Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Ok, so my son is wanting a Red Tail, and well, I have a few questions before I bring one home! Have not had much luck with answers from care sheets, so hoping to find them here.

First question: How long will a baby eat fuzzies? I have to order my feeders on-line, and want to be prepared AND save as much as I can on shipping/quantity discounts. We will not be "power feeding". I just want a rough estimate of how fast he will grow into larger prey items.

Second question: Can we expect the baby to climb to optimal basking spots, or is that pushing it? We have a tall tank to keep him in for now. We will be using heat mats on bottom, and a ceremic heater overhead. Temps are fine this way(we tested) except the best basking spot is on a wide piece of driftwood about 8" from the bottom of the cage.

Final question: Do we need higher humidity in his hide box? I've gotten mixed answers on this!! Room humidity is fine, in mid range,(again, tested) but does he need a little extra or maybe a choice of two hides, one with higher humidity, one without? We have two hides now, one high heat, one low, should we just make one higher humidity, and which one?

If it sounds like I am a little nutty, it's because I am! But my son's last snake was a ball we raised(7 years)that stressed during a HORRIBLE, Murphy's Law move, and never recovered. He lost him 2 months ago, and was devastated, I don't want it to happen again! I'm not really a Boid person, so I must ask lots of questions! Thanks for any help!

Get a humidity meter first. Forget moistening a hide ad go for spraying the whole cage. Don't spray so much that it is rolling down the walls. Do this two or three times a day, making sure the humidity goes up to 60% or higher each time. You'll have to cover most of the top if you have a screen top, with a towel or something to keep the temps right anyway, and this will help to kep the humidity in.

Good luck
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Caden Chapman
slithering.serpents@gmail.com
http://slitheringserpents.com

Relative cage humidity is holding steady at about 70%(ranges between 68 and 72) We already have a humidity gauge and temp gauges, and the cage has been set-up, ready to go for a week now so that we could get good stats. Over-kill maybe, but we will be prepared! Anyway, the reason for all the testing is because my son is switching from heating/humidifing his whole bedroom to just the cage. Thanks!