Newcomer looking to jump into the scene.

[soy.lor.n]

It's an exciting prospect. I'm still pretty new to how it works, and I've only looked into it a little bit, but the possibilities seem pretty endless. I was looking in the pictures section and saw a silver ball, the only one out of a batch of hatchlings, and my jaw dropped. Not only was it beautiful (I doubt I'd sell it if I ended up with one like that), but just amazing the way the breeding and snakes in general work.

I assume that was the "silver bullet clutch" thread?
That's Albey, the guy I bought Uli from I got to see the bullet when I was there picking her up, and it was SO cool! A pewter has a single Cinny gene and a single Pastel gene, while a bullet has 2 Cinny genes (from both parents) and a Pastel gene. (I don't know much about snakes, but I'm a bioengineering graduate student, so I know plenty about genetics). So you can get silver bullets from 2 pewter parents, or a pewter and a cinnamon. That's why I'm going and talking to Albey when I need my Pewter haha. He's got some *great* looking snakes!

Clearly I'm just trying to convince everyone else that pewter is THE morph to have. Maybe people will start breeding some more and they'll be cheaper when I get mine

[rabernet]

Jumping in a little late here - but if you think there's even the remotest possibility that you may wish to breed in the future, I'd recommend picking up a nice normal female. That way, you already have a female who will be closer to being up to size.

Albey and Justin are both great guys! Don't be afraid of shipping - I've had the bulk of my collection shipped to me with no problems - when you deal with professionals, you'll be fine!

This is how I set up babies. That's a 15 quart tub from Dollar General, I think $3. Note that the human heat pad was temporary until my flexwatt and thermostat arrived.



The hide in the right of the picture is made from a plastic flower pot saucer with the entrance soldered out. Shortly after this picture was taken, the green hide was replaced with an identical flower pot saucer hide. The saucer cost $.47 each.



There really is a baby in there:




A year later - here's the same baby:

[Inknsteel]

Everyone says to avoid Petco for very good reasons. Inknsteel, your snake has mites...where do you think they came from?? I'd bet Petco since it's a new snake....

Actually, I've had my snake for over 6 months. The mites did NOT come from Petco.

A friend of mine just purchased a RTB from another small, local pet shop. I let him keep the snake in my house until his parents gave the OK to move him. When he purchased the snake, there was no apparent sign of mites, probably just had eggs... After a few days of being at my house, I noticed a mite in the bottom of his water bowl, so we took him out and treated the enclosure. I'm 99.9% positive that the mites my snake got were from me not sanitizing my hands between handling the different snakes... MY bad, not Petco's...

[soy.lor.n]

Actually, I've had my snake for over 6 months. The mites did NOT come from Petco.

A friend of mine just purchased a RTB from another small, local pet shop. I let him keep the snake in my house until his parents gave the OK to move him. When he purchased the snake, there was no apparent sign of mites, probably just had eggs... After a few days of being at my house, I noticed a mite in the bottom of his water bowl, so we took him out and treated the enclosure. I'm 99.9% positive that the mites my snake got were from me not sanitizing my hands between handling the different snakes... MY bad, not Petco's...

Their snakes are still expensive, $80 compared to $20 from some breeders. I got my girl for less than $80, and petco's snakes aren't even (reliably) sexed, although I'm sure it's usually safe to assume they're male.

[devilgrrl]

Their snakes are still expensive, $80 compared to $20 from some breeders. I got my girl for less than $80, and petco's snakes aren't even (reliably) sexed, although I'm sure it's usually safe to assume they're male.

We (InkNSteel and I) got Bella at a discount ($50) and the person we bought her from is a herp specialist and a friend, just so ya know

[Inknsteel]

And again, that's why I said to talk to your local Petco herp specialist. I agree that most Petco employees knowledge of snakes and herp care in general amounts to crap, but there are the exceptions. Again, if you find your local store has a knowledgeable specialist, they should be able to pop or probe the snake for you. When I went up there and looked at them, before I bought mine, I was able to handle the snakes and pick which one I wanted. He then took her from me and popped her right then and there...

And yes, as she said, we got her for $50, which is about the same as buying a $20 snake from a breeder and paying $30 shipping... I just got to go pick my snake in person rather than picking from pictures online...

I'm not trying to discourage you from buying from a breeder. I'm just pointing out that there are exceptions to all these generalizations about Petco being so horrible... It's not always the case...

[SnakieMom]

The hides and the water bowl seem easy enough. As far as the heating goes, I'll probably just stick to a UTH and dimmer for now. I'll be around a lot, so I'll be able to constantly keep an eye on the snake and the heat, and eventually what I plan to do is (once I've learned a lot more and have more funds) move it to a nice tank that's decked out with the appropriate conditions. It just seems like a tub is the easier way to go for a beginner. And the heat tape and all sounds a bit complicated for my level right now.

