[General Care] Slight concerns about Buddy.

[acephantom903]

I have some slight concerns about Buddy. I was scouring the forums for answers and what I came up with has me less worried but I'm still worried.

Main things:
He doesn't flick his tongue when the cage is closed. He flicks it vigorously when I'm misting the air and I can see it is forked properly or if I am poking around near him checking temps or messing with his hides.

He doesn't use the hides. The previous hides I had were the ones I made when I first saw him at the beginning of September and too small, so I upgraded him two days ago to hides twice as tall which are heavier and he still chooses to hide behind them.

He also only stays on the back of the warm side. He goes back and fourth between the sides where they are 84-88°F surface temp (85-87°F ambient) and occasionally he will go to the hot spot which is 89-96° depending on the time of day and which spot. But, he never ventures past the half way point of the cage to the cool side which keeps a surface temperature of 82°F all day and ambient of 76-82°F.



I saw that if a breeder uses a rack system, they might not know what a hide is. The breeder did use a rack. And Buddy is sitting 2" from the opening of the warm side hide but never goes in it.

I checked his tongue the best I could without messing with him.

Not sure what to do about the him not wanting to venture farther away from his "safety corner" as I call it.

[Noelle7206]

Re: Slight concerns about Buddy.

Snakes flick their tongue to read the scents carried by "new" air...if a cage is closed, the air is not changing...so why bother? I wouldn't worry abut that...

Hides: not sure what you're using, but some hides are so lightweight that they don't feel secure when a heavy-bodied snake tries to use them. (they get bumped out of the way) Or, they are too tall inside? or the
door is too big? Or they're made of a material that is off-gassing a subtle but nasty odor? (many plastics do this...and remember a snake's sense of smell is WAY better than ours) And sometimes our snakes just have
their own "opinions" that may never make sense to us...hey, trust your snake, & try other things now & then. It may take him a while to "warm up" to a new hide, or as you mentioned, he may have never used a hide
before because they weren't available to him. You can steer him to the doorway when you're holding him & letting him back into his cage...that works sometimes to get them to enter & try it. (they see the dark hole
to hide in & usually WANT to enter) You might also turn the hide so the doorway doesn't face the "outside world". Depending on what substrate you're using, he may want his hide to be cozier inside...sometimes if
you crumple some paper towels & stuff them in there a snake will just love it. (if it's just an "empty room" with nothing but a "hard floor", I'd personally hold out for a bed too? hahaha!)

[acephantom903]

Re: Slight concerns about Buddy.

lightweight that they don't feel secure when a heavy-bodied snake tries to use them. (they get bumped out of the way) Or, they are too tall inside? or the
door is too big? Or they're made of a material that is off-gassing a subtle but nasty odor?

It is a stack of 3 paper bowls which have been sitting out for 3 months with a 1 pound smooth rock on top so it shouldn't be too light for (guessing) 4 ounce Buddy to move too easily. I'll try the paper towel idea. Thanks.
The opening is about twice his size so he should be able to grow into it a little with the roof being only a 1/4" taller than the opening.
I currently use indented kraft paper as bedding which isn't really that soft but considerably softer than just news paper in my opinion.
I also have a grape vine that he doesn't touch. I'm tempted to move it closer but I have the feeling if I do that, I'll do that with everything and his favorite spot would be too cluttered. lol

[Kenny_074]

Re: Slight concerns about Buddy.

I have one who never uses a hide at all. Closest she comes is climbing in the thick fake plants that are in her cage sometimes. Most times she has a spot, under a smaller plant, next to the slab of stone that's on the hot spot of the cage. It's pretty much wide out in the open, but she doesn't seem to mind even though theres several hides for her to use. I put a hide where she usually lays, and she just went to the lay beside it. She's the only one I have that just won't use a hide.

[Noelle7206]

Re: Slight concerns about Buddy.

Sounds dangerous for the snake...I'd take the rock out A.S.A.P. Snakes can move things around & if the rock slides onto him, it could kill him. Anything with weight to it should be tip-proof also.

Hides that have doorways that are too large often don't feel private enough; the doorway should be just a bit bigger than the snake with a full tummy.

Substrate: doesn't need to be "soft" exactly, but something they can sort of snuggle into & hide in. Crumpled paper towels are just one option, & that might help to make up for the large 'doorway' on the hide.
Many snakes like to feel wedged-in, what we call 'back pressure', from the combination of the low 'ceiling' (with some weight to it) & stuff (substrate- etc) to hide in.

[acephantom903]

Re: Slight concerns about Buddy.

I moved the rock to the rim of the plate so it will weigh down at least one side of it with no danger of falling or the rock tipping. The other rock I have is in the water bowl so if Buddy decides to soak, he can have something to have traction other than the smooth sides and bottom of the bowl. Might have to look into getting river rocks so I can have more than just the two clean rocks.

[Noelle7206]

Re: Slight concerns about Buddy.

It's hard to find rocks that are flat-bottomed enough to be tip-proof. I used to live in shaky (earthquaky!) So. California & it sure changed how I furnished my cages. But you never know anymore where an earthquake
might occur (many shakers are caused by fracking for natural gas deposits too), so remember that (besides directly harming the snake, rocks can also be flung against the glass & cause breakage. We had a pretty big
earthquake when I was just getting into keeping snakes, and I also noticed that my glass tanks slid sideways on the cabinets they sat on. So I used rubber weatherstripping (one side is self-adhesive, sold in coils in
most hardware stores) on the bottom edges of all my tanks...and when the next (much bigger!) earthquake happened, not one of my cages slid one bit. I was grateful for the smaller 'quake to give me ideas for safety.

