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few questions...

H

Heis

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First of Ive had my ball for about 6 months, lets say the pet shop from what I bought him was little help. This site has helped me tremendously and am hoping for a little more.
I have a 20L with a screen top. I have a heat lamp and a small under-cage heating pad. With both of these on I can only get the hot side to about 82 and the cool side about 76. I have coverd the screen with sweatshirts, blankets but to no avail. Any ideas on how a poor college student could get his temps up???? Also when Diego sheds it flakes off. He sheds fine, usually within a day of starting hes done. Ive read though that it should come off in one piece. Any thing i could do to help this?
Any information or recommendations would greatly be appreciated.
Thank you,
Andrew
 
Sweatshirts and blankets wont do much, unless you wet them but then you'd have a rusty top and a smelly tank (they have pores cuz they are woven). If you go to homedepot, or a hardware store that sells glass, get a pane that will cover a part of your tank. In that same part, put your water dish under it. The humidity will hold the heat and should fix that shedding problem (not that it's a problem @ all, as long as it comes off), the water bowl will be a place he can chill out in, and the glass will create humidity. Just remember, the larger the pane, the more humidity. However your tank is, get a piece larger than your tank is wide and put it so you can move it off of the tank and adjust it as you need to. Beware, glass often breaks because of clumbsy people or birds flying into it after you wipe it with windex (no, jk, only in that commerial) but be careful not to break it cuz if you do, it'll look like one ghetto tank. Oh yea, and you might want to up your wattage of your bulb, bring your lamp closer to the screen, or get a heat emitter (they work better than lights). And before I forget, make sure you're feeding Diego enough vitamins. If the humidity doesnt help that shedding, he's not eating right and needs more of....something. Good luck!
 
A couple things. First off, ditch the glass tank. Go to Walmart and pick up a suitable sized rubbermaid w/ locking lid. When your BP starts to go into shed, put the water bowl over the side with the undertank heat. This should provide suitable moisture for a healthy one piece shed. As far as the temp issue goes, what are you using to measure the temps with? Unless your room is unreasonably cold, you should be fine with undertank heat on one side set at 90-94 for a hot spot with the temperature on the other end dropping to the 80s. Snakes dont fly so you should be measuring the temperature at ground level. Ditch the heat lamp as it will only server to further dry out the enclosure and contribute to the bad sheds. Make sure you control the undertank heat with a rheostat (dimmer) or preferably, a thermostat. Hope this helps!

Jamie
 
I have a zoo med under tank heating pad but id doesnt have a thermostat. just a chord and a pad. and for taking temps i have 2 exoterra thermometer strips one on each side. the heat lamp is directly on the screen and above the where the heating pad is. even with the heat to one side, Diego still prefers the other side of the tank. I have hides on both sides so I dont understand why he doesnt go to the hotter side. For vitamins i feel him on average about ever 7-10 days and have a vitamin drop thing that i apply on his food and on the tip of his nose just to make sure he gets it. hopefully ill my camera working and ill take a picture of the tank and maybe that will help out more.
Thanks again for the help,
Andrew
 
Um....

Ok, just where do you have those thermometer strips attached? To the sides of the glass? Those things are very inaccurate for measuring the temp of anything except the glass that they are stuck to....and glass is a very poor conductor of heat! Get a good thermometer (analog or digital) and put it directly on the floor!!! That will tell you the temps that Diego is experiencing. Also, if he's always over on the cool end of the tank, it's probably too hot on the hot end. Those hand held digital infer-red temp guns sold by Pro Exotics (and others) are great for spot checking temps anywhere in the cage....they're only around $25 and well worth it!! Just my $.02.

Scott Nellis
 
temp monitor

Scott Nellis said:
Ok, just where do you have those thermometer strips attached? To the sides of the glass? Those things are very inaccurate for measuring the temp of anything except the glass that they are stuck to....and glass is a very poor conductor of heat! Get a good thermometer (analog or digital) and put it directly on the floor!!! That will tell you the temps that Diego is experiencing. Also, if he's always over on the cool end of the tank, it's probably too hot on the hot end. Those hand held digital infer-red temp guns sold by Pro Exotics (and others) are great for spot checking temps anywhere in the cage....they're only around $25 and well worth it!! Just my $.02.

Scott Nellis
Click to expand...
I have a nice aquarium theremometer, it's accurate and cost about $9 if a temp gun is too expensive. retiples in general are pretty expensive, so get used to spending lots of money on them, they are like kids or high mantainence spouses/boyfriends/girlfirend/other :D
i have had to soak my BP in lukewram water for his first shed, but once i started misting the cage as soon as i noticed him in shed, it seemed to help alot. Dmap balls of newspaper or sphagnum moss in a tupperware hide can help him out too. i put a little damp newspaper into his favorite hide after i notice he's shedding (while hes not in there) and as long as the enclosure is warm enough, there are no problems.
good luck andrew!
 
UTH do not COME with a thermostat, they must be purchased separately. If you are running a UTH without one, it is very likely WAY too warm for him on the "warm" side, and that would explain why he stays on the cool side...especially if you have a heat lamp going as well. You need to get a real thermometer of some sort....as was said, all those strips are doing is telling you the temperture of the glass they are stuck to, and Diego probably isn't spending much time stuck on the glass... ;)

As for the vitamins..well, as long as you are feeding him quality rodents as often as you should, IMO there is absolutely no need for any kind of supplemental vitamins.
 
what kind of thermostat would you recommend? Any cheap ones out there bc im about to buy my books for next semester and xmas is coming up......thanks again everyone.
andrew
 
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