Taking In A New Friend

[driceftw]

I received a call from one of my coworkers recently and they had something I would be interested in. Their son had several snakes that he was re-homing due to the fact he would be unable to take them to college with him. He really did not want to rehome it on CL. His mother mentioned to him that I kept several ball pythons, and he was more than happy to let me take in his Coastal Carpet Python. I wasn't really wanting to take in another snake due to no more rack space or spare enclosures, but when he said he would include everything I was more than happy to take him in. He was housed in a large enclosure in an outside garage area. Heating was supplied for cold climate and cooling for the summer, he also had a heat pad 24/7. The carpet was not housed in the best conditions, but he had perfect sheds which I saw and does not refuse meals so this tells me he was at least comfortable. When we took him out of the bag for a handling before placing him in his cleaned enclosure we noticed a hiss/wheeze. After inspecting him we didn't notice any extra mucous or bubbling, so we hopped online and found that sometimes carpets are heavy breathers especially when excited (which he was). This was a bit of relief but we will still keep a very close eye on him. The enclosure is a great size 48"Lx24"Dx20"H, wooden with locking swing open doors, uth, and night bulb 24/7. Were currently using aspen and will probably be adding some sphangum moss or coco husk to get the humity at a more satisfying consistency without having to mist seeing how the top of this enclosure is mesh(half is blocked off). His temps are just fine after a little tweaking of the original setup. But anyways here's the info on our new little buddy. He's around 2 1/2 years old, about 5 1/2 feet, and seems just as sweet as can be. He hissed maybe once or twice at us but handled just fine, rubbing his head on us not to even assume a defensive position once. He was being fed live med rats bi weekly, so when he's nice and established in his new home his meals will be getting bumped to weekly meals. Anyways here he is, and additional info about the wheeze/hiss and maybe some more efficient bedding tips are greatly appreciated. Although I got a buch of aspen bedding to use up future ideas are welcome.

See him explore his super clean enclosure!


See him relax after his days journey