Hello from Alaska

[Aayrick]

Just wanted to say hello and introduce myself. I'm still fairly new when dealing with snakes, only had some for the last 4 years or so. I've got two Ball Pythons named Tiki and Pastel and what I think is a Red Tail Boa named Stryker. All are rescues from a local animal shelter. I'll try to upload some photos if them once I can resize them to fit.

[Albert Clark]

Welcome to the warm forum of Ssnakess. Haha.

[dave himself]

Hi and welcome :)

[Aayrick]

Couldn't shrink the photos I had, so uploaded them to dropbox. I'll see about getting some better pictures when I get a chance.

Here's the link.

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/vxu8phtbcxqjey0/AACniPO8aivVAOcMMtMmQ3Ppa?dl=0

[trailblazer295]

Welcome and great looking boa. Like to see more pictures.

[Aayrick]

Thanks for the welcome. I'll try to get some more photos up soon.

[Tsubaki]

Welcome! Great looking animals :D that's not a red tailed boa (boa constrictor constrictor) but it sure is a beautiful!

[Aayrick]

Welcome! Great looking animals :D that's not a red tailed boa (boa constrictor constrictor) but it sure is a beautiful!

THanks :) What do you think he is? Stryker's a rescue so that was the guess from the staff at the shelter and the local vet said he might be one, but he wasn't sure either.

[macandchz]

welcome! it's great that you rescued them. snakes need love, too!

[PsychoSnake]

Dumb question: how hard/expensive is it to keep your snakes warm during the winter?

Also welcome! :D

[Aayrick]

Dumb question: how hard/expensive is it to keep your snakes warm during the winter?

Also welcome! :D

Not too hard actually. The room I have them in stays warm normally, so I just have ceramic heat lamps and under tank heaters for the hot sides, ambient temp seems to stay around 70-80.

Humidity is the tough part. Normally stays around 30 % in the room and I do almost daily misting to keep it higher, particularly when one of the snakes is going to shed. They also have water bowls and I keep damp moss in there as well.

[sattva]

Not too hard actually. The room I have them in stays warm normally, so I just have ceramic heat lamps and under tank heaters for the hot sides, ambient temp seems to stay around 70-80.

Humidity is the tough part. Normally stays around 30 % in the room and I do almost daily misting to keep it higher, particularly when one of the snakes is going to shed. They also have water bowls and I keep damp moss in there as well.
Nice collection...
I have the same problem here... You might want to buy a humidifier for the room... I got one that dumps a gallon and half of water a day into the room... gets it up to 70%... I pick it up on craigslist for $20.oo... I also got coming a fogger that I will move from cage to cage depending on who is in blue/shedding.. I tried the spray bottle and it just is not enough...
What kind of wild snakes do you have up there?

[Aayrick]

Nice collection...
I have the same problem here... You might want to buy a humidifier for the room... I got one that dumps a gallon and half of water a day into the room... gets it up to 70%... I pick it up on craigslist for $20.oo... I also got coming a fogger that I will move from cage to cage depending on who is in blue/shedding.. I tried the spray bottle and it just is not enough...
What kind of wild snakes do you have up there?

For the most part, and as far as I know, there are no wild snakes in most of Alaska. There may be some down in the southern area, or panhandle, but I haven't heard of any living in the main portion of the state.

As for the humidifier, I have misting systems for two of the tanks and a third ready once I get a new, larger, tank for Stryker.

[sattva]

For the most part, and as far as I know, there are no wild snakes in most of Alaska. There may be some down in the southern area, or panhandle, but I haven't heard of any living in the main portion of the state.

As for the humidifier, I have misting systems for two of the tanks and a third ready once I get a new, larger, tank for Stryker.
Ya I was wondering about that... No snow snakes huh! HaHa
Humidity? I thought you were misting by hand... I did that for a while and it gets old real quick... Those automatic misters are cool...

[bigsnakegirl785]

Not too hard actually. The room I have them in stays warm normally, so I just have ceramic heat lamps and under tank heaters for the hot sides, ambient temp seems to stay around 70-80.

Humidity is the tough part. Normally stays around 30 % in the room and I do almost daily misting to keep it higher, particularly when one of the snakes is going to shed. They also have water bowls and I keep damp moss in there as well.

I would make sure the ambients stay 80-85F as much as you can, ambients in the 70's causes RIs. A cool spot of no less than 75F (if a proper gradient can be achieved in your set up) is fine, but ambients shouldn't go under 80F if you can help it.

As far as the humidity, how do you have the set up? Misting doesn't generally raise humidity, you want an enclosure with as little ventilation as you can while still getting fresh air, and preferable a bedding that will hold and release moisture.

As sattva said, a room humidifier may be a good idea as well. :) A mister for the tank itself is less ideal, as every time it mists it will drastically lower your temperatures unless you have a way to keep the water very warm - which also makes it a breeding ground for bacteria and algae. A mister also only throws water onto things, it doesn't raise the relative humidity, and what little water evaporates afterwards isn't enough to make much of a difference - this is why there's such extreme jumps in humidity when using a fogger. It can go from 90% to 30% in a few hours.

[Aayrick]

For the temperatures, I'll double check, but I think the room stays closer to the 80 degree side of things. If it starts cooling down, I turn on a couple more heat lamps and it seems to take care of things.

As for the humidity, I do both hand spraying and use of mister/sprayer regularly. I always make sure the water has set for a while in the room to warm up before spraying or putting in one of the misters. I also have moss which I regularly soak. This has been working pretty well and I've only had a couple bad sheds with the snakes. Most of the time I go to clean the cage and find a nice, neat rolled up shed under one of the hides.

Tiki (ball python) I've had about 4 years, Striker (some kind of boa) about 2 and Pastel (ball python) about 1. They all get regular vet checks about once a year and have always received a good health report from the vet.

[bigsnakegirl785]

For the temperatures, I'll double check, but I think the room stays closer to the 80 degree side of things. If it starts cooling down, I turn on a couple more heat lamps and it seems to take care of things.

As for the humidity, I do both hand spraying and use of mister/sprayer regularly. I always make sure the water has set for a while in the room to warm up before spraying or putting in one of the misters. I also have moss which I regularly soak. This has been working pretty well and I've only had a couple bad sheds with the snakes. Most of the time I go to clean the cage and find a nice, neat rolled up shed under one of the hides.

Tiki (ball python) I've had about 4 years, Striker (some kind of boa) about 2 and Pastel (ball python) about 1. They all get regular vet checks about once a year and have always received a good health report from the vet.

Water left at room temp is going to be cooler than room temp, you would have to actively warm the water for it not to drop your temps.

Striker is a common boa Boa imperator, which are often called red tails by pet stores, so you were sorta right but usually red tail is reserved for a separate species Boa constrictor (I still feel hesitant to call them red tails though).

Preferably you wouldn't have any. I'm still not sure what your set up is like, but you shouldn't have to mist or spray at all. I would advise lowering ventilation, even if it means getting a new enclosure, and using a high humidity bedding like EcoEarth or a mixture. I use EcoEarth and all I have to do is pour water directly into the bedding, mix it up to make sure all the bedding is dampened, and let it sit. After a week or two it dries up and I do it again, during that time humidity stays extremely high. Even bone dry, the enclosure stays in the high-60% for several days after. No misting on my part, I reserve that for flattening out the paper towels on my quarantines.