Tank Cleaning Help

Cricket1234 · 12-30-16, 09:31 PM

Hi! I recently got a beautiful milk snake and love him so much. He likes to burrow so I have him lots of aspen.... but then I realized that he doesn't come out of it a lot. I have 4 hides plus climbing branches and stuff but I'm worried about cleaning his poop. If he poops in the bedding how will I find a tiny bit of poop in his 40 gallon tank? I want my little guy to have a clean tank...

jossh27 · 12-31-16, 08:50 PM

I'd wait and see if he doesn't come up to surface to defecate. My hognose never chokes out of the substrate unless its to eat or take a grumpy- if you change the water everyday chances are your snakes a **** and will just go in its fresh water like my king snake lol

**Andy_G** · 12-31-16, 09:44 PM

If you dig around for it a bit you'll find treasures.

How big and old is the milksnake and what kind?

Cricket1234 · 12-31-16, 11:29 PM

He is a Pueblan Milk Snake and he is about a foot long.

**Andy_G** · 12-31-16, 11:57 PM

Ah. A very large cage for such a small snake and you've found one reason why. Like finding a raisin in a hay stack.

Cricket1234 · 01-01-17, 12:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Andy_G

Ah. A very large cage for such a small snake and you've found one reason why. Like finding a raisin in a hay stack.

Agreed. He enjoys the extra space and I have tons of hides and stuff so he feels secure though, so I kind of like him in the 40 gal. Ty!

TRD · 01-01-17, 05:14 PM

Young milksnakes get (or may get) pretty stressed though in large enclosures... Mine never showed herself in a 60x40 cm enclosure (when she was ~40cm in length), also moving under the substrate at all times. Maybe sometimes at night she popped up. Otherwise hiding forever.

For the time being I moved her into a 30x20cm with covered sides, back, and top, and she's much more happy. She stopped burrowing and using the hides and thermo regulates normally like the others. This is important because a scared milk will prefer safety over health and may fail to properly thermo regulate or hydrate. She will go back to a bigger enclosure when she reaches a good size for it, for the time being I don't want her to believe it's "not safe outside".

Milksnakes do not usually burrow btw, despite the many comments of people stating they "like it". They only do if they feel unsafe. Usually the case with small ones, they stress out a ton easily.

As for finding the poop. They like to move around the sides of the enclosure much more than through the middle. Likely you'll find most if not all poop around the edges. Since you're using aspen shavings, you can also fairly easily replace it every month or so. It's not too expensive. A little snake in that much substrate isn't likely to make too much of a mess in 1 month that it becomes unhealthy

Just take care of the humidity in there, aspen tends to make stuff very dry, especially in winter months (depending on where you are of course, but for me when using aspen my humidity drops to 20%-ish, which is too low for me... I don't use it for that reason).

Cricket1234 · 01-01-17, 08:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TRD

Young milksnakes get (or may get) pretty stressed though in large enclosures... Mine never showed herself in a 60x40 cm enclosure (when she was ~40cm in length), also moving under the substrate at all times. Maybe sometimes at night she popped up. Otherwise hiding forever.

For the time being I moved her into a 30x20cm with covered sides, back, and top, and she's much more happy. She stopped burrowing and using the hides and thermo regulates normally like the others. This is important because a scared milk will prefer safety over health and may fail to properly thermo regulate or hydrate. She will go back to a bigger enclosure when she reaches a good size for it, for the time being I don't want her to believe it's "not safe outside".

Milksnakes do not usually burrow btw, despite the many comments of people stating they "like it". They only do if they feel unsafe. Usually the case with small ones, they stress out a ton easily.

As for finding the poop. They like to move around the sides of the enclosure much more than through the middle. Likely you'll find most if not all poop around the edges. Since you're using aspen shavings, you can also fairly easily replace it every month or so. It's not too expensive. A little snake in that much substrate isn't likely to make too much of a mess in 1 month that it becomes unhealthy

Just take care of the humidity in there, aspen tends to make stuff very dry, especially in winter months (depending on where you are of course, but for me when using aspen my humidity drops to 20%-ish, which is too low for me... I don't use it for that reason).

I agree that aspen lowers humidity. I have my snake on a humidifier when it gets dry. Here is her setup.

Cricket1234 · 01-01-17, 08:27 PM

Wait... how do you post videos? Sry.

TRD · 01-02-17, 12:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cricket1234

Wait... how do you post videos? Sry.

[ YOUTUBE]...link here...[ /YOUTUBE]

without the spaces.

PS. What subspecies milksnake do you have anyway?

**Andy_G** · 01-02-17, 01:00 PM

It's a pueblan, TRD.

TRD · 01-02-17, 01:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Andy_G

It's a pueblan, TRD.

Omg... I read through the thread to see if it wasn't mentioned already and didn't read it. I'm off to buy some new eyes, or I must be in shed.

I just wanted to know in regards to humidity requirements. I think aspen might be too dry for it, but time will tell with a stuck shed. I didn't own any Pueblan though, so I can't speak of any first hand experience...

**Andy_G** · 01-02-17, 01:42 PM

Ive kept and bred black, honduran, and andean all on aspen as well as sani chip and never had an issue with a bad shed ever...but that was in racking systems/custom cages. I would say aspen is fine even in a tank though, if a humid hide is offered.

TRD · 01-02-17, 04:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Andy_G

if a humid hide is offered.

Exactly... with my first snake I made a mistake and didn't offer this, thinking it would be alright. 2 sheds later I found myself carefully peeling it off. Snake unhappy, me unhappy. Lesson learned.

But you say something perfectly well... a humid hide/corner should be provided, but often I read spraying/misting down the entire enclosure, which is not a good idea.

If anything, a reptile needs options. At least that's what I see from the behavior of mine.

I keep my rescue MBK in a glass terra, and he's kind of subject to some experiment while at the same time healing and being put on a more aggressive feeding schedule (picked him up from a 'breeder'... he was 18 months old and only 57 grams, his scales looked poor... had him checked by a vet, but otherwise he was healthy (thank god)). I have my lights configured in a way that it simulates sunrise, midday, and sunset. It's very interesting to see how the snake adapts and knows that the morning basking sites are different from the evening and he moves around during the day finding his perfect spots. It's also nice because the snake will move around instead of sitting in his perfect spot from light on to lights off.

He's such a nice snake, very calm disposition, and immensely curious. When I open the terra he comes out himself (well, mostly) and goes up my hands and about, likes to explore a lot over me or around me. Never 1 sign of stress or discomfort. Hopefully his scales will be back and healthy again in 1-2 sheds (he's currently in one again, starting cycle from tonight... last shed was just over 2 weeks ago - I guess he's in a hurry). He's putting on a lot of weight now too, about 4 grams/5 days.

Cricket1234 · 01-04-17, 09:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TRD

I have my lights configured in a way that it simulates sunrise, midday, and sunset. It's very interesting to see how the snake adapts and knows that the morning basking sites are different from the evening and he moves around during the day finding his perfect spots. It's also nice because the snake will move around instead of sitting in his perfect spot from light on to lights off.

Wow! now that's awesome! How do you do that lighting setup? I would love to try it for my snake Master Slinky... (my 4 year old sister named it lol) P.S. I'm thinking of switching him to newspaper for a substrate, is that ok for him? He burrows a lot so I was wondering if he would feel insecure without his aspen. If newspaper isn't ok is there any "burrowable" (Sorry I made up a word there) substrates I could switch him too that hold humidity better? Thanks!