Here she is...

[Humble308]

Thanks again guys for all the helpful tips. I picked up my little girl yesterday at the reptile show. Pretty cool to go to all in all but very crowded. Brought her home and she went right into burrow after a long drink (so cool to watch!).

Brought her out for a picture this morning, pretty lethargic and she was cold to my touch. My ambient stays around 72 and I can't for the life of me get my hot side to raise above 80 even though I set the UTH up on Friday evening and have had it running the whole time even with control from a thermostat. No matter what temp I set it pretty much stays around 75-80. I've reduced my substrate to 1.5" or so deep so she can still burrow. At this point I'm considering doubling up my heat with a ceramic heat emitter. For a tiny 10 gallon tank I'm pretty dissapointed by the UTH which can't even raise a hotspot 5 degrees over ambient.

Over all though it's going to be tough to just leave her alone until next sunday!

[Minkness]

Congrats!!! ^_^

What substrate are you using? Also, some will kill me for this, but try just plugging the uth directly into the outlet and see if that works.

Otherwise, you have a beautiful lady!!! Have any name ideas?

[Humble308]

Thanks! I'm using aspen bedding, which she seems to like. I'll give that a shot with the UTH, I've had the thermostat set to max temp and it didn't seem to do much. As far as names go I've just been calling her little darlin' hahaha. I'm guessing by her first feeding she'll show a bit more character and perhaps a name will emerge.

[Minkness]

Awww! Can't wait to hear your updates on her! Were there other hoggies there? What made her stick out? What else was at the show? Tell us everythiiiing!!!

[Humble308]

It was a pretty small show, or I should say the building was rather small. The guy I bought my hog from had several other reds there ($60) and an albino for $175. He also had an adult male for $75 or so. It was tempting to buy two little snakes, they're so small! He primarily dealt in colubrids; rat snakes, gophers, corns and critters like that which was actually quiet refreshing to see among most tables laden with ball pythons.

It was kinda cool I thought that you could pretty much get everything that you needed right at the show...terrariums, heaters, hides etc..Though I already had my set up ready for her to reduce stress. Rodent Pro was there as well fortunately selling a huge assortment of frozen. This was great because you can save a bit picking them up local rather than dealing with high shipping costs and they only charged $10 more for a bag of XS pinkies which I thought was more than fair. There were also retailers for rodents, spiders, and reptiles of the 4 legged sort. The HUGE gecko I saw was amazing.

Live mice were very cheap at $1 each which is great as within the next week or so I'd like to get a mouse breeding setup rolling. I know frozen is cheap, but I like the idea of sustainability and producing everything for the snake myself. I'll probably get my females from the show, and the male from a big box pet store to ensure genetics are sound. If I produce excess then I figure I'll just pay it forward, freeze and vacuum seal them and give them away to forum members.

There was just tons of interesting things to look at. Getting to put an actual size to the picture in my mind of some of the fully grown snakes was very helpful. One huge blood python in particular was watching me closely as I perused the aisles, maybe I looked tasty lol. A couple other vendors looked like they had hoggies but it was elbow to elbow in there and I'm not the most patient or tolerant with large crowds so I didn't bully my way into some of the tables. My girlfriend, who surprisingly went with me, was googly eyed over the baby turtles. She then nearly ran out the door when two girls walked by one with a python necklace and the other cooing at one of those gigantic geckos in her arms!

On a more conclusive note I was surprised how cheap reptiles were. Even some of the color morphs were reasonably priced. I think it'd be a good place to pick up a breeder for cheaper than alot of the prices I see online. Not to mention getting to socialize with the breeders and other folks interested in the hobby. Everyone is so excited and passionate about it. Cracked me up seeing a 6' guy ripped and covered in tats going week at the knees for a little curious corn snake. At the end of it all I have no doubts about the snake I choose and just overflowing with excitement to talk with other snake nerds like myself lmao.

If any of yall haven't been to a show, I absolutely recommend it for a first time snake buying experience. Just getting to see some of the stuff was super helpful, and meeting some fellow snake lovers in the area is a bonus. All the best!

