eyeswideopen,



As others have pointed out, the fact that you care enough to ask means that you are probably not an incompetent keeper. You don't have much experience, and you can't help that yet. No worries.



You said you use the "cage carpet" for substrate. I used it and loved it at first... and I had issues with it eventually. I suggest you NOT use it. For one thing, there is no reason that the carpet would resolve any issues with mites - they may just be hiding better, or whatever OTHER treatments you were using to control the mites finally worked. Always check your water dish for any signs of mites, and (as you probably already know) check your snakes. IF you do still have a problem with mites, that could also be a source of stress for your animals that could be responsible for a less-than-stellar feeding response.



The issue I had with the cage carpet was that its texture eventually tore up my snake's belly scales. It didn't look like much at first, but the fibers catch the edges of the scales and rough them up - actually shred them a little, once they've been on it for a while. My snake ended up having a skin infection that I had to treat with antibiotic ointment quite often. Before the infection began one other wierd thing that I saw on the carpet substrate was that because of her cut up belly scales, she shed funny - almost more like a lizard - with small patches, even individual scales being shed BEFORE she actually started trying to shed. I switched over to newspaper, and have had NO issues.



Luckily for me, I am a college student, and the campus paper is plentiful and free, so on Fridays, at the end of the day, I consider anything still sitting in a newsstand free bedding!



Even if you are not located near a college, and perhaps don't get a newspaper delivered to your home, there is probably some kind of a free paper available near you. I would think that if you talked to someone at a local recycle center, or printing facility, you would probably be able to get stacks of unwanted, clean papers for cheap or for free.



Now, about STRESS. You said "they don't seem stressed to me. They always eat, except flu that is...he's always picky...But neither show signs of stress." Picky eating can be a sign of stress. In fact, a lot of the things you've asked about in this and in other threads ARE indicators of stress, which is why everyone keeps talking about your snakes being stressed. One thing I have hit on before, and others have as well is that they are in the same cage. I myself grew up keeping several species of colubrids (rat snakes, king snakes, etc.), and we commonly kept up to four snakes in a cage without any feeding problems arising because we fed our animals in "feeding tubs" outside of their cages. We didn't do this with any king snakes or milk snakes, because those species are known to be cannibalistic. But keeping lots of rat snakes together was a common practice... 15 years ago. Since then, reptile keepers have learned a lot about what makes a more successful set up.



First in the argument to house them separately, is stress - and feeding response/habits. Not all snakes that live in a cage with another snake will be stressed by that, however where you have one snake that eats regularly, and one that is "picky" I would say that Kit isn't neccesarily stressed by Flu's presence, but Flu IS probably stressed by Kit's presence.



Second in the argument to house them seperately, is bugs. Whether we are talking about parasites, internal or external, or disease, the treatment and prevention of all is made far more simple and manageable when the snakes are ALL housed separately. The presence of any such 'bugs' will also create stress that will probably affect feeding response, though in an animal that is characteristically a good feeder, such as Kit, stress may not automatically put the animal off its feed, until the situation has become a much more serious problem.



Overall, you sound like you have a handle on the temps and humidity, so kudos to you for that. Listen carefully to the advice you are getting (and I know you are getting a little bit of everything under the sun). Your snakes still need a few changes to be made to be truly successful.



Good luck to you.

~Rebecca
-----
0.1 Dumeril's Boa '04 (Courtney)

1.2 Ball Pythons

[1.0 '05 Orange Hypo (Specter)]

[0.1 '05 Het Orange Hypo (Sylvia)]

[0.1 '03 Normal (Sue)]

0.2 American Pit Bull Terriers (40lb darling lap dogs:Brandy&Mara)

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