Wake Up Sleepy Heads!

I bit the bullet today and turned the lights on for Lolly and Beau.  Beau in particular had been somewhat restless for the last week or two.  Never waking up as such, but, changing positions in the enclosure frequently.  So yesterday, I did a quick check that I had everything I needed by way of food etc and cleaned up food dishes in preparation for the big day.

The big thing to be sure to do when reptiles first wake up from brumating is to get them hydrated.  I have rarely, maybe one or two times, seen Lolly drink from standing water.  The very first time was shortly after she laid her first ever clutch of eggs.  I gave her a bath that day and she took a long quenching drink.  Unlike Beau, she never took to drinking droplets from misting and I never saw her taking water from bowls in the enclosure.  Beau on the other hand likes to drink in all of those ways.

After about 30 minutes of exposure to heat, I used a spray bottle on a stream setting to drop water on their snouts.  Beau took to it straight away.  So I put him front feet deep in the big water dish (ceramic pot plant dish) you see in the first photo here.  He dropped his head in and did not emerge for a good five minutes or so.  I then turned my attention more directly on to Lolly with the water stream.  As soon as she made motions to drink, I put here into the dish as well.  To my pleasant surprise, she drank also.

Since the intake of water, both have lazed directly under the heat lamp for the remainder of the day.  Neither look to have touched the veggies I have provided.  I will get some large crickets for them tomorrow and see how their appetite is fairing then.

Lacey seems to be recovering well from her burn.  She is certainly eating well, which is a fantastic sign.  Snakes will go off their food first before anything else when they are upset.  Lacey is ploughing through her food, so I am hopeful, if not confident that she is well on the way to recovery.  She is shedding individual scales and has been for the last few weeks.  I plan to contact the vet again this week as she asked me to give an update on Lacey's progress.   At that time I will ask about the scales also.  She pooped the other day, which was a great relief (to both of us I am sure).  It had been the better part of two months in between.  Not too alarming during winter or a growth spurt.  But, given that she has eaten regularly and I have kept the temperatures up...Let's just say I am glad that she did it.

A little more on how the burn happened.  Warming a snake from below, as I do with a heat mat has to be done using a thermostat, for safety, so that the temperatures don't get too hot.  Where I ran into trouble was having the probe for the thermostat, which regulates the power to the heat mat a few centimetres above the basking point.  This meant it was measuring ambient temperatures rather than the contact temperature that was exposed to the snake.  This meant despite having all quality equipment, the temperatures on the surface above the heat mat that Lacey was lying on, were not regulated correctly and prone to being far too hot.

The second part of the issue comes in when we consider how snakes warm themselves.  In the wild, they will slither out onto a warm rock, probably just above the optimal temperature, knowing full well that when they block the sun onto that part of the rock, it's temperature will drop a little whilst the residual heat can be absorbed.  Add to that, they start warming from above via the heat from the sun, and they get a nice, full body warming.  I had no source of heat from above.  What this meant was that no matter how warm\hot\burning Lacey was from the poorly regulated heat mat from below, she was potentially shivering from the top down in the cool ambient temperatures of a Canberra winter.  The best image to have in your mind is an attempt to cook a roast in a frying pan.  The bottom could be burned to a crisp in the allotted cooking time, while the top half would still be red raw.

How do we fix this?  Well, now I have attached the thermostat probe directly to the bottom of the enclosure right where the heat source is and Lacey lies.  I have also added a heat source in the form of a halogen bulb above the enclosure, to raise the ambient and overhead temperatures.  It all seems to be going remarkably well.  The image here is what it looks like now.

I feel such a fool, that despite all the best intentions, research and questions I asked of experienced keepers, I managed to make one small oversight that injured our precious Lacey.  The lesson has be learned.  Just so unfortunately at Lacey's expense.  Happily, she should make a full recovery.

Licensed to thrill!

I got a phone call yesterday.  It was the licensing authorities ringing to clarify something on my reptile keeping license application.  The fantastic news is that it was also made clear that my application had been approved.  Stoked about that!

Apparently I had made a mistake on the form.  I wasn’t aware that snakes can only be sold by individuals, not shops.  I had put down that I was going to purchase the snake from Reptiles Inc. rather than from Peter, who runs the store directly.  I now understand the difference and will be buying from Peter rather than his store and record that on my records to ensure compliance.  Interesting to know that now too.

I have started making preparations for my diamond python’s arrival.  Today I converted a plastic tub into a home for it in the style of what I understand goes by the handle of a ‘click clack’.

  You can see the makings of it here.  I have a 20 litre plastic tub with two pieces of dowel criss-crossing it to allow for the pythons semi-arboreal nature.

I also have put in some paper towel for substrate, a terracotta dish for water and a ceramic tile as a heat holding basking spot.  I will place a heat mat under about a third of the container where the tile is to provide an appropriate temperature at that end and allow for cooler temperatures at the other end.

You can see in this next picture that I have cut a hole in the lid of the container and glued in plastic flyscreen mesh to allow for ventilation.  Common practice from what I have seen is to also

make some holes at different points of the container to allow for better air flow.  I have also put in a thermometer as you can see here.

You may also make out a screw holding the dowel in place.  This was a little tip I picked up in a forum thread on the Aussie Pythons & Snakes site.  The thread was most informative and I used the material in that thread to create this enclosure for our impending arrival.

Testing of temperatures in the setup tonight has seen some pleasing results.  I seem to be able to get 32-34 degrees at the hot end and 20-22 at the cool end consistently.  I would like to work it out so that it was 30-32 at the warmest point, so I have a little tweaking to do.  Diamond pythons are cold climate snakes and are probably the best snake for me to start with in regards to tolerance of our climate in Canberra.  Over the next few days, I will be working on the best ways to get the temperature right.  I have a few ideas that I am working on.  The most likely scenario is to get a thermostat to ensure things are spot on.

Exciting times are they not!?  I’ll have to do something about the banner at the top of the page.  This is becoming more than our Dragon Journal in a hurry.