parashootist
New Member
After a year or so of researching and preparing, I recently purchased my first snake. A juvenile female Olive Python. I realize this is an unusual choice for a first snake (especially for someone in the US) but I decided to just get the snake I had my heart set on from the get go. It's plausible she'll be my only snake so she'll get my full attention.
I've had her for about 10 days and have been really focusing on getting her husbandry dialed. I thought I had it pretty well sorted before her arrival but keeping the humidity above 55% has been difficult once the substrate dried out a bit. I have two water bowls in her enclosure, one on the hot side, one on the cool, and am misting multiple times per day. I may end up having to get a misting setup.
So far I've fed her two rat pups, one week apart. I had zero issue getting her to eat
. I'm still waiting for her to poop though! She did the day after I got her, before I fed her, but hasn't since, so it's been about 8 days. I was diligent to ensure she did not ingest any substrate.
My biggest concern I need to sort out currently is that she is able to get onto the lip of my sweeter heater radiant heat panel. It's not hot on the ledge but I still don't want her up there. I've ordered PVC to make a guard that will surround the perimeter of it. A company called Dragon Haus made this product but they've gone out of business.
For anyone that keeps olives, please double check my current setup:
6ftx2x2 enclosure. 100w radiant heat panel, 2 water bowls, coco chip substrate, hides at each end. Daytime heat is set to 87.5f on my herpstat which my infrared thermometer shows as a bit over 90f on the substrate of the hot side. Cool side seems to be around 78-80f. LED light in enclosure is on a timer from 8am to 8pm. At night, the heat drops to 78. Feeding one rat pup per week. I may buy smaller prey though as it does seem a bit on the large side.
Thanks.
I've had her for about 10 days and have been really focusing on getting her husbandry dialed. I thought I had it pretty well sorted before her arrival but keeping the humidity above 55% has been difficult once the substrate dried out a bit. I have two water bowls in her enclosure, one on the hot side, one on the cool, and am misting multiple times per day. I may end up having to get a misting setup.
So far I've fed her two rat pups, one week apart. I had zero issue getting her to eat
My biggest concern I need to sort out currently is that she is able to get onto the lip of my sweeter heater radiant heat panel. It's not hot on the ledge but I still don't want her up there. I've ordered PVC to make a guard that will surround the perimeter of it. A company called Dragon Haus made this product but they've gone out of business.
For anyone that keeps olives, please double check my current setup:
6ftx2x2 enclosure. 100w radiant heat panel, 2 water bowls, coco chip substrate, hides at each end. Daytime heat is set to 87.5f on my herpstat which my infrared thermometer shows as a bit over 90f on the substrate of the hot side. Cool side seems to be around 78-80f. LED light in enclosure is on a timer from 8am to 8pm. At night, the heat drops to 78. Feeding one rat pup per week. I may buy smaller prey though as it does seem a bit on the large side.
Thanks.
