Reptile & Amphibian Forums

i have a 6 foot female? jungle housed in a 80 gallon tank, (for those of you who like inches its 48Lx24Hx18D). she has 2 big branches in the tank and a couple of hide boxes. she is VERY restless the past couple days wanting out all the time. I thought she was hungry so offered her a f/t large rat, her normal food, and she wouldn't take it. all she wants to do is get out.
i take her out regularly for exercise time. i had her out last night becasue she was constantly going around the top of the screen lid looking for a way out and i didn't want her to scrap her face on the screen lid. she has disrupted her entire cage, serching under her newpaper, moving her hide boxes around.(i have half newspaper and half reptile bark as substrate). i fear she will get right on top of the glass where the UTH is and burn herself. nothing has changed with her set up. it's the same set up for months now. UTH,150wt basking light for day,75wt red light for night. Lights on timers. Nothing is different.
what does she want?? an even bigger cage?? I really don't want to go buy another bigger cage. the 80 gallon is quit big enough as it is.
can anyone give me some insight on her behavior. maybe i should brumate her? I'm not sure how to go about doing that and i think its to late. please does anyone have answers. thanks alot.

For the time of the year she almost sounds like she is acting like a he. Has this snake been vet checked for sex?

I agree it could be a he, but then again both my males and females have been moving around there cage quite lately. It is that time of year. I wouldn't worry too much sounds like he/she is doing fine. One idea if your hot spot above the UTH is hot enough that your concerned about burns you might want to use a rheotstat or thermostat to control the heat output. Keep us posted.

i don't know for sure if i have a male or female. when i bought her/him the dealer said it was most likely a female since he couldn't get any thing, if you know what i mean. i have never had her vet sexed or anything. i just went by what he said. 'safari' does have a long tail. at least i think it's long. and her spurs are very tiny.
i'm going out of town so unpluged her UTH for a day or two while i'm gone so she don't get a burn. i want to get one of those thermostats that you talked about. can you buy them at like homedepot? what would be better the thermostat or rehostat (sp?). thanks for any more advice. as far as feeding her again. how long should i wait to try again???

If you look around on the internet enough, you can find Zoo Med's rheostat for under $20. The slightly more expensive thermostat from Zoo Med is usually under $40. So, I'd say go with what the easy way out and use something designed for reptiles, otherwise you'll have to make modifications to a normal thermostat.

I have been very happy with the thermostats from Big Apple Herpetology. Their BAH-1000 is under $30.00 and works very well. You could just put your probe above or near the hot spot, set your thermostat at 88 degrees or so and not have to worry about it much more from there. The thermostat would help you better handle possible temperature changes around or in your enclosure. I am using four of them in my snake room at this time.

I would wait at least two weeks before you try to feed again. You may even want to wait a month. A healthy adult JCP can go a number of months without feeding and still be in good health.

My JCP has calmed down this past week. He/she is hanging out on the branches like she used to. Now she seems her old self although she didn't really want to come out for exercise time the other day. So I have just been leaving her alone. I'm going to try to feed again on my next days off later in the week. Thanks for your insight on her/his behavior.

I am going to have to agree. I think it might be a male, you should probe it to find out. My male carpet stops eating around now during and after his cycling. You should put the opposite sex in with your jungle shortly, that way you can get some babies off of (him or her)
Thanks, Jim

I am just a pet owner and am not sure how to probe snakes. I also have the one jungle. I don't have space for another 6 foot jungle. I really dont want to get into breeding snakes. I would like to know for sure if I have a male or female. Is there another way to tell? Like with the spurs and how long the tail is? The spurs are very tiny.
Thanks for your reply. Now I really wonder if I have a male instead of female....