New snake!

[Ditto]

Hi every one, I am so incredibly excited to announce I bought my second snake yesterday! Aaand she's not a corn, as was the plan.
I want to introduce every one to my new (nameless lol) Trans-pecos ratsnake!
To be honest I kind of always liked these better than corns & have researched them a fair bit, but I eventually decided on a corn because I thought a trans-pecos would be too hard to find. But lo & behold here she was! I got her at the hamburg reptile (which was INSANE btw, very chaotic).
I figured with a few small tweaks to the tank I had set up for a corn it could work well for her.
I was told she's almost a year old, but the guy working there couldn't tell me her exact hatch date, I'm assuming because there were a lot of people working at that booth so it seemed like a big operation, & she's 24g.
She's settling in now, hiding in the cool hide. Ambient temps are low-mid 70s & I have the UTH set to 87* so the glass temp is 86*, is that too high?
I'm also not sure when I should attempt to feed, if anyone could give any insight on that it'd be appreciated!

And heres some pictures I took of her on the ride home, isn't she just so sweet looking?

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[Dianne]

Congratulations! She’s a beauty.

[Goblin]

Shes so cute! Congrats

[Bogertophis]

Congratulations Ditto! She's adorable & will just get more and more so, lol. I'd wait at least a week before offering food...expos are very stressful...unless
she really seems to be hungry. Also, her new cage will be scary for her...just let her settle in for now, with plenty of tight hiding places. You can use small
clean cardboard boxes too...with minor modification (cut a doorway, lol) if you can't find plastic hides her size yet or don't want to invest in something she'll
outgrow. I love the ones with normal patterns like yours (& all 3 of mine). Two of my current TPs are hets but I'm no longer into breeding, & I much prefer
the normals anyway. Their patterns remind me of Native American weavings & for all we know, they might have taken some inspiration from these snakes?
These are calm snakes once they settle in, & very nosy....I know you'll enjoy your new little one. I'm excited for you...

Did you happen to ask what they've been feeding her? F/t or live? mice or rat pinks? (hopefully mice but you never know, & it's always best to offer what-
ever food is familiar to a snake) It's not a problem even if you wait 2 weeks to offer, but if you leave her alone (no handling) for at least a week she may
then be ready. And remember these are nocturnal, so feed in evening (like BPs & many others). Later it really won't matter one bit...they waken easily &
are pretty flexible, in my experience. This is my second group of them, & years ago, I also bred the first group...but it's just so hard to part with ANY...

BTW- if you already have small commercial hides that are too big, you can also shred & toss some paper towel to stuff inside...young snakes love that too.

[Treeman]

I was there too. You ain't kidding about it being very chaotic. Luckily I got there early and got out right when it seemed to get super congested. Nice pick up!

[Ditto]

Congratulations Ditto! She's adorable & will just get more and more so, lol. I'd wait at least a week before offering food...expos are very stressful...unless
she really seems to be hungry. Also, her new cage will be scary for her...just let her settle in for now, with plenty of tight hiding places. You can use small
clean cardboard boxes too...with minor modification (cut a doorway, lol) if you can't find plastic hides her size yet or don't want to invest in something she'll
outgrow. I love the ones with normal patterns like yours (& all 3 of mine). Two of my current TPs are hets but I'm no longer into breeding, & I much prefer
the normals anyway. Their patterns remind me of Native American weavings & for all we know, they might have taken some inspiration from these snakes?
These are calm snakes once they settle in, & very nosy....I know you'll enjoy your new little one. I'm excited for you...

Did you happen to ask what they've been feeding her? F/t or live? mice or rat pinks? (hopefully mice but you never know, & it's always best to offer what-
ever food is familiar to a snake) It's not a problem even if you wait 2 weeks to offer, but if you leave her alone (no handling) for at least a week she may
then be ready. And remember these are nocturnal, so feed in evening (like BPs & many others). Later it really won't matter one bit...they waken easily &
are pretty flexible, in my experience. This is my second group of them, & years ago, I also bred the first group...but it's just so hard to part with ANY...

BTW- if you already have small commercial hides that are too big, you can also shred & toss some paper towel to stuff inside...young snakes love that too.

Thanks so much for the advice! I've got her in a 10 gal with some small homemade tupperware hides that have shredded paper towel inside (and clutter outside the hides, of course). Definitely not going to handle her until I've got her eating consistently, I learned that lesson from my bp lol.
And yes I just love the normals! The table I got her at also had some axthanthics & a snow (I didn't even know there were white ones!), and while they were definitely beautiful my little girl was the last normal & she just jumped out to me
They told me she was on mouse pinkies, in the chaos of the show I completely forgot to ask if they were f/t or live, but they did tell me the last time she ate was Tuesday. I bought some frozen pinkies. Do you think I should I wait until next saturday to feed?

And a quick sidenote, I almost had a heart attack last night after I went to check on her & thought she escaped. All was well & she was just hiding between the glass & the side of one of the hides but I totally freaked out lol, she's just so tiny!

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[Bogertophis]

Oh, & btw, your cage temps are fine. For substrate I line the cage floor with one thickness of paper towel. I fold them up about 2" & do like reverse bed sheet
corners so as to contain the substrate of paper shreds & Carefresh mixed 50:50, about half inch deep on top of the paper towels. I don't seem to have a problem
with rat snakes burying under the substrate either, though a hatchling might if the hides aren't adequate. You can spot-clean this way, & also easily roll up the
whole substrate when the need arises to clean. (you could use all paper shreds too, if you like- Carefresh is hygroscopic & good for desert snakes especially,
but it's not essential...our houses are heated in winter & that removes a lot of humidity anyway, along with the UTH)

[Ditto]

I was there too. You ain't kidding about it being very chaotic. Luckily I got there early and got out right when it seemed to get super congested. Nice pick up!

I took waaaay too long in the show, I was there from 11 to 2, it was insane! There was some sort of emergency happening right as I got there, I learned after the fact that someone blew out their ankle! So yeah long story short I will not be going back during tax season lol

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[Ditto]

Oh, & btw, your cage temps are fine. For substrate I line the cage floor with one thickness of paper towel. I fold them up about 2" & do like reverse bed sheet
corners so as to contain the substrate of paper shreds & Carefresh mixed 50:50, about half inch deep on top of the paper towels. I don't seem to have a problem
with rat snakes burying under the substrate either, though a hatchling might if the hides aren't adequate. You can spot-clean this way, & also easily roll up the
whole substrate when the need arises to clean. (you could use all paper shreds too, if you like- Carefresh is hygroscopic & good for desert snakes especially,
but it's not essential...our houses are heated in winter & that removes a lot of humidity anyway, along with the UTH/etc)

Thank you! I've just got paper towels down for now while she's in quarantine, I think I'll definitely add carefresh after a while because I already have it on hand
It's already so weird having a snake that's fine with room temp, I keep having to remind myself that she's not gonna get too cold like this lol

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[Bogertophis]

Thank you! I've just got paper towels down for now while she's in quarantine, I think I'll definitely add carefresh after a while because I already have it on hand
It's already so weird having a snake that's fine with room temp, I keep having to remind myself that she's not gonna get too cold like this lol

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I'm very spoiled by my colubrids... they're SO much easier to live with. And they're nosy, that's what I enjoy so much about them. They're visibly using branches etc.

BPs have a well-deserved reputation for being chill to handle, but so are rat snakes that have settled in. One of my adult TPs recently went to sleep on my lap for
about 30 minutes until I, not she, had to get up for something. I had been watching TV & absent-mindedly gently petting her- next thing I looked down & she was Zzzzz.

Yes, wait until next Saturday to feed, that's fine.