Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Well, after reading a lot of the posts on Kingsnake, I guess I've done just about everything wrong so far. I'm hoping I can correct most of it and provide a great home for my GTP. I'm not a novice to snake keeping, I breed BPs and keep several other species as well, but this is my first GTP.

I recently bought an adult female GTP from a reptile shop I deal with on a regular basis. She is about 4 years old and was sold back to the same store the owner purchased her from as a baby. I have no idea if she is captive hatch or wild caught. She is lime green with high yellow sides, some scattered white scales, and faint blue spidery markings down her spine. She has a slight kink in her spine near her tail, but it is not bad at all.

I admit she was an impulse buy - I was not looking for one, but she was so docile and beautiful, and the store seemed very knowledgable about how to care for her. I confirmed thier information with another store I also deal with, and they were the same recommendations. I had been considering getting another pet snake, and she seemed very different from anything else I own.

Well, I ended up purchasing the typical arboreal cage setup for her. It is an aquarium that is 24 inches square and 36 inches high. The top is screened and I have a flourescent fixture with a full spectrum bulb on top, and a seperate fixture with a ceramic heat bulb on top as well. The cage has grapevine wood branches from top to bottom, with many areas to perch on. The temps range from low 80s at the bottom, to mid 90s at the very top - this was what I was told to do. There is a large water pan taking up about a third of the bottom of the cage, and the rest of the cage floor has damp coconut husk as a substrate. I have the ceramic heat source on a Repti-temp 500 controller, and a seperate digital thermometer in the cage so I can monitor the temps at a glance. I have covered part of the screened top with a glass panel to help keep in the humidity, and I am thinking about replacing the side screen door on the cage with a piece of acrylic for the same reason. I have been misting the cage daily.

I have a large 100 gallon tank that I could use for her if that would work better - since it is 6 feet long and about 18 inches tall. I also have a 135 gallon tank that is 24 inches tall, but that has sliding glass front doors and would probably let too much humidity escape.

I can't really afford to buy a whole other cage setup right now either, so I'm hoping there is a way I can make something I already have work for her, at least for awhile. preferrably the arboreal cage I bought for her.

She was handled a lot by her previous owner and seems to enjoy it - she is very tame. She does move around her cage, but I never seem to catch her doing it. She also appears to be in good health, no parasites, and has good body condition. I have only had my girl a couple of days, but I'm already feeling like an idiot and I just want to do the right things for her.

Any advice you folks could give me would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

dmmalpert@hotmail.com

Congrats on your new GTP!! Good for you on finding a nice tame individual. She sounds like a lot of fun!

The size cage you are using for her right now should work out fine - most keepers use 24" cubes or 36" x 24" cages, even for large adults. However, the screen top is a problem. I'd cover it with a sheet of plastic or a glass lid (or even some saran wrap as a temporary solution). Having such a huge water bowl generally isn't recommended; you want the cage to be humid, not "damp".

Temps are way too high. I typically keep my hot spot around 86 degrees, with the cool end around 78 - 80; it's recommended not to let the cool end go below 75 for these guys.

I'd definitely find yourself a copy of Greg Maxwell's "The More Complete Chondro". It's a great resource, and I've referred to it *many* times over my first 4 months of chondro-keeping!

Hope this helps!