| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| saxophonage |
Posted - 16/11/2012 : 16:43:38
Hi, I'm new to the forum but have been reading it for a while and have a young amel corn snake called Phoebe, she's lovely :D
Anyway I'm getting a royal python in the next few days, an adult male from someone on preloved.co.uk. The problem is that I'm a student, so need to move to and from home for a while every few months, plus of course my house isnt very warm and I only have one room available to keep my snake(s) in. I've set up a tub so that I can fit the new snake in the car with my corn and her viv, but the cold end is at like 17c! I've put a spare duvet around it to try and insulate it but it hasnt helped, and I can't plug any holes as the humidity won't drop below 70%!! What do I do?! about both problems! I don't want to just go pick up this snake and give it a bad home! :(
Phoebe is fine just sitting on her heat mat but are royals like that? They need air temp don't they?
I could get an electric heater I guess but it'll too much to run I think... |
| 5 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| Red123 |
Posted - 20/11/2012 : 14:25:13
You do need to get the ambient temperatures up. A lot of people have royals that don't feed very well and a lot of the time its because of cold ambient. If the room you are going to keep the royal in is quite cold and you can't put the royal in a small viv I would suggest putting a lamp above the tub. You can attach the lamp to a dimming stat to regulate the temperature or you could cut a hole in the top of the tub secure fine mesh over it. Then you could place a dome light fitting with a ceramic heat bulb on top of the tub on a stat or you could use an infrared bulb on a stat. I really do not feel that two mats will work. Yes you will get a warm floor but the ambient will still be to low. |
| manda88 |
Posted - 20/11/2012 : 12:00:09
Under belly heat is ideal for royals as it allows them to thermoregulate and digest their meals, heat mats on the floor of the tub/viv does warm up the air slightly but not like an oven or anything, as obviously heat rises 
There's no harm in drilling some holes in the tub, I have several rows of holes drilled at each end of my tubs to allow a bit more ventilation, just less holes at the warm end than at the cool end. There'll be more humidity because of the water bowl being on the heat mat, it will evaporate and cause condensation. Just give the lid and sides of the tub a wipe each day so it doesn't get too wet and you should be good to go!
How big is the tub she's in? As you've now got a mat at each end, I imagine there's a space in the middle of the tank with no mat at all, if that's the case then place the water bowl there to try and reduce evaporation |
| saxophonage |
Posted - 16/11/2012 : 19:05:17
I've massively insulated the tub now and the temperature is slowly slowly creeping up. The humidity is still very very high though at 88% now! If I make more holes in the tub the temperatures will drop more though. Is there anything else I can do? |
| saxophonage |
Posted - 16/11/2012 : 17:09:20
thanks! ok I could probably do that... Do I need to worry about the ambient temperatures too much, or will he be ok with decent floor temps? I'm using newpaper, for that very reason! |
| manda88 |
Posted - 16/11/2012 : 17:01:27
Firstly, welcome to the forum! If I were in your situation I'd get another heat mat and have it at the cool end set at a cooler temperature, say 22-25c, and the warm end at 32c.
What substrate are you using? Newspaper is a good one for royals as obviously it's a dry substrate so doesn't retain any moisture. |
