For your replies to my posts

Well..so far so GREAT!! Abby (poor thing came to us with no name so we had to name her. My daughter named her since she said the pattern in her coat made her think if an Abstract painting..hence Abby) Since we didn't get a reply about the handling until now and were too excited to wait we were handling Abby the same day we got her. We only held her for a few minutes at a time and as soon as she seemed stressed at all we put her back in her cage. She spent the first 2 days in her hide-a-way but now is MUCH more social and is out of her huts most of the evening and night
She had her first feed last night. She came to us feeding on live mice so we weren't sure how feeding would go. We wanted to switch to pre-killed thawed mice so we bought one yesterday morning. Left it out all day to thaw and gave it to her last night. She took it immediately to our surprise! She had NO problems at all. She had it down in a few mins and seems quite content now. It's been 3 weeks since she fed and she just completed a shed cycle so she was hungry. We won't be handling her now for a couple days to allow digestion.
We set her up in her new tank last night..a bigger one. This one is 30 inches long so i think a 30 Gallon. Abby is 29 inches long ( 1 1/2 yrs old) When do they finish growing anyway? any idea? is there a way to predict how big she'll get based on how big she is now? Just curious We don't even know for sure if she's a male or female.
My husband build the top of her tank last night out of plywood complete with screened air holes and handles..pretty neat
We're now struggling with the humidity and heat levels now (just when we FINALLY got it perfect! *sigh*)
The hot end has been pretty hot..hovering around 90-95. The cool end is 70..humidity is 55.
Oh wait, just checked it again. Hot end is 75..cool end is 70 and humidity is 60. I've just turned the heat lamp back on. Jeez, it takes a while to get the hang of this eh? I hope she doesn't bring that mouse back up She has a hide-a-way at both ends and is currently in the cooler end.
I'm assuming that if the mouse stays down for 48 hrs then it's down for good...right?
I do have another question about humidity though. From what I've read humidity only seems to be of great concern during shedding cycles so even when she's NOT in a shedding cycle does the humidity level still need to be maintained at 60?
Jeez, it kills me to have to get rid of the rock heater. That bloody thing was EXPENSIVE!! And i assumed that since it was specially made for reptiles/snakes that it was good! I cannot return it since I bought it at a discounted price and, of course, all sales final What we've done is buried it under the substrate so Abby doesn't have direct contact with the rock. I'm sure that'll be fine. We'll certainly keep an eye out for problems though
Anyway, just wanted to update ya's and says thanx for the advice.
Oh, and regarding the other family pets..we'd never be careless enough to allow contact between them and Abby. It was just one of those curious questions as to just HOW deadly she could really be..know what I mean? She's VERY safe in her tank..and the top is very solid so no risk of it collapsing if one of our cats does happen to get up there (can't see it happening tho)
Overall, we're REALLY happy that she seems to have settled in really well. She seems to enjoy being handled..is *normally* active and feeding well. Just completed a shed cycle that went well. We love her to pieces already. How the heck can one fall in love with a SNAKE anyway?? LOL

Lisa