Am I Doing It Right?

[Ian P]

Hey guys I have been lurking around for a while and finally decided to make a post. I took a picture of my tank and was wondering if you had any suggestions on how to make it better. I use a UTH on the left hand corner were the hide is. My other question is I have a thermometer under the hide on the floor and it is reading higher than I would think. What should this temp be? Thank you in advanced!

Enclosure


Thermometer


New guy

[Stewart_Reptiles]

Your temps on the warm side should be 88/92, do you have a Thermostat to regulate your UTH?

[Luciferskeeper]

That temp should be a constant 90 is what I go by. But in my rack I have variants in the tubs from top to bottom from 89-92 but always constant in each tub. 96 is too hot. Is that under substrate reading or top of substrate reading?

[angllady2]

Hello and welcome to the best ball python site on the internet!

Cute little bug you've got! I'm not going to talk your ear off about tanks vs tubs and all that nonsense. You can read all that here for yourself.

My first impressions are these:

The water dish is a bit bigger than it needs to be. Not a big deal. Two hides look good. You mention you use a UTH, do you have a thermostat controlling it? Now, for accurate temperatures you need the probe to the thermometer to be under the substrate and resting against the glass directly over the UTH. You want to make sure that the hottest temperature the snake can be exposed to is not hot enough to burn. Now, if the 96.5 is the reading taken against the glass and under the hide, you want to be sure it doesn't get any warmer than that. You could even bring it down by say 2 degrees. 96 is not hot enough to cause a burn to my knowledge, but it is a little warm. However, if your baby doesn't burrow under the substrate, on top the temp should be just about right.

You will probably have a ****ens of a time keeping humidity up in there, but you can get around that in a number of ways. Considering the wooden divider, you don't want to raise the humidity too high overall or that wood will mold in no time flat. A better idea would be a smaller water dish and the addition of a small humid hide the baby can use when he wants to. A humid hide can be as simple as a small plastic cereal bowl with a little door cut in it stuffed with dampened sphagnum moss.

All in all, I'd say you are off to a pretty good start.

Gale

[Capray]

Welcome!
X2 on questions about UTH and thermostat. Could be a little warmer in there.
How big are those hides compared to the snake? You want them to be snug so he feels secure in them.

[Ian P]

I just got a hydrofarm thermostat and will make the moist hide.

[Ian P]

I put in a moist hide with spaghus moss and an waiting on the thermostat. I also changed the hide above the heat to be smaller because I heard they like to cram in thier hides. I offered food on thursday because thats when the store said they feed thier snakes and he would not take it. I am feeding f/t and advice on how to get her eating?

P.S- He is relatively active but today he has been out alot and it looks like he might be trying to escape, does this mean anything?

[Luciferskeeper]

The smaller tighter hides are a plus, as they do love to cram in tight. As for eating just be sure to get your husbandry right, and limit handling to only when you have to for cleaning etc. And he will eat. As for the extra activity that could mean stress, hungry, or simply just checking for an escape. Once settled in you'll hardly ever see him roam.