new rescued 6foot red tail boa??? heres a picture and question..

redtailboas213 · 10-21-13, 08:50 PM

I just got this red tail boa a couple days ago.. I put it in a 4 feet long tank for now.. (55) gallons.. I put a heat pad under tank but the glass got really hot so I went to get a zilla thermostat.. I put the probe directly on glass since he/she burrows through newspaper and didnt want snake to get burnt.. I just went out and got some aspen also.. Now my question is what can I put on bottom of aspen so he doesnt lay on bare glass and get burnt??? (he/she likes to burrow) Should I tape newspaper or old shirts on bare glass and lay a little aspen on top of that? heres a pic of him/her.

ErikBush97 · 10-21-13, 09:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by redtailboas213

I just got this red tail boa a couple days ago.. I put it in a 4 feet long tank for now.. (55) gallons.. I put a heat pad under tank but the glass got really hot so I went to get a zilla thermostat.. I put the probe directly on glass since he/she burrows through newspaper and didnt want snake to get burnt.. I just went out and got some aspen also.. Now my question is what can I put on bottom of aspen so he doesnt lay on bare glass and get burnt??? (he/she likes to burrow) Should I tape newspaper or old shirts on bare glass and lay a little aspen on top of that? heres a pic of him/her.

If your temps are at 90° and you have a thermostat controlling your temps, your snake will not get burnt. Tape a garbage bag in their and it will make clean the aspen out 1,000,000,000,000 times easier.

marvelfreak · 10-21-13, 09:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GotsaQuestion

If your temps are at 90° and you have a thermostat controlling your temps, your snake will not get burnt. Tape a garbage bag in their and it will make clean the aspen out 1,000,000,000,000 times easier.

Please do not use tape ever in a reptile cage. I have seen first hand a snake die after getting stuck to duct tape and ripping it own skin off.

redtailboas213 · 10-21-13, 10:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by marvelfreak

Please do not use tape ever in a reptile cage. I have seen first hand a snake die after getting stuck to duct tape and ripping it own skin off.

so what do you suggest ??? i have probe on glass for now but i want to put bedding on it (aspen) but my boa burrows and I dont want him directly on glass to cook to deeath

redtailboas213 · 10-21-13, 10:10 PM

and i dont want to just lay it on there cause my snakes moves it and will not give me temp of heat pad and will bake 2 death

marvelfreak · 10-21-13, 10:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by redtailboas213

so what do you suggest ??? i have probe on glass for now but i want to put bedding on it (aspen) but my boa burrows and I dont want him directly on glass to cook to deeath

Just lay some newspaper in the bottom then put the aspen over it. It'll be fine. Also long as the temp doesn't get over a 100 degrees F it not going to burn your snake.

ErikBush97 · 10-21-13, 10:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by marvelfreak

Please do not use tape ever in a reptile cage. I have seen first hand a snake die after getting stuck to duct tape and ripping it own skin off.

Good point. I personally use high quality duck tape and I stick it down good. (I've pick up a 30 LB weight with a strip of duck tape for a quality/strength test). My snakes will grow arms before they get to the sticky part of the duck tape. I only use tape to tape down my thermometer and thermostat probes. No longer use Aspen. But if you're planning on slapping some duck tape down and calling it good, you may want to go a different route so you don't hurt or even kill your snake.

marvelfreak · 10-21-13, 10:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GotsaQuestion

Good point. I personally use high quality duck tape and I stick it down good. (I've pick up a 30 LB weight with a strip of duck tape for a quality/strength test). My snakes will grow arms before they get to the sticky part of the duck tape. I only use tape to tape down my thermometer and thermostat probes. No longer use Aspen. But if you're planning on slapping some duck tape down and calling it good, you may want to go a different route so you don't hurt or even kill your snake.

The problem is heat, humidity and urine will slowly dissolve the glue use on the tape letting it loosen and peel.

ErikBush97 · 10-21-13, 10:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by marvelfreak

The problem is heat, humidity and urine will slowly dissolve the glue use on the tape letting it loosen and peel.

I change mine once a month. It takes about four months to actually get to the point of loosening and peeling, but I change it once a month to be safe.

Brently · 10-21-13, 11:41 PM

You could always get some thin plexi and seal it over the thermostat with non toxic caulk. Or even just seal the probe down with the caulk alone. Just enough to hold it in place. And that will make it easy to remove if needed.

Terranaut · 10-22-13, 04:22 AM

Two things.
Tape never. As far as what to put under the aspen? Welk if he likes to hide in it embrace it and add more aspen. My bci (7' male) digs in every night and will not use a hide. I give him a solid 6" of aspen. If he packs it down I top it up. He loves it. With a thermostat he will not get burned.

formica · 10-22-13, 04:43 AM

duct tape adhesive is heat sensitive, cant think of a worse type of tape to use in a reptile enclosure over a heat mat - well any kind of tape is damn dangerous imo

if you are concerned about the probe being moved, do as marvelfreak suggested, heat mat underneath the enclosure, probe on the floor of the enclosure, newspaper over the top of the probe, then aspen, sorted!

Ddub · 10-22-13, 05:01 AM

Another thing you could do is tape the probe on the heat pad underneath the tank and use a temp gun to fine tune the surface temp that way neither the tape nor probe are actually in the cage.

bigsnakegirl785 · 10-22-13, 11:33 AM

You guys must have access to some awesome duct tape. I've tried just about every brand available to me here, and I can't even keep two pieces of paper together. :/ Duct tape used to be wonderful for just about everything you could imagine, and now it's basically worthless. At least what I've been buying. I don't remember the brands, but one is that major brand with the yellow duck (Duck Tape?), and the others are random generic brands.

I also don't see why you're worried about the snake burning? With a thermostat set at the right temp, it's not going to burn your snake, even touching it through the glass. As other users said you could silicone it into place to prevent the snake from moving it around, which should keep the temps regular.