I need an advice

[Sunny1]

He would be able to kill live food. I would just make sure that the mice that you choose are not any larger around then he is at his widest point. Both of my girls eat live with no problems!! (One of them is just shy of being 3 months old, the other is an 07 hatchling herself but a few months older.)

And I would definately take out the half log hides. A real inexpensive way of getting awesome hides is by using flower pot saucers (the things you put underneath the pots to catch the water). Just cut a hole in them for your BP to enter by, I use these and put the entrance in the sides, but I have seen others on here put there entrances on the top. They make really nice tight fitting hides and very inexpensive. Or you can also go to the dollar store and get a couple of plastic bowls, my other girl uses these and they work very well also!!

[bearhart]

Something maybe 25% smaller than this should do the trick:

[NickP]

Thnx guys. Around Nov 8th im going home for the weekend and will buy/get the new hides. For now I'm stuck with the half logs.

But there is a new problem. I just realized what my bp is doing. He pulled all the substrate aside and is laying directly on the newspaper under which are the UTHs. Is this bad?

[Sunny1]

But there is a new problem. I just realized what my bp is doing. He pulled all the substrate aside and is laying directly on the newspaper under which are the UTHs. Is this bad?

My older girl is in a tank and does this also sometimes. It is not bad, as long as you know what the temps are at that spot, and they don't get higher than 94*. If the temp right above the newspaper is too hot then she could get burnt, and that would be bad.

In my tank I don't put any newspaper under my cypress mulch. I have the probe to my digi therm on the glass under the cypress, and I just put a thin layer of the cypress in the tank. What is your temp at the top of the substrate over the UTH's? If it is too low, she may be trying to burrow down to get closer to the heat source?? I would just keep an eye on your temps at varying spots (underneath and above your substrate).

[Mindibun]

Just a thought on the hides:

I bought the clay saucers for my little girl and she has only used them once. She just doesn't like them. I know this because I have several sets of hides which I continually rotate (for my pleasure, not hers. ) and she will "run" to these little paper cups I have for her, but when I put in other things she either doesnt use them (in the case of the clay pots) or uses them only some of the time.

So, long story short, my suggestion is to try several types of hides. He probably just doesnt like the ones he has; it's not that he doesnt know how to use them.

-Haylee

[NickP]

Well I only have one thermometer with a probe. The probe is at the warmer side, which reads 88.5 right now. I'm not worrying about that too much. It seems to drop slightly as the temp in the house drops. Either way i'm planning on getting tinfoil and insulating the top pretty soon. As for the cool side, it's at 80 degrees in the air, so I'm guessing it might be warmer on the glass.

Here is a question: My cool side is warmed with UTH while the warm side is warmed with a light bulb. Is this a bad idea? Since I'm sure the glass above the UTHs will probably we warmer on the cool side than the warm side.

[bearhart]

88 seems kind of cool for a warm side. Low 90's is what I run the inside of the warm hide at. Sunny1 has the right idea but maybe a bit conservative. 94 will not burn your snake. Consider that the average human body temperature is 98.2 and the range considered healthy is 97.8 - 99.1. I dont' think you could even come close to burning your snake with your body - even if you stuffed him in your armpit.

Its important to note that I'm talking about "contact burns" that could injure your snake's skin. Your snake could develop health problems if he was subjected to ambient temperatures in the high 90's long term.

Anyhoo... My setups all have two UTH's and a heat lamp on one side. On one setup, the heating pads are both large and identical so the heat lamp creates the "warm" side. On the other setup, I have a large UTH on one side and a small UTH on the other. In that case, the warm side is over the large UTH and I use a low-wattage heat lamp and the small UTH to create the cool side. So, utimately, you kind of have to rearrange things so they work with your setup.

So, how is your guy doing? Has he tried his hides yet?

[juddb]

With tank setup's another cool trick for boosting humidity is instead of spraying the substrate, spray the inside walls of the enclosure. Someone i know has a cooks tree boa in a glass tank and the humidity has to be so high that mold and what not is possibilty, so he showed me that trick. His humidity is always through the roof. Hope this helps.

[NickP]

I still seem to be having problems with the temps. My cool side always reads around 80 because its controlled by the 2 UTHs, but the warm side fluctuates all the time. When the room temp drops, the tank temp drops to like 87. I can't seem to be able to control it. How can I insulate the tank? The top is currently covered by 2 towels up to the lamp (so like 80% of the top screen is covered) ...this also holds humidity, so at times when it got too humid I would open it up slightly until humidity dropped again. Also one side is covered with a towel to create more of a "close" surrounding for the snake and hopefully insulate the tank.

Buddy is doing ok. Still not using he hides. I dunno, should I try and feed him? I have 1 F/T mouse left, and if that doesn't work im gonna buy small fuzzy or something. Actually I think I'll take a pic of the tank later tonight and post it. Hopefully that might help.

[Sunny1]

94 will not burn your snake. Consider that the average human body temperature is 98.2 and the range considered healthy is 97.8 - 99.1. I dont' think you could even come close to burning your snake with your body - even if you stuffed him in your armpit.

Its important to note that I'm talking about "contact burns" that could injure your snake's skin. Your snake could develop health problems if he was subjected to ambient temperatures in the high 90's long term.

Maybe I didn't make my post clear enough earlier in this thread, but thank you for clarifying it for me. I wasn;t trying to imply that 94* would burn your snake, I was refering to 94* since the warm side of the tank shouldn't be much higher than that. What I was trying to get to is that your snake will be okay burrowing to the glass if it is around 94* but if the temps at the glass are too high then your snake could possibly get burnt.