Stimson Python Help!

[SmudgeDaz]

Hi,
I've recently got a two year old Stimson Python and she is absolutely awesome!
And I have had her for over a week now.

I didn't know if this is normal or not so that's why I'm posting for some help.

I fed her two pinky mice yesterday evening, which she took both of them five minutes apart.
I placed her back in her cage and left her alone.

She moved over to the cold section of the cage between the glass and her plant decoration, and hasn't moved yet.
It's now the following morning and I haven't seen her move to the warm area! :?

I was kind of worried because I thought snakes needed the warmth to help them digest their food!

I also checked the temperature and the hot area at the moment is at about 30.7 degrees.

If anyone has any advice or information please let me know!

 

[PythonLegs]

What temp is the cold area?

 

[SmudgeDaz]

at the moment, is about it's about 27 degrees, which is a little higher than it normally sits.

 

[bugeye23]

your python will be fine, if she wants to get warm she will move to it..i feed my stimmie and she doesnt move for 3 days.However i do catch her late at night going for a stroll, i would also start feeding her something bigger then pinky mice, the mice or rat should be about the size of the largest part of the snakes belly. hope my info helps.

 

[SmudgeDaz]

Thanks for the reply!
I also thought pinky mice were too small but the pet store I got her from said two pinky mice once a week up until winter and then I can think about up sizing....
I'm new to owning snakes and I've done my research but the feeding size was the one think that varied from book to book and people to people.

 

[Jamesss]

Sorry, but the pet store is probably wrong unless that stimson is absolutely tiny and underfed (which is possible after that advice). To me it sounds like it needs a LOT more food than that. I also think the hot end should be a bit hotter than that, try for ~35 degrees at least straight under the heat light.
Any chance you could throw up a pic of the snake next to a ruler or something else to compare size to? might be able to give a better indication of what size food it should be eating.

EDIT: Just noticed you only have a 3degree variation between hot and cold end. You should probably have more. If it's possible, add some more ventilation to the cold end.

 

[Gruni]

Better to ask than sit and worry or miss something important.

 

[grannieannie]

Another thing you could consider is that if you've only had her for a week, she's still getting used to her new home and it takes them a few weeks to settle sometimes. Everything else sounds fine to me, but go just that little bit bigger with her food, if it's too big for her, she'll soon spit it out....don't worry. Easier said than done I know, but everyone feels a bit worried when they're new.

 

[SmudgeDaz]

I know that she's about 60cm long. Because on the third day I had her, she stretched perfectly straight along the front of her tank. The tank is 90cm long and she was about 30cm shorter than the tank.
I hope that's a good enough description of her length, I'll try and get a picture up of her so you can see how big she is.
So you can suggest an accurate size feed.

And the hot area normally gets up to about 32.5 to 33 degrees but since it was quite early in the morning when I posted this thread, the reading was a little low.
But I do notice the cold area only gets down to about 26 degrees, I thought that was ok because the hot end under the basking spot gets to about 33 degrees, which means there's a 7 degree gradient.
Please correct me if I'm wrong...

Also in regards to the ventilation. My tank is top ventilated with an additional two vent near the bottom of the tank for the cold and hot ends.

 

[Wrightpython]

if she gets to hot she'll soon take a bath so dont worry about temp in wild they go for days colder than 26 and hotter than 35. She may be just chilling out in case you hadnt noticed they do spend a lot of time in suspended animation. 60cm is quite smaller as i have some 11 month olds that are 70 cm and belly circumference is similar to coke bottle lid. Get her off pinkies as there not that good anyway and get her onto something thats got something in there bellies like fuzzy to pre weaner mice. My two year olds are eating one six week old mouse every 7 days and are never snappy and never refuse feed. They are around 95cm long and broomstick width. My two year olds are still in their hatchy rack and are at 32 degrees hot end and 27 degrees cool end most of the time. hatchie rack is 40cm by 20 cm by 6cm high each tub