Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I am currently keeping one subadult wildcaught zonata parvirubra 18 inches - i have Hubbs great book and read it but i have an unanswered question about husbandry...

I made her a naturalistic terrarium 10 gal - plexi top with drilled and smoothed holes, subsurface heat on a dimmer, water, hydrocal naturalistic climbing wall with a hide tunnel i made, clear plexi multi level hide with vertical holes (i saw jerry kruse made a similar one and i modified mine a bit), coco shell hide, coconut/sand substrate, fake fern and flowers. Basically all she does is try to escape all day... and is rubbing her rostral scale on her nose a bit raw on the glass side walls of the aquarium .. i put a bit of neosporin on it 2x but the problem is not going away... her temp and food frequency seems ok.

Basically, i am thinking that i need to move her to a sweater box with aspen (what is best substrate?) and hope that she stops rubbing her nose raw... is that the solution to this?

also EATING Question: Initially she was a great eater and took unscented f/t pinkies off of foreceps. Then she after a month or so decided she would not eat these. She was still incredibly active in her terrarium always trying to escape... temp and feeding frequency seemed fine to me until she stopped eating... then after 1 mo i tried to give her a live fuzzy which she attacked and ate...i thought she went off food early but apparently she only wanted the live fuzzy mouse... anyways she remains active...

Is it true some milks and mtn kings start brumating now (October) and wake up in March??? brumate for 5 months??

If i brumate her will she stop rubbing her nose?

Is neosporin a good topical treatment for the nose? i read somewhere to use it

I don't know about snakes needing a naturalistic set-up, but by observing some of the successful breeders with a lot of pretty expensive morphs, like VPI and Bob Clarke, they like to go larger than most other breeders and instead providing them with hid boxes on the cool and hot ends. They say the large plastic Rubbermaid allows the snakes to regulate the body temperature a lot better--and it allows the snake to stretch out better and move about a bit. Bob Clarke often complains he wished has room to build bigger cages for his huge reticulated and Burmese pythons. I might be mistaken about Bob Clarke, but I thought I heard something like that.

Thanks --- what kind of Rubbermaid containers? What size?

I'm not sure how big, but big enough for the to regulate the body temp pretty easily, but small enough to heat easily, I guess. You can read about on VPI and bob clark sites,.

If they can move and stretch, it's probably good....

iF it's too big, the snake might feel insecure.

Some of my 105 Sterilite tub arrangements for my pyros and gopher snakes. Lots of room and fun things to do:


My pyros were in 10 gallon tanks for their first year but quickly outgrew that and got very restless; they wanted more room. Hence the big tubs. I am a firm believer in bigger is better. A man can live in a 6x8 ft cell, but is he happy? Also with big tubs one can put in warm and cool moist sphagnum moss hides and other amenities.
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Bob/Chris
Pyromaniac AKA Greatballzofire

Is it true some milks and mtn kings start brumating now (October) and wake up in March??? brumate for 5 months??

Yes it is true.....Sounds like she is looking for somewhere to "shutdown" for the winter to me.....I believe a 16qt Rubbermaid or Sterlite with 4 inches of shredded Aspen and a shallow water bowl is in need......Along with a temperature drop into the mid 50s.

Is neosporin a good topical treatment for the nose? i read somewhere to use it.

Neosporin is great for treating open sores on snakes......
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John Lassiter
Poor planning and procrastination on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part...
www.coastalbendcaptivebreeding.com

Thanks for the info and pics! I appreciate it as I am new to these type of snakes.... so I bought some aspen and spagnum moss and will get a nice sized tub for her....

After eating a big meal she went into a shed cycle.... not sure but she may have shed out of her skin already... i briefly saw her crawl a bit today.... she has not been rubbing for about a week at all... I will try to feed her again a couple of live pinkys or a fuzzy once I am sure she has finished shedding then if I notice any hyperactivity or rubbing - then into the tub she goes...

Thanks again!