newbie with questions

[SamAndStace]

Hello,

As the title shows, I am new to the forum. I found my way here because I am looking for some help and you all seem like you could be the one's to do it. I only have one snake. He is a 5 year old boa constrictor named Sampson (Sam). I have had others but they were mainly my ex's so when we split up, Sam stayed with me. Lucky him, lol . I've had him since he was a little tiny guy and now he is a little over six feet long. My trouble started when he stopped eatting almost two months ago. He was eatting frozen jumbo rats. He also seemed to start having trouble breathing. So... off to the vet we went. After a long and eventful visit to the vet, plus $159.00, she basically told me to increase the temperature in his enclosure and that he is bored so I need to try a live feeding. (Which worries me). So, I have now spent an additional $50 on a new light and light bulbs which still are not keeping the temperature where she said it needs to be (95°f-105°f) in the day and (75°f-85°F) at night. Right now it stays a consistent 80. Any ideas on how to increase the temperature are more then welcome. Also, I can't seem to get the humidity up either. I'm no where near a pro with snakes but I've kept him around for this long so I would like to keep trying. :o

[purplegeyser]

Is the top of your cage a screen? What I've tried in the past is secure a piece of glass over half of the tank so the heat can't escape. It also helps with humidity.

[IW17]

My first piece of advice is to find another vet. Seriously.

Your enclosure should have a warm side around 90-92, and the cool side in the low 80's. A nighttime drop into the mid to upper 70's is OK but not necessary. Humidity should stay around 60%, but can be lower as long as you bring it back up during shed. Try to never allow it to fall below 40%.

As far as your snake getting "bored", that's just stupid. Not attacking you in any way but that vet needs hislicense revoked. If your snake is on frozen thawed, keep it that way. He could be refusing due to sub par environment, or simply might be off due to the season. Fix your temps and humidity then wait a week and try to feed.

If your still having issues, you might need to seek a vet that specializes in exotics.

[IW17]

Also if you could post pics of his enclosure so we could critique it and give you advice on how to make it better that would help. There are a lot of great people on here with lots of experience so you should get lots of help.

[aRepDysfunction]

Is the top of your cage a screen? What I've tried in the past is secure a piece of glass over half of the tank so the heat can't escape. It also helps with humidity.

^^ this is a good start. an under tank heater on a thermostat would help greatly with temperatures. also when you say it is steady at 80, is that ambient or hot spot? he should have a warm side at that high range and a cool side around 80.

As for raising humidity, in addition to reducing the ventilation you can purchase a dollar store spray bottle and sprits it a bit once a day. Eventually you will find out how to balance it so that you dont need to and the humidity from the water dish should be enough. but until then this is a pretty cheap solution

[aRepDysfunction]

My first piece of advice is to find another vet. Seriously.

Your enclosure should have a warm side around 90-92, and the cool side in the low 80's. A nighttime drop into the mid to upper 70's is OK but not necessary. Humidity should stay around 60%, but can be lower as long as you bring it back up during shed. Try to never allow it to fall below 40%.

As far as your snake getting "bored", that's just stupid. Not attacking you in any way but that vet needs hislicense revoked. If your snake is on frozen thawed, keep it that way. He could be refusing due to sub par environment, or simply might be off due to the season. Fix your temps and humidity then wait a week and try to feed.

If your still having issues, you might need to seek a vet that specializes in exotics.

definitely stupid about the live prey, dont switch back. As for the heat, you did mention breathing issues so correct me if im wrong but higher heat can help with RI can it not?

[IW17]

Assuming it is an RI yes. But I would get the conditions perfect then if no signs of improvement, finding a qualified exotics vet.

[Kid Boa]

Your snake is Bored. That's mad my day although I almost lost my coffee. :)

Everything that has been said above is on the money.

I would love to see some pics for your setup and the info on it. humidity issues are easy to fix but we need to see what your setup is about.

[Snakesitter]

Yeah, the "bored = live food" got me too.

Next time my neighbor's kids complain they are "bored," I know now what to do. ;-)

[Kid Boa]

yeah, the "bored = live food" got me too.

