Well, it's been quite a week here. I think some of you are aware of the bill in Louisiana that would ban the importation or possession of an "non-indigenous constrictor." If not, the best place to read about it is on the LGCHS forum here at KS.com or in the open discussion forum. The moderators are already mad at me for expressing my disgust with this issue in regular forums.
The relevence of mentioning the subject again is that the bill allows people to get a permit to keep animals if they can prove previous ownership. If this thing passes, I may never be able to add to my collection, so I've been thinking all week about getting another snake.
On Sunday evening, I went to the pet store near my home to talk about the political situation, and they had four new ball pythons. One in particular had beautiful coloring and was a very sweet snake. I've caught a few snakes in my life, but I think this girl (or maybe guy) caught me. The first price that I thought they had on her was a bit high, but I was leaning towards paying the price anyway. When I visited the store today, I learned that they had been confused and the price was much lower. My resistance crumbled, and I came home with a new ball python.
If there was a betting pool on when I'd break down and get my second ball python, whoever had five to six p.m. Central Daylight Time on April 12, 2006 is the winner. I think havic's signature line about ball pythons being like potato chips in that we can't have just one is proving stronger than mine about having just a few. However, I still believe that I can keep three snakes (two balls and a king) just as happy as I could keep two of them.
Anyway, I have quarantine cage set up in another room and the new one in the cage. I'm copying some comments that I posted about the cage in the photo gallery. If you have thoughts, please let me know.
I bought another ball python today, and I've set up a new cage. The new cage will be in a separate room from my other snakes as is usual for quarantine practice. I'm also not going to use "natural" bedding until I'm pretty comfortable with her/his health status. The basics of this cage are as follows.
I have two small heat pads on the right side of the cage controlled by a Zoo Med 500R thermostat. I have a Ranco on order, and I'll change thermostats when the Ranco arrives. I taped some newspaper over the glass directly above the heat pads. While this step is not an absolute safety, my new snake will have to work pretty hard to put her belly against the hot glass. I think that it would be harder for her to burn herself on newspaper than on glass because of different heat transfer properties. I have been trying to line out the cage for several days. I changed my setup this evening, so there will be some remaining fluctuations, but I'm hoping to keep her warm side temperature around 90 F.
The cool side hide and the water dish are pretty typical. The water dish is just a little dish that I bought at Big Lots for about a dollar or two. The hide is available from many reptile supply houses and is a simple, square hide.
The unique feature of this cage is the humidity box. I don't want to put anything organic like moss into the cage at first, but I wanted something that would hold a little humidity. I've bought a little container and filled it with Easter eggs. I probably need to get more eggs for the container. I filled the bottom of the container with water, and I hope that water vapor evaporating from the bottom will condense on the Easter eggs and fall back into the bottom. If so, the humidity at the bottom of this container under the eggs will be fairly high. I don't know whether a snake would be comfortable burrowing in a bunch of plastic eggs. If she (or he) is, then there's a good place to go to get more humidity. If she doesn't like the eggs, I'll find another medium to put in the box.
I put up the background around the back and one side of the cage to give my snake a little more privacy. I've heard that ball pythons like that covering, and my other ball python seems to like her cage this way.
After I put the cover over the aquarium and secured it, I put a newspaper over the screen. I'll make something better at another time, but I wanted to put something over the screen to reduce the loss of heat and humidity. The newspaper doesn't completely cover the screen, so air flow is still available.
The quick stats on the new one are a length of about 24 to 26 inches and a weight of 435 grams. She's in her warm side hide right now, but has already shoved the thermostat probe and the digital thermometer probe out from under the hide. I like controlling for conditions in the hide, so I'm going to have to find another way get a probe under there.
When I first put her in the cage, I didn't have it all set as I have now, and she didn't hide. After I did some setup, she went into the hide. She's there now.
Thanks,
Bill
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It's not how many snakes you have. It's how happy and healthy you can keep them.
