Cold House (new BP owner)

[professorlonghair]

Hi all,
I recently went to a Herp show, I only wanted to go look at all the reptiles in awe. 5 minutes before they shut it down, a breeder convinced me that I just HAD to buy a BP from him. Im 8 months pregnant at the time, so my hormonal lady brain said YES this is exactly what I need in my life right now. The snake I was awing at was the one he was throwing around little kids necks like a toy. He handed me the same snake in a pillowcase, took my money, and left. He didn't tell me how old he was, his feeding schedule, where to start or what to get for as a setup for him. I did not go there with the intention of buying a snake, but now that I bought him I'm going to do whatever I can to make sure he's comfortable. Please don't bark at me about how I should've done my research before buying a snake, I'm trying to do right now.
I went out and bought one of those snake starter kits, that came with a 20 gal glass tank, heating pad, and humidity/ temp gauge, bought a couple hides, and some coconut substrate. Set him up in the guest bedroom of my house, but my big concern is that my house is too cold. I keep it at 72 degrees in my house, I'm super pregnant right now, there's no way I can just raise the temperature of the house, I'm still sweating even though it's on 72. I tried to put a little space heater in the bedroom, and after about 3 days it broke. Is there a better way I can raise the temp of the cage without having to turn my house into a sauna? Would the snake be more comfortable if his cage was on my screened in back porch instead? It doesn't get cold here but in the day it can get up to about 91, I figured that would be too hot.

[wnateg]

Don't put him on the porch. He can get cooked up, especially if the sun shines on him. The UTH (that heating pad) will probably be enough, but it needs to be controlled with a thermostat (not a thermometer).

Something like this:
https://www.amazon.com/Century-Thermostat-Controller-Germination-40-108°F/dp/B01I15S6OM/

Put the probe between the tank and the UTH. You can secure the UTH with some foil tape, so it sticks better.

Then adjust it so that a infrared gun pointed at it measures 90F inside the tank:
https://www.amazon.com/Etekcity-Lase.../dp/B00DMI632G

[Bogertophis]

You'll also do better by insulating* the back & sides of the tank, so the heat rising from the UTH stays IN the tank. You can also insulate the bottom part of the front-
many snakes like privacy anyway, & BPs tend to be low-key "hiders"- they're ambush-predators that usually wait -peering out of their hides- for prey to cluelessly
walk past them, then they pounce. You can also insulate under the tank too, except for the UTH, which for safety needs a little "breathing space".

*Many inexpensive materials can be easily used to insulate a glass tank, including foam-core poster board, corrugated cardboard, styro-foam sheets, cork (sheet type),
even self-adhesive carpet tiles. You'll also need to cover most of the screen top, to help hold in both warmth & humidity.



And I agree, btw...outside is way too risky. If the UTH is still not keeping the tank warm enough, you can use an overhead CHE too
(ceramic heat emitter...like a light bulb but without the light, only the heat) but again, like the UTH, it MUST be regulated for safety-
snakes can get sick from temperatures that are too chilly, & they can die from excessive heat, not to mention getting thermal burns
from heat sources that go much above 90*. BPs are mellow snakes & hopefully you'll enjoy having yours...it's just a challenge getting
yours set up properly & knowing what you need. The guy you bought from did you no favors though- it would be different if you had
experience, but either way you should have gotten more information than you did.

[bcr229]

A friend of mine likes his house colder than yours but he also keeps tropical snakes. He runs two heat pads, one with the thermostat set at 92*F and the other with the thermostat set at 82*F.

Eventually your snake will outgrow the 20-gal glass tank and I would suggest getting a proper PVC or melamine reptile enclosure rather than another tank at that time.

[sur3fir3]

please post setup pics.

[sur3fir3]

Also i hate to bring this up, but what about being pregnant and salmonella? I have no idea if this is an issue, but I thought I'd throw it out there.

[Luvyna]

Never leave a snake out in the sun for any reason, inside or outside of an enclosure. They can't control their own body temperatures and many snakes have died from overheating in a tub left in the sun.

My house temperatures are also in the 70-72F range and I use a ceramic heat emitter for the cool side of my tub to bring up the cool side temperatures, while an under tank heater on the warm side provides belly heat. The ambient temperature is 1 degree cooler on the warm side but the ambient is within the 25-27 range throughout the enclosure. Ceramic heat emitters do burn up the humidity though, so you need to cover most of the screen top with tin foil if you're going to get one.

[303_enfield]

This stuff works for keeping the tank at the correct temp even in a cold house.
T-stat https://www.bigappleherp.com/collect...hip-technology
a under heat mat https://www.bigappleherp.com/collect...tile-heat-mats

Or a ceramic heater (make sure the snake can't touch it).
https://www.bigappleherp.com/collect...-heat-emitters

Good luck with the baby!

[Joykoins]

Also i hate to bring this up, but what about being pregnant and salmonella? I have no idea if this is an issue, but I thought I'd throw it out there.

Very true. Pretty much all reptiles can carry salmonella, and judging from how sketchy that breeder was, I wouldn't put it past him to have questionable sanitation standards.

To OP: You and everyone who comes in contact with the snake should be sure to follow these health procedures published by the Health Department https://www.health.ny.gov/diseases/c...nd_answers.htm