[acephantom903]

Re: Slight concerns about Buddy.

My doors are acrylic so they shouldn't shatter. I'm also in South Florida so the ground is made up of 80% sandstone, 20% lime stone, 10% other materials. Absorbs seismic events very well at the cost of compressing under weight over time and occasional sink holes.
My current stones are from northern GA rivers. The bottoms are about 4x wider than the rock is tall.(5"Lx3"Wx1.5"H round shape) It literally can't sit any position other than up without rolling to sitting in their proper positions.

[zamora]

Re: Slight concerns about Buddy.

Just. Stop. Poor snake. Give him a few weeks to acclimate to his new digs. He will figure things out on his own, each snake has its own personality and likes different temperatures just like people. I think you are overly stressing and you shouldn't. I totally understand it though, we all go through this with our first snake. LOL Don't worry so much, it sounds like your temps/humidity/substrate etc are fine. Time to let Buddy figure out who he is in the grand scheme of things.

[acephantom903]

Re: Slight concerns about Buddy.

Unfortunately Buddy found something wrong with the cage. I had used a very weak adhesive black tape to make the wire from the RHP less noticeable. Buddy went poop today and we got to share his first experience of being put into a large Tupperware (with air holes) so I could change out the bedding. After that, he was a lot more curious to explore his cage so I let him. I was playing video games and I heard a faint sound which sounded like scratching and thought it might be something on the window. Maybe 2 minutes later I looked back at Buddy and noticed he was laying on the wire like a hammock forgetting that it was previously on the wall. I thought it was cute and took a couple pictures. In the second picture I noticed that it looked like his skin was stuck to the tape on the display and instantly I connected the scratching sound with tape peeling. I dropped the camera and lightly rubbed him even though I was trying not to handle him to see his response and he wiggled his tail and looked around as if in distress. I held his body to comfort him has I removed the tape from the wall with him stuck to it. I spent maybe 20 minutes comforting him as I lightly peeled back a little at a time and folded it so he couldn't get restuck and I would give him a rest when he seemed even more stressed. From what I could tell his scales were not damaged. After I inspected him he rested on my arm for a little then I lifted him to his cage's door and he went back in and into his cold side hide. I then removed the rest of the tape because I will not risk that again. Never again will I allow any adhesive near him. If that was a weak adhesive with a couple minutes to set, what would happen if it were a stronger adhesive and it took me longer to find him?

I almost didn't mess with him but I'm glad I did. I have been an emotional wreck for the past hour after I had to save Buddy.

What is the proper way to unstick adhesive from a snake? I refused to look online or ask here because I didn't think I would get a response fast enough.

[bcr_229]

Re: Slight concerns about Buddy.

Well as you - or rather your snake - just found out the hard way, tape should never ever be used in the enclosure or somewhere the snake can get to it.

Vegetable oil is often recommended to soften the glue, but I have no experience with it.

If you need to secure the RHP wire, your local hardware store should stock plastic wire fasteners that you can use to attach it to the enclosure's ceiling.

[Noelle7206]

Re: Slight concerns about Buddy.

You're very lucky (& so is he!) that he didn't turn the adhesive on the tape into a permanent "hot glue" application by laying on/near his heat & cementing it in place.

Here's the "echo": Never use tape in a snake enclosure (or any adhesive that can stick to the snake) because sooner or later, it will.

And it may stick better to the snake than you'd ever imagine. Glad you were right there in time.

[acephantom903]

Re: Slight concerns about Buddy.

that he didn't turn the adhesive on the tape into a permanent "hot glue" application by laying on/near his heat & cementing it in place

He was on the wire maybe an inch from the RHP. Which is why I had taped it flush to the wall. I guess it was at a point where the heat wasn't on which aided in him being so lucky. I was up for 4 hours scared because many things went right for me to save him. I had almost gone to bed an hour earlier which I wouldn't have woken up hearing the scratching sound because it is so common a noise here. I had headphones on while playing video games and the scratching sound was right as songs were switching on Pandora and right when no sounds were playing in the video game and that I lost in the video game a minute later. I also almost didn't touch with him because I didn't want to stress him out the night before his first meal here.

Should I still feed him today like planned? He doesn't seem stressed out any more. Or should I still wait a day just to err on the side of caution? He pooped yesterday around 5:00 PM ish.

[Noelle7206]

Re: Slight concerns about Buddy.

Either way...if you think he might be stressed, waiting a day or 2 won't hurt a thing. Snakes did not evolve with rigid feeding schedules...

[acephantom903]

Re: Slight concerns about Buddy.

I fed him and he was slightly reluctant to hit the food because I used a cheapo zip-lock bag and it got wet and I'm guessing he had never been fed F/T before. He then let go when he did hit it, so I put the towel over the majority of the door. I checked in about 20 minutes later and he was almost done eating it butt first. Almost 30 minutes later I turned around and he was climbing up the door looking for more. I'm guessing that is a good sign. lol