Really Weird molting......among other things

Ok guys, here's what I'm going to do......tomorrow I'm going to Petland (I live in northern Canada, and the only petstores in our city of 50,000 people are Petland and a small family run one that's been here for over 20 years-I do most of my dealing with this one as they are the only one that sells live mice). But I think that Petland will be the best place for me to buy substrate. I really like the idea of that coconut bark (it looks great and clean!). I do not know if I can buy it up here, so I will try and find something similar. I had some big chunky bark, but I gave that to my brother for his garter snake. I like that coconut bark as it looks like dirt and is much nicer for the snake the crawl on. Also, I will try the idea of covering my screen lid with tin foil and duct tape. It looks like a good idea so what the heck hey!! I have a 75 watt red light bulb right now so I will keep that. I also have an UTH on one end. I will transfer the light bulb so it is over the UTH, and have the other end with nothing. I will also remove the fogger/mister, and invest in a water bottle (much cheaper). Also, I will cut up the peice of driftwood that I have (it is huge and the lady I bought Monty off of paid over a $100 for it). I will put some of this on both ends so he can bask and/or rub against it to molt. It looks like I have pretty much the same kind of tank and setup started as the one in the link that you sent to me. I will also try and find a good thermostat. I think maybe a hardware store might be a better place to find one if Petland doesn't have one. If my memory serves me right, Petland doesn't have any good ones. I may end up buying one off of the internet. I will get this right someday,.....I know I will!!! Thanks for your advice. It looks like your setups and advice will get Monty a better environment. The people that had him before for 6 years (he's 6.5 now) had him in a sunroom, only had a water dish, the driftwood, bark substrate, and the lamp for him, and he managed to survive for that long. However, he never had a full shed on his own, and it would take him almost 3 weeks to get it off when he did molt. They fed him one small frozen mouse every 2 weeks. Since we've gotten him, he's gained almost 50 grams, he's grown almost 2 inches, and his girth has only grown about half an inch. We feed him an adult mouse every Monday. You think I need to feed him two each Monday? Or maybe one mouse every 5 days? You said he looks skinny......maybe it was because he's all stretched out in the picture????I thought he looked skinny compared to the pictures on the forums, but I really don't know exactly what he should look like because he is our first one. What's your advice? His appetite is good. He really scarfs down the live mice better than the frozen. I think it's the fact that they are crawling all over him and he really has no choice but to kill them to get them off of him. However, last week he shyed away from the mouse and tried to escape the enclosure. he really didnot want anything to do with it. It was directly after I had finished shedding him. A few hours later that night, he ate the mouse with some encouragement. Here is an upclose picture of him today.....A comparison of him next to a pencil to give you an idea of his size, also, a picture of the sore on his nose, as well, just a nice curled up picture on my pillow.




thanks

You haven't said how big the tank is (or I missed it?), but I am inclined to suggest that the combination of the 75 watt bulb AND uth on the same side will be way too hot. Overall temps are already too hot with them on opposite sides, putting them together is not going to cure that. Granted, adding a particulate substrate such as coco-fiber/bark will diffuse the heat from the UTH; but until you see just how much, you need to be careful about the choices you make.
Another place you can look for substrate is a garden center/nursery. They should carry a variety of bark mulch (this is not the same as bark nuggets, which are the big chunks) - cypress or pine are both acceptable, and in my area the pine is a bit cheaper. *just don't go with the RED cypress (you'll know it when you see it, lol) or cedar.

As for appearance, he is small for his age, but does not appear significantly underweight to me. The spot on his nose will heal up with time...the frequent sheddings probably slowed the healing a bit, since that area gets a lot of abuse in the process

As long as she gets a thermostat and has digital thermometers with probes to measure the temps, the lamp + the UTH should be fine. I used that exact same combo on all my tanks without problems. Together without a thermostat they would definitely get too warm. If you decide to get a thermostat online, you can use the links I posted at the bottom of one of those threads I showed you...MG Reptiles ships to Canada, and I bought my thermostats from him.

He does look skinny and small for his age. He seems mushy/thin instead of being solid/hard and round. 2 females I took in looked exactly like that because they were only fed 1-2 mice per month. Now that I've been feeding them one rat per week, they've both put on over 200g in the last 7 weeks. All of my adult males are over 1800g (they're all 4 years old and older). This is one of my adult males, they are all this size:





I would try to see if he'd take a very small rat every week. If he only wants mice, then 2-3 large mice per week would do well. Or you could try one large mouse every 5 days like you mentioned. If he gets shy with live ones but doesn't like frozen, you could try stunning them before offering them to him or holding them by the tail with tongs so they aren't crawling all over him. Sometimes that freaks ball pythons out, I know mine get weirded out when the prey crawls on them. If I hold it, they'll snatch it with no problem.

Originally Posted by hhmoore

cypress or pine are both acceptable

Pine is just as toxic to snakes as cedar according to most caresheets.

Originally Posted by JenHarrison

Pine is just as toxic to snakes as cedar according to most caresheets.

