How about another probably dumb question!

[pumba]

Alright, first let me say thanks to all that have helped. You are all very great. I am learning sooooo much more on this site than I have ever learned out of a book.

As for the question. What is the deal with the balled up newspaper. I am going to do that this evening when I get home. What is it about the newspaper balls that are soo apealing to the snakes. I am just trying to understand what I am doing, not questioning by the way. Just curious!

Thanks

Ray

[frankykeno]

Hopefully Adam from 8BallPythons will log on and answer this for you Ray but I'm guessing (and it's but a guess as I'm a newbie myself) but I would think it's about security. After all a tub or tank has some open spots between hides and the balled up newspaper would fill those spots and give the snake something to sort of slither around and under like it would be in the wild (you just don't see that many lovely flat open spots nicely covered in clean substrate out in the wild LOL).

All I know is Adam's recommended it a lot and it seems to work like magic from what I've read in posts for snakes that are nervy or stressed or just having trouble settling in to a new environment. Way I figure, it has zero possibility of damaging your snake and it's very cost-effective, so why not give it a shot if it helps and obviously it seems to.

Let us know how it worked for you.


~~Jo~~
~~Joanna~~

[mikerccie]

Basically (from my limited experience), BP's are agoraphobic. That's not a fear of socks with funky patterns, it's a fear of wide open spaces. This is why my 600Gram BP stuffs himself into a hide that I tought was too small when he was 100Grams.

In order to make the BP feel more secure (after giving it adeqate hides) is to give it a smaller environment. If you don't have a smaller enclosure, you can use up some of the space in a bigger tank by putting in lots and lots of balled up newsprint.

The smaller spaces seem to make my snakes more comfortable.

[pumba]

Consider it done. NOw I have another one for yall. I am thinking of a second BP to keep the little one companie. Is that A good idea or are the BP's more of lone rangers? I figured with the big tank that I have, there will be pleanty of room, and possibly good for moral if you know what I mean, or am I all wrong? All advice will be greatly appreciated. By the way, If I do get another, it will be out of the same tank I got the first one out of. That way maby they are familier with each other.

Thanks again

Ray

[tigerlily]

I wouldn't house more than one snake per cage. They are solitary animals and it just leads to all sorts of problems. If one happens to get sick, you'll have two sick animals on your hands in no time. It's just better all around if you house them individially!!!

[frankykeno]

Well from my limited knowledge and from reading threads here on this subject Ray, I'd say the general consensus is to house individually. From what I understand these snakes do not den up together in the wild or have much to do with each other, other than at breeding. Also I've read here that one snake will naturally dominate the other and may stress it's cage partner by denying it access to hides or water. Survival of the fittest sort of thing I would imagine.

As well, any new snake needs to be kept away from your current snakes for awhile to avoid problems with disease or mites/ticks being spread. If you have two together and there's say loose stool in the cage, how would you ever know who is ill. Either you are stuck with double vet bills checking them both out or it spreads from one to the other and it's back to the vet yet again. I don't know about you but the lower my vet costs the better LOL. I don't mind spending money on a vet for a good reason, I just don't want to sign over the paycheck to one regularily for things that could be avoided.

I can actually tell you we got our snake from a pet store with 3 in one tank. Within 6 weeks you could see of the remaining two balls one was significantly smaller than the other one and the one we had bought. They had all been almost exactly the same size but one was not thriving so it may well have been for this very reason (tho of course many other factors can affect especially in a pet store environment).



~~Jo~~

[pumba]

Very cool, Thanks bunches.