Sounds pretty good. Make sure your air temps are at the temps you have the thermostat set. Just avoid substrate that is damp all over; you still need some dryer areas to give the snake some choices. Another key factor is good air flow; something that is oftentimes overlooked by most keepers but makes a huge difference in overall and long term health - you don't want stagnant air. Contrary to what many recommend, I have never had to resort to soaking my rhinos or my gaboons - they drink out of shallow water bowls readily and other than a good misting every 2-3 days, that's all they need and mine defecate just fine. I keep mine in semi-naturalistic set-ups complete with a soil/forest humus/natural substrata and then pile up a few inches of dead oak leaves on the surface. A well placed pothos or philedendron, a nice piece of wood, shallow water bowl and some full spectrum lighting while providing dappled sunlight provides the perfect conditions (in my humble opinion).

Rob Carmichael, Curator
The Wildlife Discovery Center
www.wildlifediscoverycenter.org

>>Hey ive had my rhino and gaboon viper for over a month now and just want to make sure I'm keeping them right (can never be to safe) i have them in 12q tubs (the snakes are 8" long) on heat tape with the temps set to a hot spot of 84-85, there on cypress mulch as there bedding ( kind you would buy at Lowes in the big bag i was careful not to get it mixed with any other woods but ALL the bags say "cypress mulch blend" and none of them mentioned other woods so i assumed that means bark and wood is used in the cypress) i keep the cypress damp to keep humidity up in the tubs for them i mist the cage every 2-3 days keeping the mulch moist I'm not sure if this is to much? but it seems to be working fine and i heard there in swampy areas in the wild. they both have large water bowls big enough for them to soak in though they never want anything to do with it so i use the "viperkeeper" method and bought one of those wash bottles and hand water them once a week so i know there being hydrated, they are both eating fine never missed a meal in the month Ive had them I'm feeding them on Fridays. but anyways i just want to double check and make sure I'm doing everything correctly its very hard to gather a lot of info on them and I'm doing everything by the very little info i gathered and common sense so please correct me if I'm wrong on anything. Thanks -Josh
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Rob Carmichael, Curator
The Wildlife Discovery Center at Elawa Farm
Lake Forest, IL

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