Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Am I doing okay? She's a 3 year old female named Saige. She's in a 40 gal breeder tank. I have the bottom lined with "Eco Earth" coconut fiber. It's basically this brick that you sit in water, and it soaks it all up and expands, and you just wring it out and spread it on the bottom, and holds moisture like a mother for a week or so. I would usually have it lined with paper towels, but her eyes and snout are look really dry, so I wanted her to sit in some humidity for a while.

A hide on the hot side and a hide on the cool side (the one of the hot is obvious, but the one on the cool is an upside down ice cream tub, the one that's closest to the camera, the one on the wall side is the water bowl with a whole cut in the lid for a water-hide)

There is an undertank heat mat, and the heat lamp is a 100 watt red bulb. There is a flourecent tube also for lighting.

She hasn't eaten a while, and I'm hoping that it was because of how incredibly dry the tank was, so hopefully this will fix things.

Looks really good IMO, althogh I've never heard of that Eco-Earth stuff so I can't comment on it. Also, I've heard its better to keep the temperature gauge in the middle of the cage rather than on the glass.

Nice BP by the way! She's a beauty!

I'd ditch or cover the screen top with some plastic. That should help you keep the humidity in. All reptiles need choices, and your ball python should be able to choose to be dry or moist or hot or cold or hidden or not all at all the permutations of all combinations. You must give your snake choices, or it will simply be sub-par. Sub-par may work, but it may not be the best for the snake.
Justin J

I can't believe I wasn't thinking that same thing... So are you suggesting I make a humidity hide or such? What if she chooses not to go into it, and her cracked skin gets worse? Oh, and I have the cage covered with a damn towel, is that good?

n/p

LOL. Well, what exactly are your temps on both sides and your humidity reading. I've heard that substrate is good for humidity, but the openings in your screen top and the heat lamp may be working against you. If your BP will use a humid hide, then that's all you need (put it on the warm side). Then you really wouldn't have to worry about the humidity throughout the tank. My BP won't use a humid hide and doesn't soak on his own. So I have to keep the humidity up in the tank (50 gallon breeder) on my own.

Does you BP use the branch any? My BP loves to climb so he has branches that he can climb up or hang out on

Does he soak in your closed water bowl? Mine never really soaks and I even just made him a closed in water bowl hoping he would since he seems to be in the shed mode - won't use it. Little bugger!

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unless you have other thermometers in there - you're measuring temps in the wrong place. You need to measure the SURFACE temps on the warm side - in other words belly heat, what your snake feels when he/she's on the ground.
Which brings me to another thing - do you anything under the ecoearth? Because heating pads are generally very hot and you usually have to put additional padding/layers of something (newspapers, carpet, etc) between the glass and the loose substrate to keep your snake from being burned. I have a layer of 6 paper towels between my glass and the substrate (Lizard Liner carpet).
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Okay, well lets hope the hot glue doesn't break the glass while prying the thermometers off!

As for the heat pad, it's not a under-tank head pad, it's the same kind you'd use if you had a sore back with the "low, med, high" buttons on it. It's wrapped in cloth, and I can control the heat so it doesn't get to high.

Okay, wasn't sure if it was a human heating pad or a UTH. You could leave those thermometers there - just to know the ambient warm and cool side temps, but definetly measure ground temps/belly heat on the warm side. The digital thermometers with probes are great for that - and from what a lot of people say, more accurate than the analog and stick on kinds.

What's your snakes name??
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Check Out My Albums

1.0 Ball Python
"Aragorn"

1.0 Kenyan Sand Boa
"Gimli"

0.1 Australian Cattle Dog/Pointer
"Kira"

Her name is Saige

Yes, I often look up and see her wrapped around the branch completely off the ground, although I think it's time for a size upgrade with the branch, LOL!

I don't know about the water-hide though, I took these pictures today, and the whole water-hide is new for me, so hopefully she'll put it to good use!

Love the name. How long have you had her? My BP is only 7 months old and I can't imagine him getting that big. LOL.
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Check Out My Albums

1.0 Ball Python
"Aragorn"

1.0 Kenyan Sand Boa
"Gimli"

0.1 Australian Cattle Dog/Pointer
"Kira"

I got her at a week or so old 3 years ago (she's three years old obviously). That's pretty funny though, 'cause I never thought of her as a big snake at all. I actually thought she was smaller than she was supposed to be.

It's hard to say. The best way to fix it is to try something to see if it helps. If not, then try something else until it is good. When I first built the new ball cage, the first snake to shed had problems. It was a pain to assist shed, so I fixed the problem by adding moist hides on both hot and cold side. The next sheds were perfect, so I haven't had to worry about it any more and they loved the moist hides and hung out in there during the day. At night they cruise the cage. It's important to "read" the snakes and see what they are telling you. They know best what they need. For example, if they are always on the hot side of the cage, then there needs to be more heat. Only you can fix your setup and we can only guess at what the problem might be. It's unfortunate when someone makes a change because someone told them to, but it wasn't really specific for their circumstances and it ends up being deleterious to the animal. Start "reading".
Justin J