Nose & Head Rubbing. Advice please?

[littleindiangirl]

Here's his cage:

The most common reasons for a snake to show signs of stress (roaming snake olympics, rubbing nose to get out) or go off feed is husbandry problems.

Ok, so I noticed you do not have a thermometer or hygrometer to measure the temps and humidity. I really suggest you buy one, you should not guess the temps, but know exactly what they are at any time. The Accurite thermometer/hygrometer from Walmart is $11, and works fantastic. Digital is much much better than analog and worth the little bit of money.

Having a digital thermometer/hygrometer unit is the most important part in a cage. You must know what the temps are.

Are you using any other heat source besides the light bulb? I know that the light bulbs SUCK the humidity right out, and you do not have any foil over the screen cover. My guess is you have little to no humidity in the cage.

There should be a UTH on one half of the cage, and a hide should be placed over it. On the cool side (most often where people put the light source) there should be an EXACT duplicate hide to allow the snake to thermoregulate and feel safe in both hides equally.

If you are going to put a UTH on the bottom of the tank, make sure the tank is raised off of the wood surface you have it on. Failing to do so can result in a cracked bottom, or a burn/fire.

You MUST have something to control the UTH source. A thermostat or a rheostat will work great. Some people swear that Reptitemps 500 work great, others say just use a rheostat. It's important to control the heat source to avoid burning your snake.

To control the humidity in the tank (should be at 60%. 70% for sheds) use foil and duct tape on top of the screen. Since your light dome takes up half of the screen, you can do the opposite half. 3 layers of foil, shiny side down, and duct tape around the edges to hold down. If you feel better putting duct tape over all the foil go for it.

The accurite thermometer will have a probe on it. The probe should be in the hot spot hide, or right next to the thermostat/rheostat probe, on the UTH. This ensures that you know how hot it is in your BP's hot hide. The unit itself should be on the cool end, it will be measuring the ambient temps of the tank itself and the humidity.

Substrate can work wonders for keeping humidity up, aspen, coconut bark, cypress mulch, they all work great for tanks. I prefer the look of coconut bark fiber myself. And it's easy to tell when it's too dry. Make sure that whatever substrate you use is not SOAKING WET. It should be damp, like you misted it. Leaving it soaking wet will encourage harmful bacteria growth in those warm and moist conditions and you can develop belly rot.

HOT SPOT: 90
AMBIENT (tank air temp): 80-83
HUMIDITY: 60% or 70% for shedding

Once you have the thermal gradient set up, 2 exactly same hides on each end, water bowl most likely in middle, then you should fill up the tank with your decorations to make the snake feel more secure.

Do not use tape in the enclosure for any reason. I used hot glue to hold down the probes when needed.

I hope you can get back with us on your husbandry. I believe this will really help. If I missed something, please chip in.