Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Recently I switched my yellow ratsnake from an aquarium to a large plastic container heated with a heat pad. Lately I have been forced to change the newspaper in the cage daily because it becomes completely soaked with water. I'm assuming it happens after he soaks, but I just don't understand how he can drag that much water out of the bowl.

Is there a way I can cut down on moisture in the cage?? I never had this problem with the aquarium but I don't want to switch back to it as I find maintaining this container far easier.

I am going to try using different substrates to see if it will help but the container he is in now is quite low so i'm wondering if switching to a taller one might help. Sorry about all the questions. I'm not new to snakes but I am still testing out plastic containers as my collection grows so any advice would be great.

Charlene
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0.0.1 Green Water Dragon
1.0.0 Tokay Gecko
1.1.1 Bearded Dragons
0.1.0 Columbian Red-tailed Boa
1.0.0 Yellow Ratsnake
0.0.1 California Kingsnake
0.0.1 Black and White Tegu
0.0.1 Chilean Rose Hair Tarantula
1.0.0 Evil Budgie

What is the temp in the room that the animal is in? Mine are in my garage, where the temp stays mid 80s during the day, and mid 70's night during the summer and all I use is aspen bedding and no heating. Never have any regurg problems, and they deficate fine. I just skip a week feeding every month or 2 to allow them to expel excess waste.

Chris
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0.2.0 Grey Rats-Lauren, Avril
1.2.0 Black Rats- Robert, Cady, Kylie
1.2.0 Albino FL Kings-Nick, Jessica, Ashley
1.1.0 Crimson Corns-Kane, Ruby
0.1.0 Het-Crimson Corns-Lola
0.1.0 White-Sided/Pos Het Albino Black Rat-Lita
1.0.0 Albino White-sided Black Rat-Rey
0.1.0 Fl King-Bonnie
1.0.0 Biak GTP-Brandon
1.0.0 Flame X Blood Bearded-Ruff
1.2.0 Ball Pythons-Donnie, Gretchen, Alexis
0.1.0 Red-tail Boa-Xena
0.0.1 Savannah Monitor-Izzy

Right now the room is about 70 during the day and a little bit lower at night. It can get pretty cool where I am so I need to use some sort of heat source.

Charlene
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0.0.1 Green Water Dragon
1.0.0 Tokay Gecko
1.1.1 Bearded Dragons
0.1.0 Columbian Red-tailed Boa
1.0.0 Yellow Ratsnake
0.0.1 California Kingsnake
0.0.1 Black and White Tegu
0.0.1 Chilean Rose Hair Tarantula
1.0.0 Evil Budgie

The only thing I can think of for this situation, is to use aspen for bedding, and only fill the water bowl p about 1/2 way to prevent it from spilling out. Keep the heat pad and water dish on opposite sides of the cage as well.

Chris
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0.2.0 Grey Rats-Lauren, Avril
1.2.0 Black Rats- Robert, Cady, Kylie
1.2.0 Albino FL Kings-Nick, Jessica, Ashley
1.1.0 Crimson Corns-Kane, Ruby
0.1.0 Het-Crimson Corns-Lola
0.1.0 White-Sided/Pos Het Albino Black Rat-Lita
1.0.0 Albino White-sided Black Rat-Rey
0.1.0 Fl King-Bonnie
1.0.0 Biak GTP-Brandon
1.0.0 Flame X Blood Bearded-Ruff
1.2.0 Ball Pythons-Donnie, Gretchen, Alexis
0.1.0 Red-tail Boa-Xena
0.0.1 Savannah Monitor-Izzy

Thanks for the input. I will try switching the substrate.

Charlene
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1.0.0 Tokay Gecko
1.0.0 Yellow Ratsnake
0.0.1 Arg Black and White Tegu
0.0.1 Chilean Rose Hair Tarantula
0.1.0 Lab

I keep my snakes in a setup like this normally...

The water jugs never turn over when at least half full. If you use heat tape, however, there's no second hidebox.

TC