Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Evening everyone, first time poster here with a few questions. My girlfriend just aquired a lovely little Albino striped gopher snake from Hamburg this weekend. She feel in love with the snakes attentiveness and activity level as well as the yellow color. The gent who sold to us gave us some good info but I would like to double check everything with some of the more knowledgeable folks here. This is our first pit species and we'd like to get it right the first time around.
Currently our girl is just under two feet and in a 20 long aquarium with aspen bedding. She has a hide log in the middle of the tank, a few big rocks to climb over, a branch and a water dish. We were told room temp is perfectly acceptable for this snake...at about 70-72 degree F. Should we up the tank temp a little more with a light? Also how big can we expect our little girl to get? We were told to expect about 4 feet..but I saw some things on the web that indicated more along the lines of 5-6. Any thoughts?
Thanks everyone for your time and patience.

~M

i probably saw you there...i did'nt get there until about 2 p.m. though....yeah,i keep my pits with a little higher ambient/room temp,say 73-75 at night,and 77-80 during the day...i strongly suggest an under-tank heat pad on one side,left on around the clock...also a light on one side instead of the pad is ok,i guess,but assuming it would be off at night,they'd have no form of thermoregulation whatsoever,and i like them to have that option.i also like a hide box on each end-one cool one,one warm one.putting the water bowl over the heat pad for increased humidity/evaporation isn't necessary,as pits prefer arid conditions anyway...remember,smallish prey items for pits!(they'll often try to eat more than they can keep down).

Do you know what locale it's from or what subspecies (Pacific, Baja, Great Basin, Sonoran etc. etc.)it is? I think most of those top out around 4.5 to 5', but have been known to reach 6' on occasion. I keep my san Diegan around 80 in the day and low 70s @ night. He's aroun 3'and feeding on small rat pups. LOL!

reako45