Critique my setup?

[OtakuDragon]

So I'm brand new to snakes and I got this little girl off of craigslist a few days ago. I was told she was 6 months and she's around 3 feet long. I've been looking into getting a snake and thought it was pretty awesome that I could get her and her setup for *only* $40. Boy was I wrong!

She was only in a 10 gallon aquarium with a zoomed rf7 (the tiny one) uth taped to the inside of the tank. No hide box.

I ended up buying a cool hide log, a bigger uth, a thermostat, and a probe thermometer. Then I promptly realized all of this wouldn't fit in the 10 gallon she came with and that she needed something bigger. I had an old 20H in the garage, so it was off to the petstore again to get a screen for the top.

I screwed up a bit by side mounting the uth to the back of the tank instead of the side. I looked into moving it, but it wasn't coming off easily at all and I didn't want to ruin it, so we're just going to have to work around it.

Other than that, any suggestions would be helpful. Right now it's 86* F right infront of the pad and 63* F on the other side.

 

[Nanci]

First of all, you need to move the UTH to the bottom of the tank. If you can't restick it, use aluminum tape from the heating section at Lowes or Home Depot and tape it on.

 

[reptile65]

Congrats on the new addition! Looks pretty good so far. Ideally, you would want the heat pad all the way to one side of the tank, rather than in the middle, to give the snake a better heat gradient, but I realize those things are a pain to move. I would probably make her bedding a little bit deeper so she can bury under it, which corns really seem to enjoy. Also, I would make sure that screen lid is secured. Corns can be escape artists. From what I can see of your snake in that picture, she looks quite big for 6 months. I would guess she's well over a year old at that size. I hope this helps.

 

[GRNDPNDR]

I just wanna say, I got a 3 year old snake a cpl weeks ago and it's 3 feet long. If your snake is 3ft there is no way it's 6 months old

 

[OtakuDragon]

From what I can see of your snake in that picture, she looks quite big for 6 months. I would guess she's well over a year old at that size. I hope this helps.

I didn't get a really good measurement on her, but she's 3 feet or so, give or take an inch. When I saw the little ones at the pet store I thought for sure that she had to be older than what the previous owner told me.

I just tried to take her out of her tank and she seems really agitated. She was moving around a lot, and he's hissed and lurched at my hand. How long do you think I should wait before I try to handle her again?

 

[OtakuDragon]

First of all, you need to move the UTH to the bottom of the tank. If you can't restick it, use aluminum tape from the heating section at Lowes or Home Depot and tape it on.

It won't ruin the wiring to take it off and restick it?

 

[reptile65]

I didn't get a really good measurement on her, but she's 3 feet or so, give or take an inch. When I saw the little ones at the pet store I thought for sure that she had to be older than what the previous owner told me.

I just tried to take her out of her tank and she seems really agitated. She was moving around a lot, and he's hissed and lurched at my hand. How long do you think I should wait before I try to handle her again?

She needs some time to settle into her new environment. I would wait a week before handling her.

 

[Stormy]

It won't ruin the wiring to take it off and restick it?

Nope. Just stick it to the bottom on one side the other.

Your snake might also be moody because the temps. Make sure you have a thermostat attached to that UTH as they can heat up really fast and you dont want to cause burns. I found putting a slate tile (costs like 2-3$ at lowes or home depot) on the side of the heat helps disperse any excessive heat also.

 

[Naagas]

Welcome!
Use some oil to get the sticky heat pad off the side of the tank.

Your snake will need some time to settle in. The recommendation is to leave them for 1 week after bringing them home.

Don't be surprised if she is grouchy with you at first. Don't reward her grouchiness by putting her back immediately. They usually don't bite to latch on, and I've never had a bite from a corn hurt. (In fact, I got bit last night and didn't really feel it at all. I surprised the poor guy.) Tough it out until she calms a bit, then reward her by putting her back home.

Corns can take 3 or so months to settle in... so be patient. In the end, 99% of corns become pretty friendly. Out of my 43 corns, I have 4 who are unfriendly and 1 who would rather not be held. The rest have great personalities. And I have seen progress in the 4 that are unfriendly.

And, yeah, at 3 feet she is an adult... full sized. So she could be 2 years on up.

 

[OtakuDragon]

Thanks for all the replies so far!

I hope she does settle in soon. She was so calm and fun to hold the first couple days I had her, so I'm hoping that this is just a bit of stress from moving into the new tank.

I had my husband help me and we moved the UTH to underneath. She hid in her hide log while we did the but now she's burrowed underneath the aspen. Also had him help me with the screen clips because I couldn't figure the damn things out.

However, the poor snake probably thinks I'm trying to kill it. The temps didn't seem right so I repositioned the probe and it jumped up to 93 degrees. So I just turned down the thermostat. Poor snake.

 

[neiman07]

congrats! have fun with her yea she is an adult at that length! good find

 

[TheJadeReptile]

Very nice set up. Just do what the others said and you should be good.

 

[Straydawg]

congrats and along with what everyone else has said. the grouchiness could also be caused from bing in blue.. or i think you said there were no hides for it with the preivous owner.. it could also just be saying this my box and i wanto to chill out til i get used to it here.

 

[OtakuDragon]

UTH/Rheostat Troubleshoot. Need temp help!

Last night before I went to work I moved the UTH to underneath the tank with the rheostat at the lowest setting. On the inside of the tank I had the thermometer probe stuck right in the center and there was an inch of aspen on top. This morning, after my 12 hours shift, the temp read 94.5. I moved all the aspen away and within a few minutes the temp dropped to 87 and is now at 83 and still falling.

I don't want to burn my snake!

Was I getting a false reading because of the aspen insulating the pad and the temps were actually okay? Should I return the aspen to over the pad?

Were the temps too high because the aspen wasn't letting the heat dissipate? Should I put a tile down over the pad area?

Does it sound like something is broken?

Thanks for your help!

 

[Anubisyn]

Here is my setup... not saying its perfect by any means but Sam seems happy w/ it anyway the uth is under the cave with the probe of he thermometer going under it and laying about on top of the spent where Sam sits so I know what temp he is in. It is a lil high now cuz he is getting over a bad Uri from when I got him but he's almost over it after 24 days of injections. Hope this helps.

I took the cave off him.... gotta get him out for his shot and anyway... the black thing just about in the middle under him is the probe

 

[jessicalb]

If the probe is not on the glass it is not reading the hottest temp. I would move the probe to the glass and ensure that your temp is not too high.