I really feel bad for you and for the snake that this happened and I’m just happy to see that he is healing really well now. I can see you are really doing your best to give him the best care but indeed, it is not always easy to really know what way is the best to keep them or what works for you in your situation. I don’t know about the other people here but I made some big mistakes myself in the past two years and can only be happy that it wasn’t this serious. Heads up…it was a costly lesson, one not to be repeated, but don’t let this one destroy your pleasure in having these great animals.
My experience is that there is simply not one way
to heat an enclosure because it depends a lot on the housing you use ( tub or terrarium, wood or glas), the climate you live in, how cold does your house get in winter and how hot in summer?!. I have some in glas terrariums,some in wood and some in tubs. tubs are easy to maintain but I love the look of my terrariums in the living room.
Am I correct in thinking you live in the UK? Because then you have almost the same weather than her in Holland. I think from all the comments we can conclude that all of us share the opinion that heatmats are indeed the best way to heat the hotspot. Always combined with a thermostat of course. In a wooden terrarium it is more difficult to place them because you can only place them inside. There is simply no other way. After asking a lot of people I came with the solution to put some thin pieces of wood on the floor, on top of that a water resistant heatmat ( I use a type that is fully covered in a type of plastic and is made for wet enviroments). On top of that I covered the heatmat with bathroom floor tiles so the snake doesn’t have direct contact with the heatmat and the wires can also go underneath. I check the heatmats regularly to see if there is no damage to it. Indeed I really want to shout out to not use headlamps or ceremic heaters inside the terrarium. I had them and removed them out of fear. Every night the snakes were crawling around them and luckily at night they were off because I can’t count the times they were swinging them like it was a jungle gym and as them were getting older their weight became more than the lamp could handle. A guy in a nearby reptile shop lost recently his four boa’s he had for years because of that. one boa draged the lamp down on the ground and the cocohusk cought fire. He was in time to stop the fire so his house was safe but the boa’s all died because of the fire and smoke. He was really heartbroken because if this.
A ceremic heatbulb is even with a cover way to hot. I measured a 50 watt ceremic heat bulb with a temp-gun and it’s temperature was a shocking 540 degrees Celsius. 1 second is enough to get burned and a cover is not stopping that. I know because I use one with my blue tongue skink and clumsy as I am I burned myself many times.
To keep the ambient temperature up I now use a extra heatmat against the top op the terrariums in winter. With glasterrariums on top outside and wooden ones inside. I used small pieces of heat resist double sided tape to stick them to the top. I’m still looking for an alternative for the tape because I have bad experience with tape in a enclosure but if I find another way I will let you know. At least these are at Max only getting 45 celsius so even if the snakes touch it they will not get burned and the 18 watt Matt really brings the temp up to 25 degrees. In tubs it’s a little easier because one heatmat underneath is enough and the room they are in stays warmer. On the other side, personally I really like the terrariums in the living room…
I hope that all the advise you got from all the people here is helping you for the future. If you need more, simply ask…there a lot of people here who are willing to help you because we al share the same passion for these animals and all want the best for them.
Although his burns suck at least they will heal up and not be as present as a dark snake with scars. His should be somewhat less noticeable then a darker morph cause he is a Mojave. Definitely happy to see his recovery like everyone else and the fact he ate shows you are doing his treatment properly. Thumbs up from me for sure!
Noodle son ate his meal regardless of the mouthful of tissue he got, I’m so pleased!
He’s also looking like he’s going to need a bigger rat next time because he’s gained some size.
He’s also gained some sass, struck at the wall of the RUB while I was next to him (this was after feeding)
Fantastic news! All of his first degree burns have healed completely and are just subtle scars (second pic).
His worst burn is looking much better too, I’m expecting the scabs to be gone after his next shed.
These pictures were taken on 06/01/2020
Which is almost exactly a month from his initial burns.
I really starts looking good now. In a few sheds you will not see to much of the first degree burns anymore. Good job done.
I also found an alternative for the heatmat against the top of the terrarium stuck with double sided tape. Tape in the terrarium was the biggest mistake I once made. If I wouldn’t have checked every morning I really don’t know wether my snake would have survived so the heatmat stuck with pieces of tape, even though they we small, didn’t really made me feel good.
On the other side, my son has a few months three wooden terrariums on top of each other in his bedroom and the temp was since some weeks dropping at night to about 17 degrees celcius so they couldn’t do without heatimg. I now bought this weekend a heatwire from 6 meter long ( 5 meter get warm) at 50 watt. I put this on the outside of the terariums on the iron part that is made for ventilation. The six meter was enough for all three of them. Simple started on top fully stretched, down on the side to the next one on the other side down to the thirth one. The heatwire warms the metal of the ventilation part to about 40 degrees and the terrariums have now an ambient temp of about 23 degrees at night and 26 at daytime and 31 degrees on the hotspot where the heatmat is for bellyheat. The snakes can not touch the wire or tape because the wire is on the outside, and as light I use a simple - led strip on the outside next to the heatwire on the metal vertilation part. Since it only gets about 40 degrees it’s not really warm so there is no risk of melting. The snakes have a good temp now, without any risks for burns and it is even uses less electricity then heatlamps. I hope for the future these tips can help you to set up the heating in your terrarium once he can go back in it.
Ps. One thing for measuring temps with reptiles which I think almost no one can do without is a infrared temp gun. It gives you the chance to check the temp of the surface your snake is on, helps with defrosting food items (water above 55 degrees make your rat burst, very nasty to see) , but also tells you when your rat is nice and warm, made me aware of the crazy temps of heatlamps, ect. Ect. And they are really not that expensive if you check internet. It doen’t have to be a special one for reptiles. The one use in construction jobs also work oke.
I’m getting a little tired so forgive me If the sentences are not really 100%. Hope you still understand the thing I’m trying to write.
Handsome fellow was out and about, obviously excited for his nightly treatment! Just kidding, he still hates being creamed up and given Metacam. Due a feed today, so that must be why he’s snooping around.
You can see he’s in blue (second picture), I noticed while taking him out to clean his tub. Super excited for his second shed, hoping he’ll get rid of the other scabs.
Anyways he shed!! (16/01/20) It came off a lot better than last, and there’s no stuck parts
But I noticed a little bit of blood from his worst burn scab coming off, so I bathed him in iodine on top of treating all his wounds with Silver Sulfadiazine. Of course he had to go and ruin that with a bowel movement, but I can’t be mad
Thanks for the support again guys!
It’s really rewarding to know that he’s going to be just fine.
So the question now is: when can he go back into his enclosure?
I don’t want to risk the substrate causing any harm, but all his wounds have closed up and there’s no scabbing either.
