enclosure heating help

[starr9]

It's not so much the feeding in the click clack, that wont make any difference. What people are saying is if the python is stressed it will go off it's food. The theory is that small snakes are less stressed in smaller environments. So animals living in small click clacks will often eat better than a stressed animal in a massive enclosure. I think Just plain nuts is correct though. As long as there are enough hides and the snake can get warm enough then the size of the enclosure isn't too big a deal.

ooohhhhh ok i get you now! sorry bit blond here!!! ill get there!! hahahahah! thankx 4 that!

 

[Snowman]

This may be a silly q's but should I try feeding her during the day when its warm or just try her at night again in a week?!?!

I feed my stimi's at anytime of the day. It doesn't seem to make any difference to my animals. If they are off their food then they are off and that is that. I would give your animal more heat longer hours or 24/7 heating. A few more hides and a box so it can bask closer to the light. Your enclosure is only 55cm long so it's not much bigger than a large click clack anyway.
Snakes need heat to aid in digestion. If it is too cold the food item will go rancid in the pythons stomach, often they will regurgitate the food item. But if they don't it will poison them and they will die. Instinct often tells them when it is cooler not to eat and they go off their food,...so they don't end up being poisoned. (though there are plenty of snakes that will eat when it's cold if given the chance). With the 10 degrees nights you have been having it may have triggered their internal "do not eat" switch. A snake that young you can give 24/7 heat. As long as it has a cool end to move to it will be fine.
Snakes can also take a few weeks to adjust to new homes/environments and will not eat. It's hard to leave them alone when they are new, but sometimes you need to give them a chance to settle in for a week or two.

 

[starr9]

I feed my stimi's at any time of the day. It doesn't seem to make any difference to my animals. If they are off their food then they are off and that is that. I would give your animal more heat longer hours or 24/7 heating. A few more hides and a box so it can bask closer to the light. Your enclosure is only 55cm long so it's not much bigger than a large click clack anyway.
Snakes need heat to aid in digestion. If it is too cold the food item will go rancid in the pythons stomach, often they will regurgitate the food item. But if they don't it will poison them and they will die. Instinct often tells them when it is cooler not to eat and they go off their food,...so they don't end up being poisoned. (though there are plenty of snakes that will eat when it's cold if given the chance). With the 10 degrees nights you have been having it may have triggered their internal "do not eat" switch. A snake that young you can give 24/7 heat. As long as it has a cool end to move to it will be fine.
Snakes can also take a few weeks to adjust to new homes/environments and will not eat. It's hard to leave them alone when they are new, but sometimes you need to give them a chance to settle in for a week or two.

Too true! it is hard to leave her be but I know its the best thing for her!!! Ill put in a few more hides, a shelf up closer to the light and cover the top in as said before and see how we go! Fingers x-d in a week or 2 you will see a thread on "First feed!!" hahaha! Thank yuo for your time and help! I know at times its hard when you see almost the same thing posted over and over agin but for me being able to ask the questions that fit to my enclosure and girl its put my mind at rest!!! Thank you is not enough for the time and effort you have all put in to help me!! If i could id make you all a cup of tea/coffee or a beer/wine and cake to say thank you better!!!!

 

[Snowman]

We have all been where you are and it all becomes a lot easier with time and experience. Any questions feel free to PM me or post on my wall. You are actually learning a lot more than someone who starts with the perfect set up. Because they never have had to ask the questions to learn the answers from.
Looking forward to hearing about the first feed. Good luck!

 

[starr9]

We have all been where you are and it all becomes a lot easier with time and experience. Any questions feel free to PM me or post on my wall. You are actually learning a lot more than someone who starts with the perfect set up. Because they never have had to ask the questions to learn the answers from.
Looking forward to hearing about the first feed. Good luck!

True never thought of it like that! Will do thank you!

 

[Bluetongue1]

Young snakes are very vulnerable to a wide range of predators, as Snowman alluded to. They spend their time trying to get the occasional meal without being on the menu themselves. They do not like open spaces as a result. Once they reach a certain size this is no longer so much of an issue and they are happy to wander further afield. With the larger enclosure, unless you fill it up with rocks and logs and branches etc you will still have the same problem, especially where at least one side is glass. You could try keeping it full time in the click clack it came in for a week and see if that makes any difference to it feeding.

