Setting Up a New Home for Sammy

[SammysMom]

Hi everyone,

I am new to this forum. I just adopted my little Sammy on Saturday, August 25th. She is a cute little BP - about 2 months old (I'll post a pic when I figure out how to do it - hehe).

I currently have her in a Exo Terra Terrarium (18x18x18) which I soon found out was not ideal for creating the warm/cool environments they need. I am therefore setting up a new home for Sammy and I have a few questions.

I can get a 30 gallon aquarium from my future father in law (for free). The bottom is recessed so it could fit an under tank heater. I would need to get a screen/top for it. I found some interesting ones (e.g. EZ-Entry Hinged Screen Cover; Oasis Tera-Tops Flexible Screen Tank Covers). Anyone knows anything about them and if they are any good? I want something sturdy enough so she won't escape but I don't want something I need to remove completely everytime I want to see her or to change her water/clean her cage, etc (as that would mean I have to remove her heat lamps too!). Am I better off just buying a special snake cage with doors at the front? I am willing to spend the extra money if needed, I just want what's best for my little Sammy.

I also got a Repti-temp Rheostat only to find out when I got home that it didn't have a probe. Not sure how it works but I'm guessing it's not the best. I ended up finding the Zoo Med Reptitemp 500R Thermometer Sensor online. It has a probe and a thermometer so you can adjust the thermostat by temperature. Anyone knows if it's good? Anything better? Again, I want what's best for Sammy.

Finally, would I be good with the under tank heater and lamp at one end and nothing at the other or would I be best buying 2 under tank heaters and two thermostats to regulate both ends. The only problem with using that thermostat is, how do I make things cooler at night time? I wanted to do one end at 80F and one at 90F and use the heat lamp only during the daytime (at the 90F end to make it reach 90F) but if the thermostat adjust to keep the temperature at 80F/90F, the lamp won't be adding any additional heat during the daytime(?) So I am a little confused. How do you guys do it?

Thanks,
Melanie (AKA SammysMom)

[2kdime]

That's a lot of questions. Haha

Ill help with 2 things. For a baby that's 2 months old I'm sure she's still pretty small. I would set up a sterilite tub. A really small one. Less than 32 quarts. Available at walmart.

And you need to maintain heat on the cool end of 82 to 84 degrees. And 92 to 94 on the hot end. At ALL times. 80 and 90 isn't hot enough. And I ONLY use belly heat with undertank heaters.

Your best bet for all your husbandry supplies is gonna be www.reptilebasics.com

Don't be suckered into cheap and unreliable supplies from chain stores. They'll fluctuate and have potential to kill your animal. Not trying to sound mean by any means. Just trying to be informative. Its certainly not a cheap hobby/interest to have. Good luck.

[xdeus]

Hi Melanie,

I'm glad to see you taking the time and effort to do things right.

First off, an aquarium isn't an ideal setting for a snake as it can be very difficult to regulate the temps and humidity. Not impossible, but difficult.

A better alternative would be a PVC cage that is used specifically for snakes. You can find many companies such as Reptile Basics, Boaphile Plastics, or Animal Plastics that make such cages. These provide an environment that is easy to heat, keeps the humidity in, easy to clean, and is visually appealing. You can use a Sterilite or Rubbermaid bin for the same results, but many people don't like the look of them especially if they're only going to keep one or two snakes.

As far as your temperature control, the Repti-Temp Rheostat didn't have a probe because rheostats only control the the current to the heating device. It's essentially a "dimmer" whereas a thermostat will adjust the current in order to maintain a specific temperature. The most common pet store brand is the Zoo Med, unfortunately they are rather cheap and have been known to fail relatively often. A better alternative would be to purchase a reliable thermostat such as the Johnson, Ranco, Helix, or Herpstat. The latter two are proporational thermostat which are essentially a rheostat and thermostat combined and are a little more expensive.

As far as heating, if you stick with an aquarium you might be better off with the UTH on one side and the lamp over the other side. The lamp would then be used to heat the air space in the cage and the UTH would be used to provide a stable belly temp for your snake.

Good luck!

[BostonMacK]

Cheers to you for taking the time to do things right

Why don't you figure out which type of enclosure you perfer such as a....

Tub Very easy to keep and maintain, very easy on the wallet but not the best looking.

Aquarium Visually pleasing, not as cheap as a tub, very hard to keep and maintain

Plastic Very nice looking, very easy to keep and maintain, very expensive.


All can be made to work, just depends what you want and what your willing to spend.

[BigCeC43]

Melanie,

I have also recently joined this site (about 2-3 weeks ago I think) when I got my first BP. Now I'm no expert... but I've learned alot so far. My BP(Rocky) isn't as young as yours but he is still very small. Here's what I've gathered and how my tank is set up.

I've got a 10 gallon tank. (Very large tanks can create alot of stress for these little guys since they are somewhat shy in nature)

A UTH (under tank heater) for 10-20 gallon tanks on the right side.

