Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I had origionally posted this call for help in the general forum and was hoping I could get more of a response here.

Long story short, about 2 days ago at 3 in the morning I brought home a "half bull/half gopher" snake. She is 36 inches long right now. it came in a very well constructed home built aquarium. it is 32l x 22w x 20h. it has fir bark for substrate about 1 inch deep, furniture includes chunk of rock, chunck of branch, water dish (not large enough for the snake to fully get into), one hide (terracotta turtle shell approx 8 inches in diameter). There is a heat pad on the bottom, and a tight lid on top.

I am trying to learn as much as I can quickly to make sure she stays happy. so here come the questions:

temp/humidity - what is the ideal cage temp range? the room stays at measured 72-79 deg F with a humidity of 20-30% (I live is St. Louis so the humidity some days does raise higher in my appartment)

furniture -- is that enough, do I need more?

food -- the previous owner said that he "powerfed" her. he gave her one full groun feeder mouse every 3 days. as soon as he saw that the snake had pooped(sorry couldnt think of a better term), he fed it again. after feeding her one mouse today I could not see a noticable bulge in her body, do I need to feed bigger, more, HELP!

equipment and resources -- please advise me.

I have never owned a snake but have had some experiance with them in the past. please treat me like a newbie, dont skip over the little things.

thanks
noco37

Well, being a fairly new Gopher owner I can pass some info on to you that I have learned in the past few weeks.

Feeding - typically these snakes can and will eat well and often. generally speaking, you should feed a gopher of this size about every 5-10 days. Thats a pretty wide range so you'll have to figure out the best diet for her on your own. My 48" male eats about every 5 days (1 common mouse or 2 small commons every 7 days). After he eats he usually soaks himself in his water bowl for the next 4 or so hours, then goes into his hide box, only coming out when the lights are off and the temp is down. After about 5 days he starts becoming more active during the daytime and that tells me he is ready to eat again. So you can see if she gives you any hints on when she needs to eat. But typically every 5-10 days 1 full grown common mouse or even 2 fuzzies. YOU CAN OVER FEED AND MAKE HER SICK so I wouldnt feed anymore than that.DO NOT POWERFEED!!

Housing - assuming 321"long was a typo and you really meant 32" long, that sounds like a good size home, but as she gets bigger, so should her home. Always have a UV or some kind of heat providing light on one side of the cage and nothing on the other side. This is so she can regulate her body temperature by moving from one side of the cage to the other as needed. My rule of thumb is "if the sun is up, the light is on". A hide box on each side of the tank is recommended, as these snakes like to hide while regulating body temp. I only have a hide box on the cool side and a hollow half log on the warm side. Hide box should be just big enough for her to fit in coiled up. A tupperware bowl upside down with a whole the size of the biggest part of her body cut into the top works well.(make sure it's colored so she is hidden and no rough edges are exposed). Your turtle shell will work if she can "disappear"! Have a big enough water dish for her to fit her whole body in, as they like to soak once in a while.

Substrate - I use aspen shavings for a couple of reasons. It is cheap and my snakes seem to like to burrow underneath it. I dont like bark for one reason, it is too hard to keep clean. Bark is good if your reptile requires a certain amount of humidity (barks promotes humidity better) but pits dont usually. (to my knowledge)

Do you know what species she is, or where she was caught? If you dont, post some pics of her and we can help you out.

Hope this helps!
Keep us posted..
-Ryan

this might help!
http://www.kingsnake.com/pituophis/care.html

The snake was a captive birth from a local breeder. I got his number today and will hopefully talk to him this week end. as soon as my broke self can afford to I want to show pics. I like the look to this snake.

thanks for the referance