Lap Collection

[DestinyLynette]

I am still in the stage where all of my collection can fit in my lap... but I'm working on it. ;P For now, enjoy these pictures. My normal girl shed three days ago, my bumblebee today, and lo and behold again my new pastave.








In other news, my herpstat came in today and my "rack" will be fully functional and up tomorrow I'll post pictures of my set up on here. Although before I put my snakes in the tubs, I DO have a couple of questions:
I have holes drilled down the short sides of all the tubs. Enough air flow and ventilation? I guessed so for the smaller ones, but should I put in more for the bigger (low, 41qt) tub?
Also, it will be VERY tight for my adult female to have both her hides and her water bowl in there, but she'd have enough room to either be in her tubs, slither from one to the other, or wrap around her water bowl. Put hides in or no? She really likes them so I'd like to give them to her but I didn't know how much room was too little- though she's typically balled up inside one or the other anyway.

Oh, also, my bumblebee got a mouse in the first strike for the first time a few days ago, I was so proud He usually misses once or twice. They were out of adult mice so it was a hopper; wonder if that had anything to do with it. And my pastave ate just the second day I had her- big difference between the bee needing over a week to settle in.

[TheSnakeGuy]

Here's a shot of my rack. I only have holes in the short side that I put there using a wood burning tool. I would not use hides in the rack unless you feel any of your snakes need them. Need would be assessed by not eating for more than a couple weeks as an adjustment period. I have the logs in there to take up a little space and be something for the snakes to cuddle up to. I also have 8" wide water bowls and they take up a good bit of space. I realize your Pastave is new and very pretty, but that means it needs to be quarantined from the rest of your snakes for minimum of 60 days to prevent any illness/disease/parasites from spreading to your other snakes. Some will even quarantine for up to 6 months. Just don't put all your animals into the rack because you have it. I have a relatively new rack and still have a snake in a cage on the other side of the room where she will be for the next 5 weeks. Proper quarantining procedures need to be in place for all new additions.

[I-KandyReptiles]

All new additions need to be properly quarantined.

I recommend 3 months, but some will go up to 6 months.

My collection is too expensive to be ruined by a new Bp that may be sick.

It's best to quarantine animals in a separate part of your house, and not the same room..

[Neal]

Yea, always quarantine new animals. I don't do it as long as other people do but I do quarantine. You have a nice collection also, don't let it get ruined by a sick animal.

[SlitherinSisters]

They look great! It may be a small collection, but it's a quality one!

[DestinyLynette]

Oh wow I completely forgot about quarantine. :/ I feel really stupid now. I did it with my bee but didn't even think about it with the pastave. I can't, in any way, keep them in totally separate rooms though (until Patrick returns from deployment and move into our house, they're staying at my parents' house) because my mother *refuses* to allow any snakes outside the perimeter of my bedroom, unfortunately. the best I can do is keep them at separate ends of the room and wash hands between handlings.

Thank you for the compliments and advice. I set up my new housing system today:



(no worries; the pastave is in a separate tank, but I wanted to put the tub up still)

My normal is in the 41qt seen up top, bumblebee to the right, and the pastave will be moved into that tub to the left on the second shelf. We now have heat tape, and a herpstat, rather than a lamp on one tank, a UTH on the other, and rather crappy hydrometer. I'm really happy with this set up. And you guys were right- humidity is NO longer an issue! In fact, I'm having to put in more holes for Rosca because her tub read at 76 humidity. ReptiBark at the bottom- I was going to do cypress mulch but I had that already so I'll go through it first. Heat tape, since they had to be in same length / width to share a thermostat, are both 12" by 12"- for Rosca, this covers exactly one third of her tub; the little ones, being divided and centered over the tape, it also takes up 1/3- I was careful about measuring. I wanted to do 4" strips and run them down the length of the shelves but I had no idea how that worked out.. Like with rack systems, I don't understand how they come with 4" of heat tape, but 1/3 of a large tub is suppose to be covered... Is it heated length wise? It just doesn't seem like that'd be optimal. I feel like I'm missing something in how that works.
Regardless, until the man and I get our rack system this winter / early spring, I think this will do. It's much more efficient than my previous set up.

Oh, and herpstat question: it has an alarm that goes off if the temp gets too high, but will it shut itself off? I read the instructions but couldn't find anything. I keep the herpstat at 96, which keeps the interior of the tubs at 92 on hotspots (checked with a tempgun).


So! Am I missing anything?

Oh, yeah, and that red thing on top of the smaller tubs is a Afghan scarf Pat got me; I figured I should cover the tops of the the smaller tubs since they were clear and Rosca's is not. I took her hides out (I had them in there initially and since she stays in one or the other it was fine, but eh, I decided to take them out- she settled eventually) but left hides in the smaller ones since it seemed too open for the babies.