Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello,

About a month ago I bought my first BP from a local petstore. I haven't taken my BP to the vet yet but i'm almost certain it is a female, about 2 1/2 feet long, between 2-3 years of age. She is very healthy and very docile. The pet store said she was captive bred and the owner had to get rid of her because of a recent move.

This is my first snake. I have taken care of lizards most of my life. I bought her a 40 gal breeder tank w/locks, an overhead heat lamp on one side and an undertank heatmat on the other. Her cage consist of climbing branches(local trip to a park, baked on 250 for an hour in the oven), large water dish under the heat lamp, hide log, and astro-turf carpet for substrate. The temp on the "hot" side during the day is around 86 degrees, with the cooler side remaining at 80 degrees. I mist her enclosure twice everyday with water and feed her large mice once a week. She is a good eater and drinks often.

My real concerns are some of the "optional" things I have been doing. I spray her down everyday with a conventional reptile vita spray I used on my lizards and lightly coat her food with a calcium supplement. I had a UVB bulb in her overhead heatlamp and just recently changed to a infra-red nighttime bulb I leave on for about 12 hours a day. Are any of these things I am doing not really needed? Maybe even bad for her? I have all the best intentions but I know sometimes I may over-do it lol.

She has also just started shedding for the first time and already it's flaking off and not coming off in one piece. Could this be a concern or maybe that it's just everything is new to her still? Also, during her shed cycle, is it helpful to "bathe" her in hopes of assisting or just mist her down til she shed's on her own? Any advice would be greatly appreciated and sorry for the long post

-Thanks

P.S. When would be a good time to try an start her out on rats? And, for a 2 1/2 foot BP, what size of rat could she take? I feed her live prey in a seperate enclosure, she seems to enjoy the hunt Thanks again.

Congrats on your new addition! I'll try to address all your questions, but I can't see your post while I type this, so hopefully I won't forget something. First of all, it sounds like your humidity is on the low side. This is a common issue in cages with screen tops. The easiest fix is to cover 2/3 of the lid with some plastic or something to hold in the humidity. Keep an eye on your temps if you do this, though, since they may go up as less heat can escape (as a side note - how/where are you measuring temps? Measuring directly on the substrate is best). You can also try switching to cypress mulch as a substrate or adding a bigger water bowl if the humidity is still too low.

As far as feeding rats, you could probably try switching now if you want to. I would try a large pup or hopper rat to start off with. Mine seem to love hoppers. They're big enough to move around and get their attention, but small enough that they're not scary. Even babies eat rat pups. There's no harm in feeding mice, though, but as she grows you might need to feed more than one per feeding.

The calcium and vitamin spray is probably overkill, but I doubt you're hurting her. I don't know anything about the vitamin spray, so I can't say for sure. Most snakes don't need supplemental calcium since they get calcium from the skeletons of their prey.

Sorry this was so long...hopefully I covered everything. Good luck with your new girl. Keep us posted on how she does. It sounds like you're in pretty good shape with your setup. If you have any more questions, you can ask here or feel free to email me through kingsnake.

Thanks,
Shelly

Hello and thanks for the reply

The screen top on her cage I have over half covered and her water bowl is big enough for her to get in(I see her soaking in it from time to time). I keep the humidity around 60% and during her first shed around 70%. She finally got done shedding but it all came off in pieces. Took about 2 days to shed it all off after soaking her in a bath for about 30 miniutes.

The temp strips I have on each end about 1" above the cage bottom. I'm still misting her once a day with the vita spray but I think I'm going to drop the calcium supplement or at least maybe supplement one time a month. I figure a little extra calcium from time to time can't hurt lol. I think I'm going to try and feed her a rat on her next feeding and see how she does. Thanks again

I would strongly suggest getting an indoor/outdoor thermometer with a probe. You can pick one up at WalMart for around $9-$10, and they're well worth it. Those stick on gauges aren't usually very accurate; the temp. of the glass tends to influence the reading since the glass is usually cooler than the cage. I wouldn't be surprised if the temps in the middle of the hot spot are higher than you think. If you're sure the humidity is right, I would suspect the high temps of causing the shedding issues. Simply moving to a new environment doesn't usually cause stuck shed (I have 13 BPs, and have never had a bad shed and I never soak them).

Good luck with switching to rats. Let us know how it goes!

Hope this helps,
Shelly