Needing Picture and Advice

[bitsy]

Strongly agree with Meg on this one - placement of the stat probe enables you to directly control the surface temp of the UTH.

In a trial of an unregulated UTH on a UK forum (in a setup without a snake), the surface temp hit 120 degrees within a couple of hours of it being plugged in. The person was so concerned about the fire risk if it was left to heat up further, that they decided to stop the trial and buy a thermostat.

 

[MegF.]

It takes a lot higher temps to ignite something. I personally don't use thermostats on all my uth's but I put a thick layer of paper over the top of them and they are not attached directly to the glass either. I attach it to piece of picture glass and then place it under the tank.

 

[notusuallyworried]

Ah, see that makes more sense. See, your tank is set up differently than most I've seen, so I simply drew from what I've personally seen. With the way yours is set up, I can agree that the thermostat would do it's job properly.

 

[notusuallyworried]

Of course, it's sort of like you holding what is clearly an orange to you, and explaining it to me, but how you are explaining it, it looks just like the apple that I'm holding. Neither are wrong, it's simply a matter of interpretation.

 

[snakepunk]

I do ask about newspaper though. Aren't you concerned about the ink?

Newspapers are perfectly safe (and my personal favorite). If I remember correctly, I think Rich told me that's what he uses.

Now, as to the dirt, the dirt is from a sterile bag of potting soil. He's ALWAYS had dirt in his tank, I've always used the same dirt (as in from the same company, same procedure, etc) too, and it's for the live plant that was in there (and was also in there from the beginning of his life).

It may be sterile when you buy it (I have serious doubts, though), but once your snake has pooped in there it isn't.

They LIVE in the wild, where (gasp), there's dirt. I can't possibly see how there would be a problem with having dirt (assuming it's clean, bug free, etc.) in his tank.

Yes, but your snake IS NOT in the wild. It is now in a closed system. There's no unfiltered sunlight, rain, etc.

I'm glad your snake is doing better, but your previous set-up seems like you were asking for problems. Someone who has been keeping reptiles for 20 years and with internet access should have known better.

 

[notusuallyworried]

as to safety, I can understand, aside from sterility. You say that bagged dirt isn't sterile. I used to work in a newspaper plant, and when I was a kid, delivered the things (as I'm sure many kids have done). Newspaper is by no means sterile. Way too many hands on it. Not to mention that the ink rubs off on everything. I can't see the logic in that, aside from ease and the fact that it's not expensive. And unless you boil or put your newspaper in something with a high enough temperature to kill bacteria (say a fire), your newspaper is much less sterile than processed dirt.

I do agree that once the snake has pooped that the dirt is no longer sterile. What I had said though is that he had lived with that as a substrate his entire life, and never encountered a problem. And I would be willing to be dollars to donuts that had this past winter not increased the humidity in the tank by 12-20% over it's norm, that anything would have happened.

However, that being said, when I rescued this snake, the previous owner was the one who had had the dirt/plant/rocks/bark setup. Had it been my choice (as it was with my sinaloan, ball, and will be for the red tail boa), I would not have started with that. However, when something works, it works. And I doubt that to take you from IL and throw you into the arid desert in Africa wouldn't be a serious system shock. As it would be for any creature, which is why I didn't immediately dump everything in the tank when I first got it.

 

[notusuallyworried]

I forgot to add. I'm not slamming you in the least about your substrate choice, because what works for you is what works for you. Just pointing out that you cannot claim that your reused newspaper is more sterile.

 

[snakepunk]

Maybe, but...

I'm not having any problems keeping all my snakes on newspapers.

 

[notusuallyworried]

As I'd not had any problems keeping my snake in it's dirt.

 

[snakepunk]

Whatever...

I don't have a camera, so I can't take a picture of what I THINK may be scale rot. After my corn's last shed, I noticed little brown lines by, and sometimes in between his belly scales. Also, the tip of his tail still has the skin on (although I have read how to take care of that and will be doing that now).

Can someone link me to a picture of what scale rot looks like (please nothing extreme, I don't want to vomit, lol)? I'd like to confirm before I go treating him for something he doesn't have.

Also, if it IS scale rot, I have heard I should completely remove the substrate, and replace with something like paper towel. Along with this, treat the area with neosporin (would bactitracin work? it's a purer version of neosporin), is that correct?

And as a final, what causes scale rot?

Thanks a lot. I've been looking online all day (just noticed it today), and am really worried about my little guy. I've had him for 2 years (rescued him from someone who was just going to ditch him, he's about 7 years old, 5.5 feet long), and hate to see anything wrong with the poor guy...

:shrugs: Sounds like a problem to me.