Next time my neighbor's kids complain they are "bored," i know now what to do. ;-)

lol haha . . .

[SamAndStace]

Is the top of your cage a screen? What I've tried in the past is secure a piece of glass over half of the tank so the heat can't escape. It also helps with humidity.

thank you! I will try that. I think the top screen may be part of the problem with both my heat and my humidity. I have a bowl under the lamp to increase humidity but it had done nothing so far. Still dry as a bone in there.

[SamAndStace]

My first piece of advice is to find another vet. Seriously.

Your enclosure should have a warm side around 90-92, and the cool side in the low 80's. A nighttime drop into the mid to upper 70's is OK but not necessary. Humidity should stay around 60%, but can be lower as long as you bring it back up during shed. Try to never allow it to fall below 40%.

As far as your snake getting "bored", that's just stupid. Not attacking you in any way but that vet needs hislicense revoked. If your snake is on frozen thawed, keep it that way. He could be refusing due to sub par environment, or simply might be off due to the season. Fix your temps and humidity then wait a week and try to feed.

If your still having issues, you might need to seek a vet that specializes in exotics.

I think I will try to increase the heat (easier said then done apparently) and the humidity and try another frozen rat later. He has never had live and I would like to keep it that way. If I can get him eating without the live rat then I will. Unfortunately my other vet, which I used to work for, is out for a couple weeks and even he does not really deal with exotics (mostly dogs and cats with the occasional bird or rabbit) the vet I took Sam to is the only one around who will take exotics so I'm kind of trying to make do with what I have, lol. He is in a 30 something gallon tank probably close to 40. Not sure exactly. I would like to get something larger but I will have to get a bigger house for myself first. For heating I have the lamp above his tank (A day bulb and a night bulb) also, he has a heating pad that sticks to the bottom of the tank. I have paper towels down at the moment. I used to have the reptile carpeting but it seemed like I could never get it clean so I gave up and switched to the paper towels... I'm happier now. I also put an additional water bowl under the heat lamp because I was told it would help increase humidity. It did not. He also has two thermostats (one on the cool side 75 degrees, one in the middle 80 degrees) I will move it over to the warm side so I will know how things are going over there. I will try to post pics later when I can figure it out.

[metalcopper]

Wrap your screen cover in tinfoil, leaving only space for your heat light to go through. This will keep the heat in and help with humidity, and it's a cheap quick fix until you get a better enclosure.

[SamAndStace]

Your snake is Bored. That's mad my day although I almost lost my coffee. :)

Everything that has been said above is on the money.

I would love to see some pics for your setup and the info on it. humidity issues are easy to fix but we need to see what your setup is about.


Hahaha! I'm afraid to now! I feel like a failure ;)
The only good thing the vet had to tell me was that he still looks pretty healthy and he has a good attitude.

[SamAndStace]

Thanks everybody for your advise! This is helping. Also, the vet said that it is not an RI. He had a little bit of a scab over his nose from rubbing and it looked like it was covering one side of his nose. She didn't think that would effect his breathing like it was (he would open his mouth and gasp occasionally. This started last week) She held him down and cleaned it off, I think just to humor me, but it seemed to help. The breathing issue subsided although he got a little upset when I went to put him back in the tank last night and he started making odd noises when he was breathing. After I got him to settle down, he stopped. She also gave me some Gentocin to put one drop in each nostril twice a day and some Nolvason solution that I have to put in warm water and make him soak from 20-30 minutes a day. I was instructed to bring in any fecal samples I could collect and he is due back in two weeks.

[IW17]

Also I just realized how big he is. You need a larger enclosure ASAP. No six foot snake should be in a 40 gallon tank, much less a 30. 4x2 or 3x3 minimum.

[SamAndStace]

yeah, I am working on that, it may be a month or so before I can get one because we are planning on moving soon if everything works out. The tank is close to 40 gallons I think. I used to have him in a 50 gallon but my piece of crap ex stole it so this is what I'm stuck with for now.

[Snakesitter]

Try plexiglass in particular. Cheap, easy to cut, will not break. I'd cover as much of the lid as you can.