>>Here is a picture of her en closer, Tell me what you think...

>>



OK, I'll tell you what I think. I do have alot of experience with rosies. They are pretty simple animals really. This is a snake where truly a simple approach is best. On the flip side, when you give them something they do not like, they react with stress.



Right now, the snake is pretty small. The small mass means that it can heat up quickly with just a heat pad. You do not need to worry about air temp right now. You can add a low wattage light if you want, but no need really. I guarantee a heat pad will enable the snake to reach its desired temperature even if the air is 55 deg F. I know because I have a baby desert rosy right now in a 60 deg room eating huge thawed fuzzies and digesting fine with just a heat pad.



For substrate, I would use newspaper and aspen and get rid of the carpet. This way more heat gets trapped by the newspaper and aspen and allows for a wider range of temps possibly. I would keep the aspen less than 1 inch deep.



Make sure the heat pad is in the 85-90 deg range. When the air is cool, rosies will use 90 deg heat pads.



To provide more temp choices, get a piece of 1 inch dia PVC pipe, say about a foot long. Place that partially buried in the aspen, some of it over the heat pad and some not over the heat pad. Your rosy will love it and can access heat or cooler while staying hidden in a tight hide. Rosies like tight hides. Half logs are really not what rosies want.



I would lose the half log, lose the carpet, lose the huge diameter styrene plumbing fixture there. Go with 1" dia PVC and any other low-height hide. Even some newspaper laid over the aspen will be an aswesome hide. I guarantee you will see a difference in your rosy - it will become voracious.



As the rosy grows, the 1" dia PVC will need to be replaced. 2 inch dia would be better then, or else use an alternative. There are some nice rock hides sold online. Neodesha plastics sells plastic hides, so does I think RBI Plastics. As I said, newspaper makes a great hide by itself if you can stand the look of it.



Your cage is large enough where you can use a bulb if you feel you need it. Adult rosies have more mass and need more heat energy - not necessarily hotter temps - but enough heated area to heat all of their fat body. So then, a bulb can help keep the heat in the cage during cold times. But when the rosy is an adult, you pretty much want the air temp to be cool during Winter. You can still keep the heat pad on. The rosy will choose its temp. It may choose the coldest spot. Fine. It knows what to do.
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Mark

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