Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have a Bubblegum Rat Snake. He is my first snake and I am nervouse about his health. I have him in an aqarium qwith an undertank heating pad under half of it. I have two hide boxes in it for him and I am wondering what Frank's deal is. It seems that no matter what side I put the bigger box on he hangs out in it. Whether it is on the cooler side or the hot side he seems to like it the most. I am wondering if I purchase the same hide box so that both sides have the same size one which one will he want to be in. The only thing I really noticed with the box on the hot side is that he would burrow on the cold side. Something he didn't ever do when the bigger box was on the cold side. He also like to climb up the sides and wedge himself between the rim of the aquarium and the the lid(cage) Does this mean he is trying to cool off further?and I am keeping the cold side too hot? Any help would be great, all I want is for Frank to be happy and healthy.
DJ

Getting two hide boxes the same size would be a good ideal. What are your temperatures in the cool end and warm end?

In the cool end it is about 75 degrees F and about 82 degrees in the hot end. Humidity is about 65 %.
I have him in an aquarium and everybody has blasted me about him being in one so if it is a matter of getting him out of it, could someone show me some plans for building my own enclosures?

I don't see why an aquarium is bad for the snake myself. Providing you have the proper range of temps, humidity and a secure lid, what the container the snake is caged in really doesn't matter. There are pros and cons about glass aquariums but they can be overcome or not applicable in some cases. Glass can over heat, if allowed to be in direct sunlight. It can crack over the undertank heater as well. They can be difficult to keep proper humidity within them, usually because if a light is used to heat the warm side of the tank, the heat light tends to burn all the humidity out of the tank. Also, humidity often escaped out of the screen top. But covering part of the screen with a towel or cloth, tends to balance out what evaporates through the top of the screen.

Another con against glass aquariums is they take alot of space, are a pain to clean and are difficult to make escape proof. Advantages of glass aquariums is they are easy to get, make great displays for your snake to be viewed (though most times snakes hide anyway, unless looking for food or exploring their tank).

For the most part, snake owners use simple setups, usually in shoebox sized plastic containers for small or young snakes and sweaterbox sized containers for adult and larger snakes. These are easy to clean, move around and store in 'rack' systems that converse space while still providing the snake with all it's care requirements (heat, warm/cold areas, hides and humidity). However, it isn't necesssary to build a rack system if you only have one snake and don't plan to get many more. I started off with a couple snakes, now two years later I have 10, so I am planning on building myself a rack to store them all, instead of the mismash of various sized plastic containers.

How to build a rack, isn't too difficult, or so I have heard ,having not actually built one myself, for snakes. I did build a shelving unit for my crested geckos and learned it is best to have three sides to a tall shelf, not just two (didn't take into account I wasn't going to be screwing in all the shelves into the side panels, but instead, just resting the shelves on ledges screwed to the sides....needed to put some cross pieces on the back to keep the two sides from falling away, thus causing hte entire thing to collapse). Now that I have done my gecko shelf this way, I realize, though the plan seened good at the start, it would have been better to use the thicker shelves and screw then into the sides. But it is working for me so far, though it does sag in the middle (made it so I can get three cages per shelf).

My snake rack design I hope to be better designed than my gecko rack. Nothing really complicated in designing it though. Basically figured out what size(s) of rubbermaid containers I will need, and can get from the local Walmart or HomeDepot, measured them and drew a basic shelf. I figured out how many shelves I wanted, the total height (plus adding thickness of each shelf to overall height) to figure out the length the two end sides of the shelves have to be. Next, figured out how long each shelf needs to be and how deep. (the depth of the shelf is also needed for the depth of the sides as well, unless you want the shelves sticking out from the sides, which I have seen some racks do, though I don't see the benefit in having it like this, other than saving a bit of money on wood, but probably not enough to make it worth banging your head or arms on the pretruding shelves LOL. Unless there is another benefit to it that I just don't know about, which is very much possible).

Of course, the size of each shelf will depend on whether or not you plan on keeping the lids on each of the containers. Many snake racks don't have lids on the containers, instead using the bottom of the shelf above it to act as lid. This means you have to drill holes either in the shelf itself or the container sides to ensure ventilation. Some actually use pegboard for their shelves but I don't think this will work on long shelving units as it doesn't have alot of strength and can sag (unless a central support is used)

Caster wheels for the bottom is a must. It makes moving the shelf around much easier, especially with large racks. Even if you don't plan to move it ever, once built, you will find at some point in the future ,you want to move it. Get the caster wheels that have locks..this way you don't have to worry about the cage shifting on it's own.

Oh, one very important aspect. If you are going to build the rack in one room, and have it moved to another, make sure you can get the assembled rack through the doorways BEFORE you build it. This does become frustrating learning,after spending an afternoon getting the rack all built, only to find it is 2" too wide/heigh to fit through the doorway of the snake room. When trying to figure out if your rack will be small enough to fit through the doorway, don't forget to added a couple extra inches to the size of the cage (if we need a 3' long rack to house the containers, we tend to forget this inadvertantly is the inside length, and forget that there is wood on either end that can be as thick as an inch. Thus, if we go by inside length, the outside length (basically the thickness of the wood used for the shelf, which can be anywhere between 1/2" to 6/8ths of an inch, times two (too sides of the cage added together, would range between 1" to 1 1/4" depending on the thickness of the wood used)

Hi! I'm usually over in the US rat snake forum, but I decided to hop over here to see what's news. I almost jumped up for joy when I read that you have a Bubblegum ratsnake! I recently (the beginning of February) adopted a 2 year old Bubblegum myself. I have Aida in a 30 gal. long aquarium, with an undertank heat pad on the side of the tank and a ceramic heat bulb on top (there's a wire screen with clips that hold the lid securely in place and the lamp is raised up a bit so she won't burn herself when she goes climbing.

My experiences with Aida have been similar to what you're saying with your bubblegum. I have a hide box on both ends of the tank, one on the warm side (about 82 degrees) and one on the cool side (about 75 degrees). If she's feeling particularly active, she climbs up the edge of the tank and tries to crawl around the lid. I think she's just looking for a way out to cure some boredom, rat snakes are naturally very inquisitive and good climbers. Eventually she falls off and goes back to sleeping during the day. If she just ate, she tends to sleep in the box on the warm end but otherwise she stays on the cooler end. The only thing you have to watch is the humidity, but they're pretty adaptable snakes. As long as you've got a bowl of water that he can completely soak himself in, you should be fine.

Does your bubblegum like to swim? I've put Aida in a room temp. tub before and she takes off like a rocket. She puts her head under the water and goes for quite some time. They are excellent swimmers like most snakes.

How old is yours? I've been trying to find pictures of an adult bubblegum, but I can't seem to find any.

Here's a picture of my girl (my first pet snake, although I take care of many at the wildlife sanctuary I intern at)

Cheers!
Sarah