All this talk about gargoyles just convinced me to pull the trigger on my next one…. She’s coming from Canada and I’ll have to wait until the end of March. But so worth it!
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YAY I will live vicariously through you!!! I can’t wait to see photos of the little lady!!
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I’ve been working on some of my pet care documents, and wanted to run some info I found on Bloods past y’all for adjustment:
Basking temp - 85-88F
Ambient Temp - 75-78F
Humidity - 60-75%
Minimum enclosure for a full size adult 4x2x2 (feet)
UVB not required but an Arcadia Forest 6% can be beneficial
I saw that substrate needed to hold decent humidity, and I know @logar has some mix ratios, so I was wondering what you would use?
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I keep the hot spot for my girl at about 85-86, and she mostly avoids it, except for a few days right after she eats. From my experience and reading, they really don’t care for warmer temps. Mid 80s is about as warm as they like, so I’d keep your warm spot on the cooler end of that range. Apparently they tend to get pretty grumpy and reactive when they get too warm (I can relate 
).
Ambient temps look about right. Her warm side (away from the hot spot) is about 79-81, and her cool side is about 74-76. She spends a lot of time on the cool side. Often she jams herself into the coolest corner, which is about 74.
I don’t use UVB. I do have LED lights in her enclosure, but I usually don’t turn them on, as she doesn’t seem to like the light very much. If I leave them on, I often find her hiding her head in the substrate. When the lights are off, she usually has her head poking out. 
Humidity looks about right. I sometimes let it spike into the low 80s right after I mist or add water, but I aim for 60-70% most of the time. I just use coco husk for substrate, as it holds humidity well and she likes to sort of burrow into it.
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Perfect, thank you so much!
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It seems 4x2x2 is the popular norm anymore for any snake no matter how small the adult size of the snake is…….
Would that I as a keeper have the luxury of the room for twenty two 4x2x2 enclosures.
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Yeah, i think I’m probably going to have to choose very few animals to keep so that I can adhere to these recommended sizes
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If everyone adhered to “recommended” enclosure sizes, keepers would not keep as many snakes and breeders would not sell as many snakes…… 
.
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True, but since I’m not aiming to breed I feel it is kind of my responsibility to have the ‘required’ enlsoures; I won’t have the excuse (coulnd’t think of a better term) for needing to fit a ton of animals in my space for breeding purposes
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For blood pythons, I do feel that a 4x2 footprint is ideal for a female, but you definitely don’t need 2’ of height. You could use a 1’ tall cage and they’d have all the height they need. I use an 18" tall enclosure just to give myself a little extra room for cleaning. But bloods are VERY terrestrial, so any extra height in the enclosure will be purely for your benefit, not theirs.
Males could definitely be kept in a smaller footprint. And frankly, most females probably could be too. Lots of people keep their bloods of both sexes in tubs with smaller footprints and they seem to do just fine. They’re not an especially active species, so as long as they have enough space to stretch out (bloods tend to like resting in less coiled positions) and have enough space to thermoregulate, they should be just fine.
That said, given that females can reach lengths of 6’ (though 4-5’ is much more likely), I personally didn’t want to go smaller than 4x2. And my girl does use all the floor space she has at various times. It just gives her some more options for fine-tuning her thermoregulation and she has plenty of space to stretch out.
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Okay perfect, a lower height will do me just fine! I really need to figure out how I’d want to set up a reptile room to try and sort out the various cage shapes I’ll need
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Oh yes I agree. I just don’t have the room but I am not a breeder either….
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Oh but I KNOW you are giving your little dudes the best life possible at whatever size, I mostly mean the people who downsize and also downsize enrichment and interaction too
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Sorry for taking so long to respond. I was taking a break for a bit so I could get some stuff done and enjoy the “nice” weather. So for a nice cheap mixture, I would do a 50% topsoil, 30% spagnum moss, and 20% play sand. And if you want to, you can buy a bag of cypress mulch and just throw a couple of handfuls in every time you do a substrate change to add a bit more texture if you want to. The same thing applies with leaves.
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This is perfect thank you! Enjoy the ‘nice’ weather!
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I mean, there’s nothing wrong with keeping a blood in a 4x2x2. As it’s one of the most popular sizes, it’ll probably be the easiest (and maybe even cheapest) size to buy. But if you want/need to save some vertical space by shaving off some height, a blood isn’t going to care. They’re not like balls or corns or boas, where they’ll climb if given the option. They’re pretty much glued to the ground.
One other note on enclosures…avoid screen tops for bloods. Cross ventilation is very important for them, but too much top ventilation is just going to make it harder to maintain humidity. I made the mistake of getting a big screen cutout on top of my girl’s enclosure, and I had an awful time maintaining humidity until I covered it up with foil tape. So whether you build or buy an enclosure, go for a design that has adequate ventilation on the sides, but avoid screen tops.
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These are the little secrets I need to know, thank you!!
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STPS Bloods go very long periods without pooping fyi………
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That’s good to know, I totally would have freaked out over that at some point
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Uh oh guys, I’m starting to like corn snakes, which I never would have expected. And I know they are considered a good starter snake 
but a baby is sooooo small, maybe I would get a yearling or older?
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