Hi,

I have a young male Kenyan Sand boa. He's pretty small still and he's housed in a tub on a UTH.

I have a tank that'll free up at some point and I was thinking about moving my boa there.

Issue is, it's a small wooden tank (20x14x14") with a heat lamp, and while I would definitely give him a deep layer of substrate to burrow in, I'm still worried about the temperatures, due to the sand boa's higher basking temps.

I'm guessing it'd result in the enclosure being in the 80s throughout during the couple of hours the heat lamp is on, and when it's off It'd go back to ~75°F / room temp. 80°F would be the lowest air temperature probably.

I'm just kind of worried about the temps being in the 80s+? From cool side, to higher in the warm side and basking.

Underneath the substrate it'd probably be cooler but still.

I just wanted to ask for some thoughts from people who've been keeping this species for a while.

ALSO: This would absolutely not be the final enclosure! By the time I could have him moved, he'd probably be in that enclosure for about a year or less before getting a 40-60 gallon upgrade.

Hello,

I've had my checkered garter snake for a while now and he's doing well.

I've seen people here say that keeping garters together improves their behaviour, confidence etc. And I was thinking about getting another garter at some point in the future.

However, my garter snake has never been housed with another snake before as far as I'm aware.

How would I even go about introducing another snake to the enclosure? Should I even?

How much of a size difference is acceptable between the snakes?

Garters here are sold as babies, it's hard to find older ones. And my garter is already "teenager" size I think, I don't think he's an adult since he's still pretty small.

I was thinking about introducing a second checkered garter snake once I upgrade my current one to a larger enclosure. I'd likely get an albino one to be able to tell the two apart.

Would it be possible to mix species of garters or is it better to stick to one species?

I have no issue with keeping my garter alone if it's going to be better for him.

Hi, I have a young Coastal Carpet python male.

He's growing well, and at the moment I'd say he's probably 3" or slightly less?

He's currently in a 48x16x24" enclosure, and I'm going to be changing his enclosure soon to a wooden one.

The options I have are 48x24x24" or 48x24x31"

Despite the similar size, there's a somewhat big price difference between the two enclosures.

Since this isn't his final enclosure, just one he'd likely be in for 2-4 years, I'm thinking about getting the 4x2x2 tank - especially since it'd save me quite a bit of money I could use for decor and equipment.

But I wanted to get some opinions - would a 4x2x2 tank be fine for a young Coastal for this time, when eventually he'll be upgraded to a final 7-8ft enclosure?

Or would it be better to get the slightly taller tank now, since he might spend up to 4 years in it.

[Not from the US.]

Hi, I was checking my snake enclosures and when I got to my ball python's temp tub , I saw a bunch of very tiny, very fast moving dark mites on the walls and lid of the tub.

They seemed to be brown or black? Can't tell because of how small and fast they are.

I took my snake out and there's absolutely nothing on her from what I can see, checked her eyes and mouth and nose, her body, nothing. I washed her with some water and moved her to a container for now.

What are the characteristics of snake mites? How can I confirm if these are snake mites, some very dark soil mites, or something else? Predatory or not.

1. The tub only has coconut husk as a substrate. It was a dried brick, watered with hot water and eventually put in the tub. It went through a short mold cycle (a few spots of mold here and there) that went away after adding more springtails and keeping a fan blowing for a few days to dry it out fully.

2. I didn't see anything climbing on the glass water dish.

3. The enclosure did have H. Miles added to it at some point (I'm dealing with whatever remains of the white grain mite infestation I had a long time ago. Added them there just in case but, no grain mites ever showed up there.) but those look nothing like H. Miles.

4. I have not added any new reptiles to the room in the past months. The only new thing in the room is the coconut husk substrate.

5. I'll post microscope photos of the mites I managed to catch in another sub for microscope ID and hopefully get some information. I'll try adding photos here too.

If these are snake mites, What do I do? I have only dealt with grain mites so far. Never mites that are parasitic to reptiles.

