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Red tail rescue

Skeet

Skeet

New member
I went to my local Petco this evening to buy some mice. I went by the reptile section to check out the snakes because they are having a sale on ball pythons, $30 w/ an extra 50 percent off. Anyways, I asked to see their red tail, and the clerk told me someone dropped off two Colombian red tails with just a note that says, "sorry I can't care for them anymore." There was a yearling and an adult, they had no room for either so they were trying to get someone to adopt them free of charge. Both were noticeable underfed. The adult was way too big for me to take right now, but I have an extra 10 gallon, so I took the yearling. I have everything set up for her and she's settling in, but I wanna switch to a large rubbermade.
Those of you who do use them, what do you do for heating? Will a heat mat work with plastic, or do I need to use lighting?
Thanks,
Yoni
 
Most commonly people are using the Rubbermaid/Sterelite tubs in rack systems. These use Flex Watt, thermostat controlled, that is fastened by aluminum tape to the undeside or the back wall of the slot that the tubs reside in. Not normally fastened right to the tub. We have a couple of setups for smaller snakes that we currently house.
 
Yeah, I'm using one of those racksystems for my corns and ball pythons, but I wanted to set up just a large rubermade just for her, separated from the rack system.
Thanks
Yoni
 
I am using a "faunarium" for my pastel boa hatchling. I would highly recommend these little things. Cheap, durable, easy as pie to clean.

I use a photoframe sheet of glass to put on top of the heat mat so it is not in contact with the plastic. The mat is connected to the thermostat controlling my other two big boa tanks, all set at 92-94.

You will eventually probably have to build your own tank, as i am currently doing. The minimum should be 4x2x2 however females tend to get A LOT bigger than males and need more space.
 
Hey Elle,

Is that a general background temperature on your caging or is that the hot spot? If that is a general background temperature it may be a bit high. We try to run our caging with a backgrount temperature around 85 degrees with a Hot Spot that is about ten degrees higher. A background temperature as high as 90 or 95 might be OK to try and kick an RI.
Boa Consrtictors benifit from being able to thermoregulate themselves in these temperature gradiants. The warmer ends of the housing help them digest and allow them to warm themselves but they use the other end as well. Im not trying to ruffle any feathers but these are the temps we try to follow and are the ones listed as a guideline in "The Boa Constrictor Manual" as well. I hope this is some helpful information for someone out there anyway. And like I said guidlines not the gospel correct way to do things.
 
No worries.
The gradient temps for my boas is usually 80-84 degrees with a "hot spot" of 92-94.

I will usually raise the gradient temperature to 85 or above when my big columbian girl goes into shed as she tends to get quite bunged up. What i though was an RI was actually just her tendancies when in shed. She gets quite puffy and wheezy, but there are never any mucas or other worse signs of RI.
 
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