A heat lamp on the same side;
(60watt blue bulb during day/
40watt black moonlight bulb at night)

A water dish in the center (large enough that he can soak in)

Two identical hides, one on each end.

A thermometer with a probe on the "hot side"

A humidity guage/ thermometer on "the cool side"

Aspen Bedding

Some driftwood picked up at nearby pet store

A randon stick from outside which I sterilized with bleach before putting it in.

I've also put tin foil and duct tape across the top to keep in heat and humidity, leaving a small space for my heat lamp.

And last I've got a spray mist bottle to help with humidity.

I'll get a pic up as soon as I can. I would recommend that you buy a humidity/temp guage with a probe as I've heard the stick on one I have is not accurite. Unfortuanetly, I can't get one yet.

[BigCeC43]

These are photos I took at night (w/ flash obviously). You can see he's very fixated on his night lamp, lol. The hot side temps in my tank during the day range from 90-93, at night they drop to 80-82 at the lowest. The cool side stays around 79-80 although that may not be accurite.

That cardboard is used to cover the left and back sides on the tank (although it's not on the right way in the photo). I also have something to block light from the front at night, since I have him on 12hour shifts day/night and I'm always up much later than when his nights begin.


O... and that's not a real gun, just a pellet gun I bought in high school which I recently resurected.

Hope all that helped



The 30 gallon can be used when she's a big girl so I'd take it and save it.

[BostonMacK]

BigCe,

If your hot side temp is dropping from 90-93 in the day to 80-82 at night you have a problem. That is a pretty harsh drop in temps and I would guess you're going to run into problems in the future if that's not fixed. What does your cool side drop to during the night?

Sammysmom,

In my opinion you should either go with a tub or a plastic vision cage. Either one is going to me much easier and much less nerve racking to maintain than an aquarium. Temps and humidity fluxuate much more in an aquarium than a tub or plastic which can turn into a little more work to get things right but it can be done and many here do it. A tub provides a perfect BP home in every way, a plastic cage does that with a little "bling" on the side

Keep us posted regardless and lets see pics!

[BigCeC43]

Thats weird , I read somewhere(don't remember where) that a 10 degree drop is normal at night. My cool side is about 75. Any recommendations.

[BostonMacK]

Thats weird , I read somewhere(don't remember where) that a 10 degree drop is normal at night. My cool side is about 75. Any recommendations.

The first thing I would do is to go buy a digital thermometer such as the Accurite which is very popular here and can be found at Wallmart for about $12. This will measure your hot side/cool side and humidity. The dial unit your using in the picture can be extrememly inaccurate.

What is the ambient temp in the room you have the cage in? You can have a drop of a couple degrees at night but 10 or 11 like your having is way too much and can lead to a very sick snake down the road. How long have you had your snake thus far? You can try adding a second UTH with a thermostat to the cool side of the cage to see if that brings temps up a bit. It's not going to help with your night drops your having though. Hopefully somebody with more aquarium experience can chime in on this.

The rule of thumb from what i've learned here is that you want to maintain a constant 90-94/80-84 temp range with 50% humidity (slightly bumped for shed) at all times in your snakes cage. Fluxuations of 10 degrees is not good and needs to be fixed.

If it comes down to it you should keep your options open for a tub setup if you can't get things right with your aquarium.

Good luck!

[BigCeC43]

I will be purchasing the Accurite thermometer to measure the cool side temp and humidity. I know it's hard to see but the hot side has a digital thermometer with a probe (the suction cup that guides the probe down is what my BP is coiled around) the actual themometer is stuck on the right side of the tank. I think my problem may also be where the probe is placed...

I noticed last night that he tends to move it as he travels around his tank. For example, I originally had the themometer placed about an inch over the substrate where the UTH is and about and inch or two away from the glass. This would give me night temps of 83-84.
Then he managed to move is so that it was touching the glass on the side of the tank, this gave me the 80-82 temps.
After reading your post last night I put the probe on the ground where the UTH is about 2 inches away from the glass on the right side of my tank(I figured this is the hottest spot in the tank and since half of the UTH is under his hide I hoped he would find it if he needed heat). This gave me temps in the low 90's.


Another weird thing is that at night he always tends to climb along the glass walls, which I would believe aren't very warm. He also climbs around the cool side just as much if not more than the hot side.
Are there any specific signs that you tell you your tank is too cool?(like your BP staying on the UTH on the hot side, or staying under the light w/out moving).
I only ask b/c my digital thermometer w/ the probe gave me so many different readings last night I'm starting to think I should look for other signs that it's too cool.

I'va had my BP for a little over 3 weeks now. He shed the first week I got him, and has eaten twice. Everything seems okay now, but I don't wan't any problems in the future. Since winter is coming up I'm a little nervous because the temp in my room drops from the average 69-70. I don't no how much it drops, but it does due to very poor insulation.