Believe me, heat tape (or flexwatt) isn't all that complicated.
As another poster already said, you can have it all wired up and sent to you. If you're going to be moving up to bigger tubs,
I'd reccomend it instead of an UTH. Trying to move a UTH from one tub to another is horribly tricky, because if you just pull it off,
it might not work properly after that, or you might have some
serious hot spots due to broken wires inside it.
With flexwatt, you just gently peel off the tape around it, and you're good to go for as many tubs as you need to upgrade to.

Just my 2 cents.

[starmom]

Actually, I've had my snake for over 6 months. The mites did NOT come from Petco...I'm 99.9% positive that the mites my snake got were from me not sanitizing my hands between handling the different snakes... MY bad, not Petco's...

I apologize for jumping to the Petco theory....my bad! I jumped because Petco is notorious for selling diseased and infected reptiles and I stand by my recommendation to purchase from a breeder and never from Petco.

[soy.lor.n]

Believe me, heat tape (or flexwatt) isn't all that complicated.
As another poster already said, you can have it all wired up and sent to you. If you're going to be moving up to bigger tubs,
I'd reccomend it instead of an UTH. Trying to move a UTH from one tub to another is horribly tricky, because if you just pull it off,
it might not work properly after that, or you might have some
serious hot spots due to broken wires inside it.
With flexwatt, you just gently peel off the tape around it, and you're good to go for as many tubs as you need to upgrade to.

Just my 2 cents.

yeah, if you get it wired, it's pretty much identical to a UTH, except it doesn't have adhesive on it (which is probably a good thing!) so you can just tape it on

[CircleOfSnakes]

I assume that was the "silver bullet clutch" thread?
That's Albey, the guy I bought Uli from I got to see the bullet when I was there picking her up, and it was SO cool! A pewter has a single Cinny gene and a single Pastel gene, while a bullet has 2 Cinny genes (from both parents) and a Pastel gene. (I don't know much about snakes, but I'm a bioengineering graduate student, so I know plenty about genetics). So you can get silver bullets from 2 pewter parents, or a pewter and a cinnamon. That's why I'm going and talking to Albey when I need my Pewter haha. He's got some *great* looking snakes!

Clearly I'm just trying to convince everyone else that pewter is THE morph to have. Maybe people will start breeding some more and they'll be cheaper when I get mine

Wow, I'd almost be tempted to save a little more and go ahead and get a female Pewter now. Almost. Unfortunately I'm getting pretty eager so putting it off longer than I have to won't work, lol. I also would love to eventually be able to get some Ivory babies.

Jumping in a little late here - but if you think there's even the remotest possibility that you may wish to breed in the future, I'd recommend picking up a nice normal female. That way, you already have a female who will be closer to being up to size.

Albey and Justin are both great guys! Don't be afraid of shipping - I've had the bulk of my collection shipped to me with no problems - when you deal with professionals, you'll be fine!

This is how I set up babies. That's a 15 quart tub from Dollar General, I think $3. Note that the human heat pad was temporary until my flexwatt and thermostat arrived.



The hide in the right of the picture is made from a plastic flower pot saucer with the entrance soldered out. Shortly after this picture was taken, the green hide was replaced with an identical flower pot saucer hide. The saucer cost $.47 each.



There really is a baby in there:




A year later - here's the same baby:

Beautiful snake ya got there. And thanks for the input, I'm taking all I can get at the moment, and the pictures really help. Do certain substrates help keep up the humidity? And also, I've heard people say that you shouldn't have your heating source on the bottom directly touching the surface of whatever the tub is sitting on, is that really something to worry about?

I'm not trying to discourage you from buying from a breeder. I'm just pointing out that there are exceptions to all these generalizations about Petco being so horrible... It's not always the case...

I get ya. Really just depends on the place and the staff. I'm looking into the breeder idea, though, but I'd be comfortable purchasing from the local place I talked about. They aren't a big chain, I actually think they're privately owned, and definitely know what they're doing and talking about, and the shop itself is in tip-top shape. So we'll see.

Believe me, heat tape (or flexwatt) isn't all that complicated.
As another poster already said, you can have it all wired up and sent to you. If you're going to be moving up to bigger tubs,
I'd reccomend it instead of an UTH. Trying to move a UTH from one tub to another is horribly tricky, because if you just pull it off,
it might not work properly after that, or you might have some
serious hot spots due to broken wires inside it.
With flexwatt, you just gently peel off the tape around it, and you're good to go for as many tubs as you need to upgrade to.

Just my 2 cents.

Yeah, I realized that I can get it all pre-wired and such, and that turned me on to the idea a bit more. Most likely, though, what I'll do is just keep this tub in its baby-shape and when I decide to move my first snake into something bigger, or the tank, I'll already have a tub ready to go if I decide to get another one (and if the addiction that seems to run rampant throughout these forums is any indication of what will happen to me, I can count on it).