[Minkness]

Lol. Sounds about right! Kudos to you for not buying more than one!!! ^_^

Oh, and as someone who is currently working on a mouse breeding colony.....have a seperat place for them. They will stink up the whole room they are in. But, it is a fun project!

[Humble308]

Good idea! I plan to keep mine in the garage with a small box fan vent their stink out the garage. Curiously enough I was just reading a post where you'd mentioned that you didn't see yourself starting a breeding colony. What end up changing your mind?

For me I've already mentioned sustainability, but I also like the idea of monitoring the health of my feeders and knowing exactly what I'm giving my snake. The cost savings (if any) is not really concern. Sort of the same idea of growing your own veggies, there is a certain satisfaction with being self reliant.

[Minkness]

Honestly, I just wanted a small furry pet lol. I hadrats when I was younger and missed having a pocket pet so to say. I may upgrade from mice to rats at some point, but for now, mice are cool. But again...omg the smell! To me, the cost is not worth it. I spend more on the bedding than anything else to be honest. But, interacting with them, knowing their nutrition and enrichment, and seeing the cycle of birth is rather rewarding. Again, I may not keep it up for much longer, but it's a fun project for now. And they are sooooo cute! I have 3 hairless (2 girls and a boy) a solid black furry female and a brindel furry male. =)

[Jrich]

What kind of container/tank did you stick the under tank heater to? They stick well to my glass ones if I put them on slowly and make sure there's no air bubbles trapped between the sticky and the bottom of the tank. My plastic bins I had to duct tape the under tank heater in place after sticking it on. They don't stick well on the plastic. The duct tape I bought was able to handle up to 140 degrees Fahrenheit but I also have my each of my heaters plugged into a thermostat so the pads don't get that hot. It could be that the thermostat isn't working correctly either.

[Humble308]

That's awesome, I imagine it will be hard to not get attached to the little guys!

Here's a few quick pictures of the set up. Just standard 10 gallon aquarium with screened lid with clips. Hot side has the skull and tmeter on floor to measure substrate temp. She seems to prefer the cool side, and if you look closely you can see her nestled next to the water bowl.

Minkness I tried just plugging the UTH in, however I used another outlet to get the Tstat plugged in so I could monitor the UTH and see just how hot it really gets. I got up to about 129 and hovered with floor temps in the high 80's. After a few mins it started climbing The tstat errored out at 140 degrees. I removed some hot side substrate to get skin contact with the bottom of the tank to see just how hot that was...it would burn me within 5-7 seconds. The up side is that the floor temps are just below 90 with cool side ambient at 80. I know this is the ideal temps for this critter but I'm worried with a burrowing snake she'll burn the herself. Am I over thinking this, or should I consider going with a safer measure of max tstat temperature with an ceramic over head?

Also is initial inactivity normal for the first few days? I know I should leave her be for about a week as far as handling goes.

[Minkness]

Sounds like your tstat might be bad then. I use rubbing shelving liner to help diffuse heat a bit, but you may want to get a new tstat.

As for activity, yes, for all my hoggies they were very active for the 1st 2-3 weeks then settled down a little bit, but not much. In my personal experience they are just an actuve snake. That's part of what I love about them. =)

[Humble308]

Yea I think it's busted...keeps blinking err 2. Wonder if it was even working correctly to begin with. I hope she peeks up a bit soon.

[toddnbecka]

Couple things I've learned, for get the stick-on UTH's and buy ultratherms instead. Their max temp is much lower, never going to cook your critter/s with one of those.
The screen tops are fine for ventilation, but if the snake can reach the tank rim they can almost certainly squeeze out under edge of the screen top.
I cut pegboard to fit inside the rim of the tank and put the screen top over that, then secure the top with 1 or 2 tiera tie downs. The metal spring clips are worthless IMO.

[Humble308]

Great suggestion of the peg board, I would have never considered that! I've been reading really good results from the ultra therms. I think you're right and I'll make the switch to those for sure.

Can you link or explain those tie downs? These effing spring clips just go launching off the tank with the gentlest lid touch. For the time being I said screw it and just have the lid secure with some masking tape, though I'm not too worried about her escaping. I've been considering some more viable options lid securement options

[Minkness]

I use duct tape and velcro for my lids XD