• Hello!

    Either you have not registered on this site yet, or you are registered but have not logged in. In either case, you will not be able to use the full functionality of this site until you have registered, and then logged in after your registration has been approved.

    Registration is FREE, so please register so you can participate instead of remaining a lurker....

    Please be certain that the location field is correctly filled out when you register. All registrations that appear to be bogus will be rejected. Which means that if your location field does NOT match the actual location of your registration IP address, then your registration will be rejected.

    Sorry about the strictness of this requirement, but it is necessary to block spammers and scammers at the door as much as possible.

Snake away from heat mat

M

mishima25

New member
Good morning people.

I just registered and introduced myself, but I have one question that I really haven't been able to answer by looking in this forum and other corn sites.

I have a 5 month old Candy cane (pics in introduction post) who really doesn't like the hot side of the terrarium. He is my first snake so I'm still a bit hesitant with some things about corns.

He is in an ExoTerra Faun with a hide in warm side and a silk plant going from cool to warm side so he can get more cover, since I can't fit another hide in the cool side yet, until I purchase a bigger faun in a time.

I have noticed he doesn't hide in the cave or stay in the warm side, except when in shed. He hides in the plant at the cool end and sleeps there. I'm a bit worried because he hides in the plant even when digesting and I don't know if this is OK at the low temps that side is at night.

Temps in warm side at daytime range from 27 - 28.5ºC, while cool side is about 22.5 to 23ºC. He is near the heating system, so only at night when it turns off the cool side temps drop about to 21.5 - 22ºC.

I think temps are fine, so is it that he just likes cooler temps and nothing will really happen to his digestion and I should let him be, or should I twitch warm temps a bit so that he finds it more appealing and he decides to move to warm side? I am really confused with him doing this...

I will appreciate your comments and experience with this :)
 
You may want to bump up the temps, 30° is a good place to be. That will bring the cool end to the perfect cool end temps! Definitely get another hide, one on the warm side and one on the cool side.
 
Picture of the Viv?

Are you using an under tank heat pad? Do you have a thermostat or dimmer for your heat source? I'm sorry if you answered those questions in your post, but I didn't see them there.
 
I will upload a viv pic in a while, I don't have the time now.

I am using an undertank heating mat with a thermostate, yes. On cool side I have a thermo-hygro.

I want to get a bigger viv in the next month so I can offer him a cool end hide. The shop just didn't have the biggest ExoTerra Faun at that moment, but I have found it somewhere else and will switch soon.

So you can picture the viv meanwhile:
*Left is cool end. Water dish in the front.
*Right is warm end, with the UTH and a cave to the back wall.
*At the back wall I have a silk plant that goes from side to side.
Behind the back wall, but at some distance, is the heating system of my house (usually between 22-23ºC).

He is doing well, putting up weight, shedding all fine and eating fine on f/t pinkies (now moving up to 2 pinkies).
It just it seems he doesn't stay in the warm side to warm himself. He is very active at night, roams a lot. But if he's to go to sleep he climbs up the plant and sleeps in the back wall (near the heating system, that's why he may not need to go to the warm side so much maybe). Sometimes he will go there just after eating, though I put him facing the hide and he goes inside OK and sleeps digesting for some hours.

I'm just worried because at night when the house heating system turns off some nights the cool end temp may go as low as 19ºC.
 
I got him when he was about 1 month and a half, and these months (after he got confident and stopped being hidden all day and rattling his tail) I have been twitching the thermostate to see if he would hide in the cave. At first I had a temp range of 28-29.5ºC, he hid and used the cave because he didn't have the plant as he was in observation to see if everything was OK. Then I put the plant in the viv and he was sometimes hidden in the cave, sometimes on the plant. Then he only slept and hid on the plant, so I looked on the net and found maybe temp was a bit high as this is not a basking spot. I lowered to what I have now (27-28.5ºC) but he keeps liking the plant better.

I'm a bit confused, he should be alternating to thermoregulate.

