Eve - Cape african house snake

Originally Posted by DollysMom

A 2x2 will be very roomy for her. Yes, a male can stay in a 10 gallon his whole life, but like a corn staying in a 20 long it is a minimum. After Cleo moves to her adult digs, there will be no reason not to give Clyde more room.

I don't know about the hoggie. I've heard that they can stay in a 10, but I'm really clueless there.

I know it's only two data points but I think it's more common than not for growing housies to shed frequently. It surprised me at first but now I'd be worried I he didn't shed.

Well best wishes with Eve. I'm looking forward to more updates. Even though this is a corn snake site it is my favorite place about snakes overall so I like there being another housie to follow!

Thanks for the info. And I totally agree, I'm so glad you have a house snake too!!

Originally Posted by Tavia

Your hog is the tricolor, right? A male? For him, yes a 10 is plenty as they tend to spend most of their time buried in the substrate and aren't generally super active. A 10 is often recommended for adult male Western hogs too but at least with mine, they are quite active all day and make good use of whatever space given, so I tend to think Westerns should be given more room.

Tavia, I don't actually know gender on my hog. I refer to it as "him" because the breeder did too, so I have my suspicions, but because he is kinked and the breeder didn't want him to ever be used for breeding, he was unwilling to tell me the gender. I don't know how to pop or probe (besides You Tube tutorials) so until he's done growing, your guess is probably better than mine.
But um yeah, he's on/in coconut husk substrate and I never ever see him. I refer to his cage as a "tank of dirt". Occasionally, a "tank of moving dirt". It's quite comical. I'm hoping I'll see him occasionally as he gets older, but for now, definitely not an active snake. I could keep him in a deli cup and he'd be perfectly happy!

Sorry, yes, tricolor.

My last pictures of Eve were horrible! So I tried again. Last year I was far too afraid of losing Eve to take her outside, but today it's sunny, she has some fresh skin, and we trust each other much better now. Enjoy!

Wonderful pictures!

Those are awesome. Love your little brown rainbow snake!

Originally Posted by Tavia

Wonderful pictures!

Originally Posted by DollysMom

Those are awesome. Love your little brown rainbow snake!

Thank you!! I'm so happy with how many I had that were actually in focus!
Maybe someday I'll be brave enough to put her in the grass or in a tree for some more natural looking pictures, but for now I'm just thrilled to have well lit and in focus pictures.

Originally Posted by albertagirl

Thank you!! I'm so happy with how many I had that were actually in focus!
Maybe someday I'll be brave enough to put her in the grass or in a tree for some more natural looking pictures, but for now I'm just thrilled to have well lit and in focus pictures.

How well I understand that feeling. I'm not ready to take any of my snakes outside yet. Well lit and in focus is a very, very good place to start. I still love the rainbows on your little girl!

Well, Eve got her adult viv (2'x2') last night. I'm having some trouble stabilizing the temperatures, with the two smaller cages on top having smaller heat tapes, it seems they don't run so well on the same thermostats as the others, so I will be needing to buy yet another thermostat. (I'm already running 3 between these 8 cages and my hognose.)

Currently, her temps drop to 76 between heating cycles, and I'm worried that is not warm enough, even though it gets to 88 at the peak of the cycle. I really do not want to be dealing with any regurges or RI's caused by insufficient temps. Can anyone chime in on what they think is "too low"?
I actually bought another rheostat type thermostat yesterday but didn't realize it didn't have a probe. On it's lowest setting the temperature was 115 degrees and still climbing when I turned it off. (Eve was not in the cage during this experiment.) So I'll be trying to return that today.

I'll have to take some nighttime pictures with the interior lights on at some point, that looks really cool, but here is what my setup looks like now. Eve's cage is top left. Excuse the yellow thermometers with cords everywhere. I'll worry about cosmetics when I get the temps right.

Wow, that's quite a stack of vivs. 76 is fine when not digesting but that swing is not good. I'd put her back in her old viv until it gets solved. Best wishes.

I can't. Well, I could, but it would mean messing with everybody else's setups again, and hours of fine tuning temps again. Because the old cage had a UTH rather than heat tape, it runs way hotter than the others on the same thermostat. That's why I had bought another thermostat yesterday, was so that I could keep her in the old cage until I had the new cage sorted out. But that didn't really work out, and it was 2am by the time I gave up trying and just put her in the new cage as it's temps, though unstable, were still safer than the old cage with no heat, or 115+ degrees. I won't feed her until I have another thermostat, hopefully I can find one today. I'll check pet stores and greenhouses. Otherwise I'll have to order online and pay for fast shipping.

The reason for the wild swing in temps is because the cages keep heating for like 10 degrees after the heat shuts off. So in order to keep the temps from going WAY too high, I have to set the thermostat to about 80 degrees, so it doesn't turn back on until it drops below 78. I just don't understand why this is. It seems like the more cages I add, the harder it is to maintain temps, even with the cages that are identical and running on the more expensive herp-specific thermostat.