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BP unplugged his RHP
My BP likes to explore every inch of his enclosure at night. He discovered the RHP wire at the top of his enclosure (shown below) and has started climbing on it:
The enclosure is 4' x 2' x 18" but there is a horizontal perch about 1 from the floor so my BP climbs onto that and then is able to climb through that small space between the RHP wire and the top of his enclosure. The weight combined with his movement pulls out the plug and I woke up at 4am to the low temperature alarm from the Herpstat going off.
This has happened twice already and I know my BP remembers places where he can climb and will seek them out again so I'm wondering what would be the best way to block him from climbing the wire.
There's no way he can get electrocuted or anything from it because the plug is like a computer charger and he wouldn't freeze from the temps being briefly lower than 75F, but it's a pain to keep being woken up at night and it's also hard to plug in the RHP because it's at the top of the enclosure at the very back.
Last edited by Luvyna; 01-17-2022 at 05:46 PM.
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Oh yeah, snakes will always gravitate to a wire to climb on- or anything else that offers something they can grip with their body. Imagine if you had no hands- you'd do the same thing, as would I. They seek traction- you need to find a way to hide & protect the wire- you're correct that snakes remember this stuff. I used to have a rat snake that liked to thread herself thru the belt loops on my jeans- happily my jeans stayed up much better than your RHP cord did.
Rudeness is the weak man's imitation of strength.
Eric Hoffer (1902 - 1983)
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dakski (01-18-2022),Luvyna (01-17-2022)
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Re: BP unplugged his RHP
Originally Posted by Bogertophis
Oh yeah, snakes will always gravitate to a wire to climb on- or anything else that offers something they can grip with their body. Imagine if you had no hands- you'd do the same thing, as would I. They seek traction- you need to find a way to hide & protect the wire- you're correct that snakes remember this stuff. I used to have a rat snake that liked to thread herself thru the belt loops on my jeans- happily my jeans stayed up much better than your RHP cord did.
Yep he loves wires even when I take him out of his enclosure if he sees wires he heads straight for them!
I'm thinking of maybe using some clay or something to block the gap between the wire and the top of the enclosure.
My BP does same thing your rat snake did - he also likes to thread himself through belt loops and he strangely seems to have no concept of how wide his body is because he will keep going through a belt loop until he gets stuck. I've already had to cut a belt loop because of this and now I know to watch him like a hawk and keep any closed loops including mug handles away from him.
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Rudeness is the weak man's imitation of strength.
Eric Hoffer (1902 - 1983)
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ALL THAT SLITHERS - Ball Python aficionado/keeper
breeder of African soft fur Rats. Keeper of other small exotic mammals.
10 sugar gliders
2 tenrecs
5 jumping spiders
paludarium with fish
Brisingr the albino
Snowy the BEL
Piglet the albino conda hognose
FINALLY got my BEL,no longer breeding snakes. married to mechnut450..
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I would add a cable strap, or two, on the wire to prevent the snake from being able to crawl through the current opening.
KMG
0.1 BP 1.1 Blood Python 1.0 Brazilian Rainbow Boa 1.0 Aru Green Tree Python
0.1 Emerald Tree Boa 0.1 Dumeril Boa 0.1 Carpet Python 0.1 Central American Boa
0.1 Brooks Kingsnake 0.1 Speckled Kingsnake 1.0 Western Hognose
0.1 Blonde Madagascar Hognose 1.0 Columbian Boa
1.1 Olde English Bulldogge 1.0 Pit Bull
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I use screws with my cable straps. With that I have never had one come loose and my BRB regularly crawls through his lights wire.
KMG
0.1 BP 1.1 Blood Python 1.0 Brazilian Rainbow Boa 1.0 Aru Green Tree Python
0.1 Emerald Tree Boa 0.1 Dumeril Boa 0.1 Carpet Python 0.1 Central American Boa
0.1 Brooks Kingsnake 0.1 Speckled Kingsnake 1.0 Western Hognose
0.1 Blonde Madagascar Hognose 1.0 Columbian Boa
1.1 Olde English Bulldogge 1.0 Pit Bull
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The Following 2 Users Say Thank You to KMG For This Useful Post:
Bogertophis (01-18-2022),Luvyna (01-20-2022)
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Re: BP unplugged his RHP
It's a wise idea to try to secure your cables. We had a scary and potentially dangerous situation happen a couple of weeks back with one of our RHPs. We have two older style Reptile Basics panels where the plug can come out of the panel itself, two of the newer style Reptile Basics where the wire cannot come out of the panel, and 1 from ProProducts where the wire cannot come out of the panel. All are run on Herpstats. I was checking snakes and turning lights on one morning when I noticed our BCL had disconnected the wire from her heat panel, as happens every so often when she explores her enclosure. Except she had only *partially* loosened the plug from the panel and it was actively smoking at the connection point and had melted a little bit. I am SO glad I went downstairs when I did and was able to unplug everything. I hate to think about what could have happened if I hadn't. Needless to say this freaked me out really bad and I ordered replacement panels from ProProducts for the two older style RBI ones. We're keeping the newer style RBI panels for now but will eventually upgrade those to ProProducts as well.
