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Thickness of aspen bedding

C

corsara

New member
Hello.

We've had our little hypo motley female called Pretzel for a week now. Before we got her and after that, I posted a few threads and all of you folks have been extremely helpful, so thank you very much!

I'd like to ask a question now regarding the thickness of the aspen substrate that I'm using. Our snake is really hidden all the time under the bedding, and as much as I understand and know this is fine and she's good, I'm having a hard time explaining to my little kids why they never ever get to see the snake. Clearly, patience is something hard to come by for little children, so I'm wondering what I can do to alleviate this "problem" without actually hurting the well-being of Pretzel.

Below is a picture of our current setup. The heated pad covers the right half of the tank, and is connected to a thermostat maintaining a 28-30 C temperature on the warm side. The snake alternates between the warm and the cold side, but always buried under the 2 inch thick bedding, never in her hiding spots.

I was thinking to reduce the bedding substantially, so that she's somehow forced to go into her hiding spots more often than just burying herself beyond discovery. My kids would be much happier even if they could see the snake or part of it with the aid of a flashlight in her hiding spot once a day, not more. What do you think? How important is it to have such thick bedding? I've read some people even use newspapers with the claim that snake doesn't mind it, and just newspapers seems even much less than, let's say, half an inch of bedding. Your input will be highly appreciated!

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As long as your viv is staying comfortable as far as heat wise I don't see why you couldn't take away a bit of your substrate. Keep in mind though if she doesn't feel hidden enough in her hides then she will still try to burrow no matter how deep her substrate is. I'd go out and buy a cheap bag of plastic cling on vines at the pet store and drape them over the exposed opening of her reptihut log and it may encourage her to hide there more often. If you look up my thread on my snake you can see a picture of my vivarium set up and see how I have my reptihut and vines in the cage set up. They work great as hides and she only burrows if she's cold or feeling antisocial but most of the time I can even see her hiding in her vines during the day. Also depending on the overall activity in the room she's housed in may play a part in her behavior and the need to burrow to feel safe. Good luck and over time I'm sure she'll feel more comfortable and not worry as much about being hidden.
 
p.s. I believe I see her peaking her head out in the picture up against the back wall of her viv so I wouldn't worry to much : P
 
Yojoe05, thanks for the reply. I found your thread "Rapunzel's progression", what a beautiful snake you have, lol! And the photographic setup is awesome!

Thanks for the suggestion for the plastic vines, I think I'll try that! The reptihut is on the cold side, but so far she hasn't ever been in any of her two hides as far as I can tell.

yojoe05 said:
p.s. I believe I see her peaking her head out in the picture up against the back wall of her viv so I wouldn't worry to much : P
Click to expand...

Yes, you are right! I'm surprised you noticed :) However, that photo was taken just after we had her out and put her back in. 5 mins later she was gone under, no head peaking out or anything ever.
 
If she is a hatchling, it may be a good idea to put smaller hides in there for a while. I think they tend to feel more secure if their hides are only a little bigger than they are. I like to use the bottom of medium soda cups from fast food places. I cut off the bottom, cut in a door and voila, a tiny hide. Not sure if this helps or not, but I thought I'd throw it out there.
 
If you want your kids to be able to see her, add a ton of leafy vines, suction-cupped to the walls and coiled all over the floor. That will draw her out into the open. Most babies love to sleep in their vines.
 
Nanci said:
If you want your kids to be able to see her, add a ton of leafy vines, suction-cupped to the walls and coiled all over the floor. That will draw her out into the open. Most babies love to sleep in their vines.
Click to expand...

I will definitely do that! I've seen such vines with suction cups even in the dollar store, lol!

In the mean time, here are a few photos I just made after removing 2/3 of the initial amount of the aspen bedding. Notice my little notification of the repti-hut: I stapled a piece of cardboard to one end. I think this definitely makes it a better hiding place, what do you think?

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Snakes like the walls of their hides to be tight. So you could squish the TP roll flat. You can put crumpled newspaper or paper towels inside the hides.

In my opinion, it's stressful and not fair to take away the hiding place she prefers, the deeper aspen.
 
I don't really know the answer to your original question. However, I have two young kids, 6 and 4, and the first few weeks are hard on the kids. But I'd just encourage you to just keep the big picture in mind. Give the snake what she needs to feel safe and comfortable, and in the long run she will be an easy, fun pet....well, in my limited experience with one snake. ;) I just stressed at the beginning that she was a baby. Thus, she needed her sleep, needed to be left alone at times( first week, 2 days after feeding and during shed cycle). It gets better. The new wears off. The feeding times space out, thus not days for handling between feeds. The snake gets more comfortable being out in the open, etc.
It gets easier. And it's part of teaching the kiddos about this new pet. They aren't puppies or kittens that can be played with, but they have their own amazing characteristics that they are learning about by learning, baby snakes like to hid. :) good luck. We love our snakey!
 
Thanks for the replies!

I'll crumble some paper towels and put them inside the two hides. I'll also get some artificial leaves to put on the walls. Maybe that will increase the sense of security for the snake.

I did not want to be unfair to the animal. IMO, taking away from the aspen hopefully didn't make it more stressful for the snake---it simply "discovered" the hiding spots and relocated there, maybe she didn't even know they were there for her.. Another advantage I see is easily finding feces, and eventually regurgitated food if that ever happens. I don't think that would have been possible with 2" of aspen and the snake always under there..somewhere..

As for kids---they are quite understanding. However, I sensed that my older daughter might have started regretting not choosing another kind of animal, which she can at least see on an occasional basis. I can't blame her, so I really wanted to make it a bit easier for her to enjoy the animal, which theoretically she loves and adores, but is yet to touch and actually enjoy.
 
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