I don't want to derail this thread with that discussion, so I will just say that over the years I have seen as many references stating that pine bark mulch is acceptable as those that state it isn't. Perhaps there is a difference between shavings and mulch, with regard to the acids and aromatic oils? Bottom line, to be on the safe side - nobody argues about the safety of cypress or orchid bark.

thanks you two....great advice. you both have great knowledge in the area of bp's. My tank is a 35 gallon. It is just right for his size according to what I've read. He can stretch out in it and still have about 6 inches to spare. I will get a thermostat and hook both the UTH and lamp to it in order to regulate temperature. Or, I could ditch the lamp and just use that UTH's and hook them up to thermostats to keep things regulated. What do you think would work best for me? I really don't like the lamp because it does dry the tank out very quickly, but if it's important for him to bask, then I guess the lamp is necessary. I am also going to try and feed him more. I agree.....based on the size of your boys, mine is very small and lanky and looks kind of malnurished. One thing I also notice in Monty is that he is too small for his skin. He has alot of wrinkles especially around his neck and mid section. I know he's hydrated because he's had huge pees and lots of urate chunks coming out. As well, he drinks almost every second to third day from his water bowl(which I know is more than usual). I know that he is thirsty alot because of the high temps and lack of humidity, and I will change this a.s.a.p. for him based on your advice and info. I just think I am going to have trouble locating a good thermostat in my city. I hope they sell them at a hardware store or something. If I order off the internet, it will cost me much more and I will have to wait a while for it. Maybe ebay would be a good place to look as well. I have gotten things off of there before. I will go to Petland and see what supplies I can get there, and then off to the garden place (which is really good up here) to see what kind of substrate I can get. Ok,............whew! I hope I can manage all this. I'll let you know how things go tonight. Best Regards.....

Oh, by the way, Monty only weighs 500g. I had him weighed when he had pneumonia about two months ago. From this info based on how much yours weighs, he is VERY underweight for his age and length. I'll fatten him up once I can get him environment proper, he'll digest better too......he poops every 6 weeks.

If he has a lot of wrinkles, then you're right about him being underweight. Especially at 500g for a 6-year-old male. It may also mean he's dehydrated, which could very well be possible with the high cage temps and low ambient humidity. With a bit of proper feeding and an adjustment to temps and humidity, he should do just fine. It may take time for him to rebound but in the end I think he'll be OK...you're really conscious of him and dedicated to making sure everything's correct. That's awesome.

If you use two UTH's, he won't have a cool spot because the entire cage floor will be warm. I would stick with one UTH and the heat lamp on one side, regulated by a thermostat. That will give him a proper gradient to thermoregulate. The lamp does dry out the cage more, but if you switch to coconut husk, cypress, or another substrate that holds moisture it should be just fine.

Good luck with your little guy, he's really pretty!

Harold, I think you're right. Shavings are shredded bits of pine so the exposure area of the oils and vapors is greather than chunks of mulch would have. That's why it's even bad to use with rats...I smelled that stuff up close once and I feel bad for any animal that has to live in it and breathe that stuff 24-7.

thanks Jen, you are really smart. I know my little guy isn't doing as well as he could be. I don't think that the people who owned him really did a lot of research about how to help him thrive. They just took the petstore's advice that they purchased him from in Calgary, Alberta, and bought a small book that had some advice in it as well. Other than that, they didn't do much else to learn about him. I had a lot of questions for them when we picked him up, and they couldn't even answer half of them. Not the snake people that they made themselves out to be. They were right in selling him. Up until about 7 months ago, I wouldn't go near a snake........honestly, I was petrified of them. Then, my dad found this little garter snake behind our shop on the farm, we put him in a bucket, and I got the guts up to touch him because my 7 year old son wouldn't touch him unless I did. Well, I knew that garter snakes were harmless and ever since we had him (we gave him to my brother right before we got Monty) I've grown to love snakes. I would be very heart broken if Monty doesn't get the help he needs. Anyways, I'll end now and get back to everyone once I have the setup.......I'll take pics and you can analyze from there for me. Thanks a bunch........Cher

Well, I never thought I would buy another so soon, but my love for snakes is growing and when I seen Martha, I knew I had to have her. After having my husband drive all the way down to Petland to see her, he showed just as much enthusiasm as I thought he would over her. She was in her new home less than an hour later. She is absolutely gorgeous. She measures 56 inches long (about 4.5 feet) and 8 inches (22cm) around at her biggest point. She is very gentle and docile. The people at Petland said that she has been quite strikey and nervous around everyone, but when they handed her to me, she sat in my arms and around my neck like she was at home with me. They were impressed because she did the same thing for my husband when he held her for the first time. I think that they know when you are nervous and when you aren't. She has tolerated a lot of handling tonight, as we had to get her home set up. I just went out and bought a long rubbermaid container with lid, covered the bottom in moistened coconut bark. A heating pad underneath the container on one end, a water bowl on the other end, and she's happy. We have to punch some holes in the top for air flow, but it's nice and moist, and 86 degrees. Monty is happy as well tonight. He scarfed down 2 adult mice in a row. He is happy in his stable environment, which by the way, we're happy to report is something we acheived. Here are some pics of Martha.