So here I have the pic of the vivarium:

DSC_0259.jpg


And this is how I usually find him sleeping in the morning:

DSC_0254.jpg


This is the back wall of the viv, the nearest to the heating system.
 
If you want a cool hide right now, you can change out your water dish for a small dog dish that has a cut out in the side. I use these for all of my snakes and they love to hide under there!!
 
Shirl said:
If you want a cool hide right now, you can change out your water dish for a small dog dish that has a cut out in the side. I use these for all of my snakes and they love to hide under there!!
Click to expand...

That is a good idea. I already have another hide for the cool side, it just doesnt' fit in. But I probably want to use the bowl during summer so he can cool down. In Spain summer temperatures can go crazy hot, up to 39 or 40ºC and the AC is just in one room.
 
One thing that is important is to keep the temperatures the same 24/7. You don't need to turn the heater off at night
 
I use toilet paper rolls for hides. Would you hae room for two of those if you took out your other hide? Even if it's going under the roll instead of inside of it...
They use it and it's small. Maybe an option.
 
smigon said:
One thing that is important is to keep the temperatures the same 24/7. You don't need to turn the heater off at night
Click to expand...

I have a thermostate with day/night cycle, and my night temps are set a bit lower. First they were set at 22ºC, but I thought that was too low and was a risk of dropping too much and set them at about 23.5-24ºC.

I thought about the paper rolls, I may randomly drop some and could also drop some hard plastic recovered cardboard package rolls that are harder and won't get wet.

But still... it doesn't explain why he doesn't use the warm side at all, even when we drop to 19 or 20ºC. The only way I have found to make him use it is bother him a bit when he is in the plant so he goes to hide into the cave.

Thank you all for your counsel anyway :) I'll improve the viv this month to a bigger one with more space although not needed yet for his size.
 
I'm not sure I understand why you are so concerned whether or not he uses the warm hide. As long as he is not having any issues with digestion, and as long as the warm hide is not actually too hot (where and how are you measuring the temps on the warm side?) then your snake should be free to choose the area that is most comfortable for him.
 
I know he can choose so I should not be worried since he is doing fine, eating fine, shedding fine and pooping fine, but I'm a bit concerned for winter night temperatures of 19ºC or lower during many hours just after he eats. Just a novice owner bit of hypocondriacy on wether this is actually OK for him.

I'm measuring warm side with thermostate over heat mat (mat is outside undertank and thermostate inside the viv), next to the warm hide.

I think I might have solved it a bit by rising the night temp cycle to around 24ºC.
 
mishima25 said:
I know he can choose so I should not be worried since he is doing fine, eating fine, shedding fine and pooping fine, but I'm a bit concerned for winter night temperatures of 19ºC or lower during many hours just after he eats. Just a novice owner bit of hypocondriacy on wether this is actually OK for him.

I'm measuring warm side with thermostate over heat mat (mat is outside undertank and thermostate inside the viv), next to the warm hide.

I think I might have solved it a bit by rising the night temp cycle to around 24ºC.
Click to expand...

The warm side should be kept at 85°. 30° in the cool end should be or you which is 75°, cool end. He may not be there all the time, but at least provide him with an ideal temperature.
 
smigon said:
The warm side should be kept at 80° (24° for you) all the time, don't change it at night. The cool end should be 24° for you which is 75°, a perfect cool end. He may not be there all the time, but at least provide him with an ideal temperature.
Click to expand...

Thank you, I will make sure temps don't drop from 24ºC.
 
Something that my dad did that is genius is glue pieces of tile or sealed wood to the bottom of the water dishes in an open triangle pattern (corner dishes) then they can crawl under them to hide. Now that I have seen how happy his snakes are I'm gearing up to modify all my other guys water dishes to match!
 
mishima25 said:
Thank you, I will make sure temps don't drop from 24ºC.
Click to expand...

I wouldn't be so worried about the cool end, the hot side should be a steady 30° C. The tank itself is long enough to provide the gradient heat down to the 75° F that he needs and can maneuver his way to a comfy spot.

Yet another good reason for lots of hides and "clutter" in the viv!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top