BALL PYTHONS: 1.0 Pied/Clark, 1.0 Pastel Vanilla Super Stripe/Sunny, 0.1 Dragon Fly/Buffy, 0.1 Pastel Vanilla Yellow Belly/Cher, 0.1 BEL (Mojave Lesser)/Arya, 0.0.1 Normal/Norm, 0.1 Cinnamon Enchi/Peaches, 1.0 Cinnamon Calico/Yoshi, 0.1 Pewter Het Dreamsicle/Ariel
BOAS: 0.1 Dumeril's/Memphis, 0.1 BCL/Artemis, 1.0 BCO/Grimm, 0.1 Suriname BCC/Rhubarb
CORN SNAKES: 0.0.1/Mushu
MORELIA: 0.1 Bredli/Zelda, 0.1 Granite IJ/Bridget, 0.1 Caramel Diamond Jungle/Pixie
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Re: BP unplugged his RHP
Originally Posted by WhompingWillow
It's a wise idea to try to secure your cables. We had a scary and potentially dangerous situation happen a couple of weeks back with one of our RHPs. We have two older style Reptile Basics panels where the plug can come out of the panel itself, two of the newer style Reptile Basics where the wire cannot come out of the panel, and 1 from ProProducts where the wire cannot come out of the panel. All are run on Herpstats. I was checking snakes and turning lights on one morning when I noticed our BCL had disconnected the wire from her heat panel, as happens every so often when she explores her enclosure. Except she had only *partially* loosened the plug from the panel and it was actively smoking at the connection point and had melted a little bit. I am SO glad I went downstairs when I did and was able to unplug everything. I hate to think about what could have happened if I hadn't. Needless to say this freaked me out really bad and I ordered replacement panels from ProProducts for the two older style RBI ones. We're keeping the newer style RBI panels for now but will eventually upgrade those to ProProducts as well.
That is scary & I'm so glad you found this just in time to dodge a catastrophe, whew! And thanks for sharing your experience here too.
Rudeness is the weak man's imitation of strength.
Eric Hoffer (1902 - 1983)
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Re: BP unplugged his RHP
Thank you everyone for the input! I will most likely go with cable staples with screws and I will look into using cable straps as well.
Originally Posted by WhompingWillow
It's a wise idea to try to secure your cables. We had a scary and potentially dangerous situation happen a couple of weeks back with one of our RHPs. We have two older style Reptile Basics panels where the plug can come out of the panel itself, two of the newer style Reptile Basics where the wire cannot come out of the panel, and 1 from ProProducts where the wire cannot come out of the panel. All are run on Herpstats. I was checking snakes and turning lights on one morning when I noticed our BCL had disconnected the wire from her heat panel, as happens every so often when she explores her enclosure. Except she had only *partially* loosened the plug from the panel and it was actively smoking at the connection point and had melted a little bit. I am SO glad I went downstairs when I did and was able to unplug everything. I hate to think about what could have happened if I hadn't. Needless to say this freaked me out really bad and I ordered replacement panels from ProProducts for the two older style RBI ones. We're keeping the newer style RBI panels for now but will eventually upgrade those to ProProducts as well.
Wow this is terrifying, I'm glad that you caught this problem in time. One of my fears is the electronics associated with snake heating causing a fire - it has definitely happened to people in the hobby. My RHP is made by VE so I'm not sure if it has the same issue but I will be vigilant about this.
To avoid any more issues until I can install a cable staple I've temporarily removed my ball python's horizontal climbing bar (which is what he uses as a boost to reach the RHP wire). He still has a branch to climb but I've put that on the opposite side of the enclosure.
Despite being a terrestrial species I think my BP really enjoys climbing so maybe I'll look into getting him one of those sky hides and installing more things for him to climb once the RHP wire is secured.
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