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Posted by markg on March 03, 2003 at 12:50:50:
In Reply to: Baby Sinaloan advice, please! posted by GunillaMolly on March 02, 2003 at 13:53:21:
Baby snakes dehydrate very easily. An adult could live in a tank with aspen bedding and shed fine, but babies need an average humidity often higher than a screen-topped tank can hold during drier parts of the year. So, here is what I suggest, step-by-step, so that your snake will hopefully thrive:
1) Get a Rubbermaid or Sterilite plastic "shoebox" commonly sold in any large grocery store or Walmart or wherever. About $3.00. Yes, $3.00 to house a snake. Best cages for babies.
2) Use a soldering iron to poke air holes along each side of the box, say 2/3 up the side or so. You can do for example 6 holes (or more) along the long sides and 3 holes (or more) along the short sides.
3) Wash the box inside and out with dishwashing liquid and hot water. Wash the lid too.
4) For substrate I recommend newspaper right now, at least until the snake is well established. Cut sheets to fit and then add some folded sheets so the snake can hide in the folds. Snakes like sinaloans hide most of the time; that is normal and best for the snake.
5) Get a water bowl for the box. I usually use a small ceramic bowl sold in pet stores for hamsters. About $1.99. Wash the bowl with dishsoap and hot water before using it (and wash the bowl like this once a week when using it.)
6) For heat, use a heat pad and simply rest about 1/4 or 1/3 of the box floor area on top of the heat pad. Buy one of those Zoomed rheostats (or use a lamp dimmer) to control the heat. I really recommend those Cobra heat mats - they don't get way out of hand hot just in case the dimmer is on full.
7) Place a damp paper towel in the cage over the heat pad to create humidity, maybe twice a week for 6 weeks or so or until the snake is eating well. Baby snakes like a little localized humidity sometimes, and the damp paper towel trick will do the job. It will dry out but that is fine.. you don't want the cage damp every single day.
8) Place a book on top of the box lid to secure it. Baby milksnakes are very squirrely and can wriggle out of the narrowest of spaces, so make sure that the lid is on and weighted down. MAKE SURE YOU DON'T PLACE THE LID ON THE SNAKE AS IT IS TRYING TO CLIMB OUT OF THE BOX!
Good luck with the snake! Just so you know, milksnakes are very wiggly until they get larger. Don't expect a calm easily held Sinaloan until he gets older. This is normal, so don't fret.