My personal preference for heating pythons is to provide bottom heat as the primary heat source. A 15W heat cord under a slate or ceramic tile with a thin sheet of MDF underneath with routed or saw cut channels for threading the heat cord into is the way to go. Placed in the back corner it requires a hole only a few mm in diameter to thread the cord through. You can then adjust the amount of cord in the enclosure to obtain the required temperature. You can use a thermostat if desired but I know of a couple of keepers that run their entire collections in this manner without thermoststats and have had no issues. They do periodically check temps within their cages as part of their regular maintenance.

I would advise against using the plastic backed tile. Plastic (and wood) are good insulators of heat. Plastic can also melt and is flammable. There is the possibility of heat being trapped and temperatures building beyond what is anticipated. Slate and ceramic, on the other hand, are fire proof and reasonably good conductors of heat. This means they will spread the heat evenly across their surface. These materials also have a high specific heat, which means they take a lot of heat to warm up. The positive to this is that when a reptile plonks its cold body on top and starts absorbing heat from the tile, the tile will not go cold in a hurry. It will continue to supply heat with little temperature change as the reptile warms up.

My advice is to tell a little white lie. Go to a tile place and pick out a tile you like and ask if you can purchase one tile because you are going to tile a room. Invariably they will say help yourself and will frequently offer a few more free samples.

With arboreal pythons, the addition of a heating bulb near an elevated perch, be it branch or shelf, is often appropriate. It depends on the thermodynamics of the enclosure – basically how much heat is trapped at the top.

Stimmies do climb – usually over rocks but also over low logs and branches. I would recommend a forked branch or two with a decent diameter and a bend in them. That way they sit like a tripod with an elevated centre.

Pythons are essential nocturnal and hunt at night. This is why feeding them after dark is recommended. It is, however, not essential to do so in captivity as they quickly learn to take food regardless of the time when offered. They will, however, be at their most active after dark.

That will do for now I think.
Blue

 

[DeadCricket]

Obviously you have lots of help here but I thought I might chip in, have you thought about turning the enclosure on its side, insulating the now glass top and making a bit of a door for the front? Obviously you would need to look into non overhead heating but that might not be too hard if its well insulated as you might only need a small heat source. A cord under the substrate or something. If you're really lucky the guy at your local store might swap your lamp for a good cord. I swap things with mine all the time, great guy. I'm not sure about your snake's needs for uv light but if they don't need much, a halogen light produces HEAPS of heat. I picked up a halogen flood light thing from bunnings for like $10 or $15

 

[Bluetongue1]

Snakes do not require UV.

Blue

 

[DeadCricket]

I've heard that it is beneficial to some though? Again, as stated in the last thread, I'm not about to disagree with blue, so you should probably just go with what he says haha

 

[user 30368]

I have a stimi too. I have her heater/fan/light running all day and at night time i turn it off. She has a heat rock running 24-7. I LOVE the heat rock because if its a freezing cold night, i know she can stay toasty warm on her heat rock with her hide rock on top. She lives in that thing and i hardly see her! Its a medium sized one as i have read stories of the larger ones burning snakes. But the medium one is a low wattage and is just perfect. Go the heat rock! YAY!

 

[starr9]

Thank you all for your ideas and info!!! Lots of food 4 thought!
Now just to work out the correct combo and we will be laughing!!! haha!
I have the small heat rock 6watts (seen in pics on 1st page on top of more rocks off anything that could get too hot!!!!)

Ive taken the mushroom thing out of the hot corner and put a hide up that end for her and I plan to put a shelf/ or 2 in up the back one up the hot end and one cool end (may even look at a bird house someone els said on a different thread!). Iv got a vine ill put in 2 from one end to the other. im looking at making a heated tile 2day as well!!! Plus ill put more hides in so even tho it will be hard to find her she will feel safer (more important she feels safe and happy i think), I hope!!!! Full on weekend i think!!!...... Coffee STAT!!! hehehe! Thank you!