Quote Originally Posted by Foschi Exotic Serpents View Post
This is something I try to educate people about too. We have seen it happen more with improper shipping during cold weather but your situation seems to fit as well.

There is nothing anyone can say or do to prevent you from keeping a snake in your garage so let me just give you some helpful advice instead..

The only way you're going to be able to successfully keep one long term in your garage and guarantee it's health is by using some ingenuity and $$.

You'll need to make or have someone build you a cage out of wood, plastic, or melamine with only the front having a door of thick glass or plexiglas.

Use flexwatt as your UTH and a ceramic heat emitter as supplemental ambient heat. Flexwatt underneath and the CHE in a fixture on top. You can have a circle cut in top with screen for the lamp fixture. The UTH on a thermostat of course.

I'd make the entire thing no larger than a 30gal aquarium. Maybe slightly deeper front to back since aquariums are very narrow.

The trick is the proper heat, on a thermostat (this goes for any reptile no matter what it's kept in or where) in the proper enclosure. You need to make adjustments to ensure the snake can not escape and the temps stay constant during warmer and cooler weather.

The weather has been crazy lately. Just because the surface the snake is laying on is 92 degrees does not mean the snake is ok. The air around it could be too cold if it's 50 degrees outside. This will make the snake sick.

I suspect you'll have issues with your dragon in the future too. Yes they can withstand lower night time temps but not as low as it has been getting in many areas over there. I wonder what you're using to keep him warm at night in cases of lower than room temp temperatures. Is your dragon set up with a basking bulb that puts out both UVA and UVB rays? Is the basking spot temp at roughly 110 degrees measured? Do you turn this lamp on every morning and then off every night?

If you answered no to any of these questions then your dragons set up is wrong and he will not do well.
No the bearded dragon tank is setup with two heat lamps one 150w and the other is 75w those stay on 24hrs. I have the uv ceramic light which I keep on at night and cut the 75w heat lamp off.

How much do you think it will cost to get everything for the tank for the new ball python setup, not including any lighting equipment or anything?