Getting very frustrated with my adult BP's. Some help would be strongly appreciated.

[Mchristy]

For some reason I can't post attachments so I'm not sure how to post my pictures.
I have three adult BP's; one female and two males. I am having various problems with every one of them and I am starting to get incredibly frustrated and not sure what to do. I'll start be describing my setup. Each snake is housed in a 42qt sterilite tub in an Animal Plastics economy adult BP rack. The 3" flexwatt heat tape is set at 91F and I try my best to keep the ambient temperature in the room at 83 but due to the intense heat in my area and the fact that the room is build in the garage, the room can easily peek at 93-95 during mid day although the temps are perfect at night. The room is rectangular and 105sq/ft by the way. Another thing to note is that there is no hide in any of the enclosures. The rack is black and the room stays very dark most of the day.
First off, any help lowering the temps during the day would be great.

Next thing on the list, the female. She will not eat. Common problem, I know. She refuses to eat anything I try to give her. She was 956g when I got her about 9 weeks ago and now is 931g. She has not eaten a single thing. F/T rats, live rats, P/K rats, gerbils.... I have no access to ASF's and don't know how to get them. She is going into shed right now so definitely has no interest in food but even so, she sits in the enclosure with a live rat as though it was her best friend. I'm planning to breed her next season and want to get her eating SO SO bad. Help please!!!

last item, the first male. Sometimes he eats, usually he doesn't. More importantly though, he's a mean sucker. And I mean MEAN. I've never opened the enclosure to have him not snap. He hisses deeply and long when his enclosure is opened and is always prepared to strike. I've been bit a few times and handling him is becoming a pain. I'm not sure if he is stressed and why. I've tried giving him hides, keeping his enclosure dark longer... He's just mean and I want to calm him down and get him eating consistantly.

I was going to put something about the second male but he's doing alright. He's not aggressive in the slightest and finally ate yesterday. I just got him about three weeks ago. Also, it should be noted each has fresh water every day and mistings twice a day to keep humidity up. I'll post pics as soon as I figure out how.

[MsMissy]

Portable ac unit on a thermostat? That's really quite warm for ambient temps. I don't like to eat when it's hot either.

[bcr229]

I would move the rack into the living area as high temps in your locale are going to be over 100*F for the next 3 days. If that's not an option, it looks like the humidity out there is low enough that a swamp cooler would be effective, plus it'll add some humidity to the air in the room.

Is there someone home during the day who could at least give them cool water in their bowls during the hottest part of the day?

[dr del]

For some reason I can't post attachments so I'm not sure how to post my pictures.....

That would be because we don't use the attachment system on here. You need to upload them to either your gallery here or somewhere like photobucket, then use the "direct link" they give you in the little box that pops up if you hit the "picture in a frame" button when composing a post.


Your spraying a lot - and mine hate being sprayed.

Are there too many holes in your tub?

[FireStorm]

If it is that hot in the room during the day, at least turn the hotspot off while temps are so high. We heat our room to 85F and do not provide supplemental heat.

[Mchristy]

I left the door to the snake room open as well as the door to the house today, trying to let some of the cool air from the house into the room as well as make it less stuffy. To an extent it worked. Ambient temps have been reading 86-89 all day despite being 99 outside. I'm going to be installing a ceiling fan as well to help circulate the air. Unfortunately, the room has no windows and only one door so ventilation is a bit of a problem. My only real option it seems is to keep the door open and install a fan.

I'll upload pics tonight when I get off work so anyone who wants to can see my setup. Further advice and tips regarding feeding would be appreciated. Is my girl losing too much weight based on what I described? Should I take her to a vet?

[FireStorm]

She hasn't lost enough weight to worry, IMO. The only thing I might recommend is having a fecal done. We typically get them done on new additions just to be safe even if they are eating. Its usually inexpensive, and can't hurt. Annoying as it is, there are lots of BPs that seem to hit a feeding wall around 1000g.