Stargazing?

tiki240 · 12-09-05, 12:49 AM

well my friend and i brought home our new best buddy ninja tonight. BP baby-ish. hes like 2 months old. has a good eating history and seems to be generally stress free. we've been having some trouble getting his 10 gal tank to get to the right temp and stay there. anyways, we just dampened a towel and placed it over 75 % of the cage top (yes its a mesh top) and ever since we put the towell there hes been in the position he is in this pic. actually i take it back, now hes moving around a bit but still trying to get to the top of his cage. yes hes got a full bowl of water. his cage temp seems to be running steady at 82F we're using reptile carpet as substrate and a undertank head pad as a heat source. had a log but he didnt seem to like it as a hide so we cut the container we brought him home in from the petshop as a smaller alternative. does this look like stargazing? humidity is still rather low around 41-41% but rising slowly since we placed the damp towell on top.

tiki240 · 12-09-05, 12:56 AM

humidity is now steady 52%. but temp has dropped to aboyt 79. grrrrrr.........hes not curled up or anything. hes moving around and seems to be curious of his new home

peterm15 · 12-09-05, 07:06 AM

not at all.. hes just curious.. thats all... look heres a pic of mine outside about a week after i brought her home...

ok its not outside but u get the point..

either way its nothing to worry about... stargazing hed be looking striaght up and falling backwards....

peterm15 · 12-09-05, 07:07 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tiki240

humidity is now steady 52%. but temp has dropped to aboyt 79. grrrrrr.........hes not curled up or anything. hes moving around and seems to be curious of his new home

your havin alot of trouble... get him out of the cage into a rubbermaid at least until you can work out the heat and humidity problems.. this is why you make sure you have a set up BEFORE you bring an animal home.. im just glad to know that your checking and concerned.. your doin great

tiki240 · 12-09-05, 11:33 AM

goodmorning! thanks for the replies! the temp in the cage has leveled at about a steady 80-82 F with a humidity of about 59-61% (ive pulled the damp towel back to provide less humidity) the only thing im curious about now is ninjas position in the cage. he has his log back now as he seemed disinterested in the smal blue hide that was in there. now hes simply sleeping kinda stretched out with half of himself instide his log and half out basking in the light of the 50W heat light. (his head half is inside the log)

hbwright · 12-09-05, 12:55 PM

It sounds like normal behavior to me too. I would get him into another enclosure ASAP. It is impossible to have the temperature gradiant you need in a 10 g. A rubbermaid would be a good solution with a human heating pad (non-automatic shut-off) under half of the enclosure. I have one that I'll use and I cut out part of the top and covered with screen big enough for a 40 w heat lamp and it also cuts down on the otherwise high humidity. I can cover part of it with damp cloth if going into shed. This is a great temp enclosure and much better then a 10 g.

tiki240 · 12-09-05, 02:10 PM

well thanks for all the replies and such guys, its been a big help. and just so you know tiki isn't the one who is the owner of the snake i am, matt. and he got on here to get some tips and stuff while i was trying to figure out better ways of keeping ninja happy and in a good climate to live in. well anyway back to the snake situation. the temperature has leveled off since the night seeing as how i came up with, at least i think it is, an ingenius way of keeping the cage warm without having the light directly on it so as to not get it too warm. the temperature has held at a steady and unchanging 82F and the humidity is at 55% in the cage with the contraptions i have come up with over the night. the only thing im worried about is he still doesn't like his hides, as said earlier we took out the log hide and put in the coconut type hide *i.e. the blue plastic container we brought him home in* and he didn't even touch it...no literally didn't even touch it, so i put the log hide back in, and he seems to like it more than the coconut type because he's been crawling around in and on it alot since i've watched him every once in a while in the past hours. anyway he seems to be happy and content with his new surroundings but i still want to let him get perfectly acclimated to his new surroundings outside the pet shop, so i dont want to handle him just yet, i figure i'll give him about a week, is that a good normal time frame to start with?

peterm15 · 12-09-05, 05:49 PM

wait at least a week before you handle and keep the handleings short to start.. when it come to your heating.. its great that the AIR temp is correct but what about the ground temp.. does he have a nice hot spot to crawl on and curl up... an under tank heater is much better that a light...

now when it comes to your hides.. they like something tight and dark.. i have 2 hides in my baby balls cage and he actually moves the entire hide to where he wants to be.. crawls in it.. moves it to the hot side then back to the cool ect ect. there just like that..

the best thing is to get a new setup.. i realise you most likely paid alot of money for that tank and interor but it is next to impossible to create a correct heat gradiant in a 10 gal...

oh and p.s. have you had a snake before??? if not your doin great.. it seems like you did alot of reading and reasearch to get everything right.. the only thing i think happened you decided to go for the best choice for you when it comes to caging. but other than that you seem to know your stuff.. keep up the good work.

tiki240 · 12-09-05, 06:20 PM

thanks for the kind words. this is tiki again. matt didnt really know much about BP's and ive done alot of research. he has however been learning quick and did buy a BP handbook. Ill be getting my first BP hopefully this coming weekend at the reptile show in MD. anyone here going? anyways, ill probably be using a 30 or 40 long as a container because my friend just had to sell her RTB and is donating her setup. ill be giving my BP a few diff choices of hides (probably a coconut and a small log type deal). i know a 30 long is a large enclosure for a baby ball but im planning on making it much smaller. anyways, ill be using an under tank heat pad and digital readout heat and humidity and also, whats the best way to aim a heat lamp down to the basking spot without it resting on top of the mesh ? i dont want the snake to be to get hurt pressing against hot metal. :greenflam

peterm15 · 12-09-05, 11:58 PM

ok a 30 long is huge for a baby.. honestly get a rubbermaid to start it in... use the same heat pad hooked up to a dimmer and no light. dont stick the heat pad to the bottom and youll be able to upgrade any time you like..

why are you guys so stuck on using tanks.. one of u is useing one that to small to get a good gradiant and the other is planing on using one way to big.. stick to the easy stuff at first then you can upgrade to whatever would be best fo the snake...

tiki240 · 12-10-05, 12:31 AM

hmm what size tupperware? anyone have a pic? thanks!

peterm15 · 12-10-05, 12:33 PM

just look up rubbermaid in the search.. im sure youll find something.. or steriltie