Gtp help

[tcutting]

I agree with what has already been said about staying on the floor of the cage...this just happens sometimes. I had a male that suddenly decided to rest on the floor for a few days in a row (still went up on his perch at night) and another that decided to perch on the side of his water bowl for a week. I also disagree with keeping your humidity as high as possible, which will likely cause respiratory problems. I try to keep mine around 50%-60%, and spray every other day or so to bring it up to 90% for a few hours. My humidity frequently dips down to 20%-30% in the winter and I've never had any issues. I've talked to quite a few breeders with very large high end collections that rarely, or never, mist. Airflow is one of the biggest things to watch out for, as too little airflow can influence the growth of mold. Your little guy may be going off food to get ready to shed, or maybe for no reason at all. I would wait and try to feed again next week, it is probably nothing serious. Is it an import?

x2 good points there. I would personally try to keep the humidity at 60 with 50 being the mark i would mist lightly, but sitting on the bottom not really a big deal. it happens. and what size is the snake and what size is the prey item? a little smaller then what you would give a BP of the same size is better.

[Francesco]

Well it did move around last nigh he was all over the tank. And my humidity I spray in the morning and it goes up to 90% and it dropped down during the day by the time I get home the humidity its down to 50% and I mist again. He is in a 18x18x24 and I feed him pinkies

Una famiglia

[wwmjkd]

excessively high persistent humidity is definitely to be avoided. you should mist every day or two if needed to bring it up to 80-90% for a few hours, but the enclosure should be allowed to dry until the next misting. as for the floor behavior, I'd check your temperatures. it's not unusual at all for GTPs to spend time on the ground, but sometimes they will do it to escape improper temperatures near the perches.

best of luck.

[Francesco]

He is like the sizing of a pinkie finger and his perches are 5/16" maybe the perches are to small? Should I upgrade the perches a couple of size bigger?

Una famiglia

[wwmjkd]

pinkies? is your GTP a hatchling? if so, the food size might be appropriate, but the enclosure is definitely too large. the floor-dwelling behavior might be an indicator of stress caused by insecurity. hatchlings need a small tub. but if it's an adult or yearling, pinkies are far too small to be a substantial meal.

as per your perch question, ideally they should be no larger than the width of the largest part of your GTP. also in my opinion smaller is preferable to larger if in doubt.

[Francesco]

He is been doing fine for the last couple of weeks. But should I crown the tank more with stuff

Una famiglia

[wwmjkd]

He is been doing fine for the last couple of weeks. But should I crown the tank more with stuff

Una famiglia

but how old is your GTP?

[kristan]

The gtp is 6 mos. (per a previous post) correct? The cage is quite large for a juvie, in fact an 18x18x24 would house an adult male pretty comfortably. I prefer to keep juvies in shoe box sized tubs so that I can better monitor their feeding and defecation habits, and it is thought that the smaller size helps them feel secure. However, you said yours was doing fine for a few weeks so my guess is that it is still fine. If it continues to refuse food then I would move it to a smaller cage (12" cube max). Remember that every animal has a different temperament, some juvies may be more laid back and do fine in a large cage, some may be too nervous and need to be moved to something smaller. I think my biggest concern would be monitoring it's health (feeding, defecations, etc) in such a large area, esp. if it is an import. FYI: I try to keep perches the same size as the widest point of the animal. Also I'm feeding large fuzzies to my 6 month old critter and he/she sucks them right down.

[Jessica Loesch]

ohh, okay. Lots of bad info about humidity on the internet involving GTPs.

[kristan]

I think all of the info about high humidity came from a good place..their natural environment is extremely humid. It just so happens that they tend to be pretty tolerant of a wide range of humidity levels. I recently spoke with one breeder that said that his humidity drops to 15% in the winter and he never mists. He reports not having any health problems since he stopped misting. I just bought a yearling female off of him and she is in perfect health, so I cant imaging it being too detrimental. I have noticed, within my own collection, that different animals seem to prefer different humidity levels. I have one male in particular that will have a stuck shed if his humidity drops much below 50% for any extended period of time. My biak sheds and defecates perfect no matter how low her humidity drops. Also...I always raise humidity levels during shed cycles.