Hi Everyone!

[RC89]

Hello all,

I am a new owner of a yellow belly BP. I've had reptiles in the past when I was a teen and worked at a reptile store in the summer so I have a fair amount of experience with reptiles. This is my first personal BP and the first time I've kept one in a glass tank. I will be building a rack system soon and will only be using the tank for quarantine.

I've had my BP for 2 weeks and it ate one week after I brought it home and went right into shed. When I woke up this morning, to my surprise, it had shed and pooped. I was really excited... Then it went right into the water bowl and has stayed there since 7am this morning. When I got it, it had no signs of mites and I looked it over thoroughly. Maybe this is just normal for this BP and it will do this every time it sheds. I'm just concerned that it has stayed in it's water bowl the whole day. Any recommendations?

Just in case anyone asks:
Humidity = 60%
Temp = 86F
Cypress Mulch
CHE on a dimmer
UTH on one side of the tank under the hide run by a thermostat.
Two hides on opposing sides of the tank.
Feed once a week in the tank (Mouse)
10 gallon tank
I believe this was only the second shed

[Eric Alan]

I wouldn't be too worried about it hanging out in its water bowl for a day or so as long as the rest of your husbandry is on point (which it looks to be). Chalk this one up to BPs will be BPs as you're learning about what's normal for it.

More importantly, though - ! I hope you enjoy your stay.

[RC89]

I wouldn't be too worried about it hanging out in its water bowl for a day or so as long as the rest of your husbandry is on point (which it looks to be). Chalk this one up to BPs will be BPs as you're learning about what's normal for it.

More importantly, though - ! I hope you enjoy your stay.

Thanks Eric! Hopefully it's just a quirk!

[RC89]

Well, I just checked his water bowl and he sure enough has mites. Looks like I'll be treating. Kind of stinks getting my first snake in almost ten years and the first one I get has mites. There must have been some eggs or babies that carried over with him.

[cchardwick]

OOOoooooo MITES! I struggled with those little buggers for almost two months and they kept coming back. It's funny, the only time my snakes ever hung out in the water bowls is when they had mites, they never do it now. Have you dealt with mites before? You may want to switch over to a paper towel substrate during the treatment so you can easily see the mites. Those little buggers will crawl all over the room and come back a week later by just crawling across the carpet! You may want to vacuum daily too... Be very careful with your mite treatment, many are really hard on snakes, I almost lost one of my snakes by treating too many times too close together, but they finally all pulled through and now I'm totally mite free.

[vix0105]

Also with the mite treatment if u have any tarantulas,stickinsects,or just crickets or worms for geckos put them far away from the room cos the mite fogger will poison them!


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[RC89]

Thanks for the advice! So when I go to treating the mites my understanding of what to do is as follows..

1. Take snake out of enclosure, set in tub of water with a little dish soap and let it soak while I treat the cage.
2. Spray down the enclosure and let it fumigate. (I will be using RID as it contains the same stuff as Proventamite)
3. Let it air out for 30 mins to an hour
4. Put the snake back in

I'll repeat this every week correct?
Thanks for all the help!

RC

[Yzmasmom]

You mentioned a temp of 86. Is that Ambient? If so, that's fine, but there should be a hot spot of 90 and the cold side at 80. (Then the ambient being at 86 is fine.)

[Merriah]

I am a newer owner (a little over a year) of personal snakes as well, and I've been fortunate to not have to deal with mites (yet?!?). I did a lot of research before I got my boys, and it sounds like you are doing your very best! I love this site, as I have gotten so much good information! I've been very afraid of mites, so I dry my Cypress and Aspen mulch in the oven before I put it in their enclosure just to be safe. Maybe overkill, but I have happy little boys!
It sounds like your little one came with them. What a bummer. You can do this!

[RC89]

You mentioned a temp of 86. Is that Ambient? If so, that's fine, but there should be a hot spot of 90 and the cold side at 80. (Then the ambient being at 86 is fine.)

Since I live in such a dry area and it being winter and having to run our furnace, it is nearly impossible to keep healthy humidity levels unless I mist, which I don't like doing. The solution to this is to run my CHE in the middle of the tank directly over a water dish. On either side of the water dish is a hide. One hide has a UTH underneath it and the other side doesn't. So I don't technically have a warm and cool side but I do have one side that has a hide with a heat pad, which is set to 90F, and the other side does not. He has the option to set in the warm hide, which according to a temp gun, is about 88F, or the other hide which is about 5 degrees cooler. So overall, the ambient temp of the tank is 82F-86F. It's not conventional but it keeps my humidity at about 60% which is fantastic.