out of her cold side one. I have had her a little over half a year. I learned about thermostats a month ago and am waiting till i have money to get her one. Tho i was made aware about the possibility of burns so she has a plastic wrapped cardboard bottom beneath all of her substrate so she cannot physically lay on the glass. I am wondering about doing the same on the backside so she cannot burn on the side mounted one. My rule for handling is no more than twice a day max. Tho i hold her more like every other day to every 3 days.
The strangest part is that the only way i can calm her down is by taking the tank lid off. She will poke her head out, stop roaming, and eventually go back into her hide like normal. That is until i put the lid back on. To me that sounds like a humidity issue, but her humidity has not changed since i got her.
Tho my buddy did mention an re being the prob and that actually sounds very likely because she has always had an occasional whistle. And idk if i am going to take the make 80 degrees the cool side temp advice. Because she doesn't do good on a 90 degree hot side very well. (I tried once)

[Auriea]

I have thermostat #1 coming in on friday

[Knowell]

That's most likely your issues running hest mats unregulated is very dangerous.

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[Craiga 01453]

[QUOTE=Auriea;2649837I am wondering about doing the same on the backside so she cannot burn on the side mounted one.[/QUOTE]

The side mounted one is pointless. As I said above, they are called UNDER tank heaters for a reason. And again, unless your snake is spider man, it's pointless and a waste of electricity.

UTHs are not designed for ambient temps, they are solely there to provide a hot spot.

[SMTHook]

How's she eating? Regular easy peazy? Or off?

[Coluber42]

A side-mounted UTH is not actually completely pointless - at that point, it's just a very low-powered radiant heat panel, essentially. It will more for the air temperature on the side of the cage than on the bottom because it isn't covered by substrate.

But it's still not going to do very much compared to more powerful (i.e, higher wattage) heat sources. A typical UTH is what, 10-20 watts? Radiant heat panels for smaller enclosures are typically 40-80 watts, and heat lamps or CHE's are typically 50-150 watts.

If you have two UTHs, one on the bottom and one on the side that's a total of 20-40 watts of heating equipment, and half of it is covered by substrate. That was probably fine all summer when it was warm, but once the weather cools it's not enough. There are several choices, but you will definitely need some more powerful heat source than what you have.

[Auriea]

Regular easy peasy

[Auriea]

I took her to the vet. And as i suspected she does have a respratory infection. The vet said to give her medicated baths once a day and she is getting antibiotic shots once every three days until she's had a total of three. Yesterday was #1. The vet did say to rase the temp of her cold side. 80°F-90°F will be her new ambient. In the meantime i am keeping my room at 70°F like it was in summer and i moved around her setup so the heating is more spread out.
Someone mentioned radiant heat panels. Can someone suggest brands to look for? I want to avoid CHE's as much as possible. (I am very clumsy and prone to breaking bulbs.)
But all in all she relaxing now. The medicine has looked to have helped because she has been hiding all night.

[Auriea]

Thank you. You were right with the °80 low temp.