Rosy Boa Help!

[Eri]

My husband and I recently added a rosy boa to our family. And since our apartment is much cooler than his previous home, we figured and under the tank heating glass would work, but it heats up the glass on the bottoms too much. My husband thought maybe putting a layer of sand on the bottom would help, and since he lived with snake for a while at his aunts house, I figured he knew what we couldn't and couldn't use as substrate. So he went out and bought some sand and layered the bottom of Chad's tank with it. It starts off great, Chad seemed to enjoy it. But a week later I noticed he had a couple of dry patches on his belly. I immediately took the sand out and the aspen shaving that were on top and replaced it with fresh aspen shavings. He doesn't act like he's in pain when he's being handled and his dry spots are touched, but is they're any way I can help him regain the oils that he lost?

[bmack]

Hello! To start off I don't have any experience with rosy boas but I do know some general snake info. I don't think there is anything you can do about the dry parts except keep him at normal humidity. As the rosy sheds the skin should heal on its own. Are you using a thermostat or rheostat? If the glass is getting that hot and you are worried about burns you should be using one if you aren't already. And as you learned sand is not a good substrate choice for most snakes.

[bigSAK]

A UTH should be run with some sort of thermostat or a dimmer because they will get to 115 deg. I own a BP and she needs a hot spot of 90-94 so that's what I set my UTH to by using a lamp dimmer which I bought from Home depot for $12 and a laser temp gun to check the temp on the glass. A UTH just plugged into the wall can burn your snake.

[frostysBP]

Unplug that heat pad right away and it sound like your snake could have some burns. Uth unregulated get wayyyyyy to hot. Dimmer switch minimum if you can afford to buy a good thermostat I would they are worth every penny. I prefer herpstats. Can u post pics of the "dry" part.

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[Tsanford]

Yeah that dry part could be burn from the heat pad or some sort of rub or irritation from the sand.

All heat pads should be used at minimum with a lamp dimmer, but a nice thermostat such as vivarium or herpstat, if you can Afford it.

As said above, some heat mats can range from 120-140 which will severely burn your Snake. You should get the dimmer or tstat and monitor it with a laser thermometer.

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[JoshSloane]

Definitely don't use sand. And regulating the UTH is a must. Would need to see pics of the wounded area to determine if its a burn or an irritation.

[Eri]

Oh, they aren't burns. Ever since the first time we tried it with Chad out of the cage and saw that it was heating up too much, we stopped using it. I'm worry wart and didn't want to risk burning him. We've just been sticking to the heating lamp that his previous owners used with him for the last 10 years

[Eri]

Thank you guys for all your input! I appreciate more than you guys can imagine. I now know I have a place I can come to for advice. I'm definitely going to look into getting a dimmer and thermostat like you guys suggested! You guys are awesome!

[JoshSloane]

Thank you guys for all your input! I appreciate more than you guys can imagine. I now know I have a place I can come to for advice. I'm definitely going to look into getting a dimmer and thermostat like you guys suggested! You guys are awesome!

No worries, we are happy to help. Come back anytime!