Two Questions

[SaKSTa]

First- I got a Reptisun 5.0 UVB blub, do they do anything good for a Red Tail or are they just a waste?

p.s I feed her baby mice, not rats cause no place near me sells them, so maybe the light does help?

Second- I have been reading these posts about Humidity but I still cant get it high enough in the glass cage. The cage is all glass with an all screen top. What would work best?

[LORI]

Re: Two Questions

That light will not do anything for your snake healthwise :-/

As for the humidity... Try placing a towel that's damp over part of the cover [ don't let it touch the /any light dome though]. That should help increase the humidity in the cage.

[Guest]

Re: Two Questions

Well boas don't need UV light, so you are probably waisting your money.

If you can't find pinkie rats then you could try to get a mouse similar in size to a pinkie rat. I had the same problem when I first got my boa...trying to find pinkie rats. Now 9 months later is eating small rats. So I would just get a mouse similar in size to a pinkie rat.

As for humidity, I think that is the biggest pain in the butt to keeping boas. Some people put the water bowl closer to the warm end and cover part of the screen top with a towel, you can always get a humidifier and raise the humidity in the room the boa is kept to make it easier to raise the humidity in the cage.

That is all the help I can give,

Good Luck SaKSTa s9.gif

[SaKSTa]

Re: Two Questions

Thanks, i have always had the heat near the water bowl and it didnt seem to work, I think im gonna try the damp towel on the screen. Thanks for your all. As for the food, ill just wait tell she is big enough to eat small rats.

[tatdaddy]

Re: Two Questions

You can also raise the humidity by takin a towel big enough to cover the top of the cage. on the end where the light is going to be cut a hole in the towel just big enough for the light dome. Then as lori said wet the towel. This shpuld help with the humidity as well as the air temp. Grant you have to still mist every day to keep the humidity up. It does help though.

As for the rats you can order rats from places like cajun mice and rodent-pro. Those are the only places that I knopw of that will ship small orders. I just ordered 25 rat pups from cajun mice and the cost was 48 and some change.

Well good luck

Joshua

[Doug]

Re: Two Questions

HI,
I had some problems with a 40 critters and a young guyana here's some of the things i did to make my life easier
[ftp]http://www.redtailboas.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl?board=board7;action=display;num=1038532033[/ftp]
Post is call: Problems with a 40 critter
there are numerous things you can do this worked for me and is saving money with heat and humidty.
  doug

psps Boa's can handle rat pups , the have more protien and less fat per ounce.
here's a page/ care sheet dedicated to feeding only rats to boa's..
[ftp]http://www.redtailboas.com/frozen_thawed/frozen_thawed.html[/ftp]
doug

[Tj]

Re: Two Questions

Doug,

I can't thank you enough for the info you posted about the temps. I have able to keep my humidity right where it needs to be and i have been getting beautiful sheds, but the temp was a pain. I have tried three different thermostats, and two different types of lighting and I think I can finally get something that works right.

I have got a glass cage that is about 3.5-4ft tall 4-4.5 ft long, and about 1.5-2 ft deep...she loves stretching out, but i have had a too hot and too cold end for long enough, and she is finally happy. I just ordered a new thermostat from Big Apple so once that comes and i get the right lighting to hook up to it i will finally have her set. (even though she spends alot of her time out) ..lol..she never wants to go back in....

But anyway, your info helped out alot.

[draco842]

Re: Two Questions

Try using Cypress Mulch. Before I bought my vision for my girl she wasn't doing so good. I started using a Helix-DBS 1000 and a Pro-products radient heat panel. I have a 50 watt black light just for a little extra heat when my house gets cool. Anyway the heat panel dried out the air and her sheds were kind of bad. I started using cypress mulch and have had no complaints.
P.S if you need rats you can buy some from http://www.rodentpro.com/index.asp
or

http://www.cajunmice.com/