I have thin long hair, and I've only ever had it in a ponytail.

But the weather is killing me and I just want to tie my hair up to get it out of the way - but I cannot for the life of me get it into a bun. I have no idea how. I've watched several tutorial videos on YouTube and I still can't get it..

I've only ever had my hair loose or in a ponytail, never did anything else. So is there like some sort of trick to tying hair or what?

Hi, I'll be getting a 4x2x3ft enclosure for one of my snakes soon. I plan on making a custom background for it.

Does anyone here have a 4x3 enclosure or any long enclosure with 3ft height with a custom background in it?

I'm looking for some ideas and a general idea of what it looks like and how much I can actually fit in that tank for the background.

Hi,

Not sure if this counts as a "help" post, it's more of a question about the newer versions.

For a long time the "newest" version of Minecraft I played was 1.20.1 , and a few times 1.21.1

Now I have a new fabric server with friends on 26.2 and I noticed something weird about hostile mobs.

Once they spot and aggro on a player, they'll chase them and won't stop , running away doesn't do much.

Example with a Witch, I got attacked by one and wasn't equipped to fight so I tried running away, but the witch was constantly right behind me throwing potions- I ended up running down a mountain and through a whole biome to a village, and the witch followed me all the way to that village!

Another thing is that they seem to now be able to spot the player from much farther away than before and go after them-

Is that a change added in 26.2 or something-?

Hi!

I got a jar of honey today - not a store bought one, but freshly collected from a family friend who keeps bees.

I was wondering if I could give a few droplets of it to my geckos as a one time snack? Or is honey too sweet for them to have?

And another question if it is safe, could I possibly mix a droplet of honey into CGD? Also a one time thing.

Hi!

At the time of writing this post, I seem to have about 3 different species of mites in my reptile room.

It all started about 2 years ago when I brought home a pack of mealworms from an expo and put them on my gecko's somewhat humid tank, near feeder bins. grain mites exploded from it and I spent many months fighting them.

Now, Every now and then I spot tiny mites either on the water dishes or on the lids of plastic tubs and temp tubs for my reptiles and tarantulas.

They're not predatory mites (though there used to be a predatory mite species too, one I added myself against the original grain mites.)

They seem to be grain, soil and/or mould mites. They don't seem to bother any of my animals, especially since they're so tiny. (Tiny white dots)

Their population isn't anywhere near the type of mite explosion I had with the original grain mites. These ones just occasionally show up, or stick to water dishes.

I've also now started finding them on the plastic lids of the tubs where the only source of moisture is a small water dish or container with some moist soil in it. They've somehow found it despite all the dry aspen.

I've tried everything to get rid of them at first, cleared and replaced everything in many enclosures. But they still came back.

Since they're not a species of harmful mite to my animals,

Should I just accept that they live in the room too and occasionally show up on water dishes or humid hides? And just smash them or rinse water dishes whenever I see them on them?

They don't seem to explode in numbers right now and I've also added a bunch of springtails anywhere I can.

My main concern however, is that I was planning on getting my dream reptile species that requires very high humidity (80%+) A perfect environment for the mites - and I'm worried about them exploding in numbers.

I wouldn't even mind them that much if not for the fact they can come out of the enclosures. (I still remember that moment when the original grain mites showed up. I entered the room and found my entire wardrobe covered on the outside with mites climbing it, from the feeder bins and mealworm containers...)

I'm worried about the possibility of population explosion / an infestation, but at the same time nothing I've done ever got rid of them and I keep reading that ultimately it's inevitable that mites show up. They're not a harmful or parasitic species.

And I don't want to continue stressing out my animals by moving them to temporary tubs to clear out and/or spray chemicals in their tanks to kill mites. (* Chemicals as in things like alcohol or enclosure disinfectants)

I'd appreciate some outside views/opinions on this. If anyone's had experience with mites I'd really appreciate that information too.