Caging: For neonates and young animals, we prefer to use plastic storage containers up until 18-24 months depending on animal growth rate/size. They are easy to clean and maintain. Size should be in a range from shoebox size for neos to around 16” x 12” x 12” high for 12-24 months (again depending on growth rate/size). Size can vary a bit depending on what containers you find. Multiple holes can be drilled in the top and a few midway up each end can be easily drilled to allow for adequate ventilation, yet maintain humidity. On the larger cages, holes can be drilled at one end (cool end) to hold a bird water bowl, thus giving the ETB an elevated water source.
We do not recommend aquarium tank containers as they are heavy, can break, and do not provide adequate ventilation.
Substrate: We use about 1/2”-3/4” of Brita filtered water as a substrate. This needs to be cleaned every 1-2 days for neonate cages, every 2-3 days for juvenile cages, and every 3-5 days for larger cages with elevated water bowls. As well, cage should be cleaned and water changed whenever an animal defecates/urates. The cage MUST be kept clean. We use Nolvasan as our regular disinfectant cleaning agent and use a bleach/water soak about once a month as an extra step.
You can also use damp paper towels as a substrate, but will need to make sure they remain very damp. The same cleaning frequency would apply. We do not recommend mulch, as it could cause problems if ingested. As well, mulch cannot be easily sanitized.
Do NOT use R/O (reverse osmosis filtered) water as a substrate or for drinking water. This could possibly cause an electrolyte imbalance in your animal.
Perches: We recommend removable perches. This will make routine maintenance much easier on you and on your ETB. You can use 1/4″ Delran or solid PVC or plastic coat hangers secured with tie wraps for neos and young juvies. Once they get a bit bigger and move to a larger cage, 1/2” white or beige (water softener) PVC, elbow and T-fittings can be used to build a free-standing jungle gym or hanging perch depending on your container. For larger animals, we use size appropriate PVC for each animal and burn. For small cages, build the perch to fit and then either sand (with fine sandpaper) the horizontal pipe or use a hand-held torch and burn the PVC. Make sure you burn the PVC in a very well ventilated area, preferably outside, as it gives off noxious fumes. Do NOT try to burn the delran or plastic coat hanger – sand those. Obviously, both will need to be well-cleaned (especially the burned PVC) before use. For more detailed instructions on burning PVC, go here.
Temperature/Humidity/Light: Our young animals are kept at a daytime high of 80º-83º, with a nighttime low around 78-80º. Adult animals are kept at the same daytime high with a nighttime low around 76°. Gravid females are given a basking spot of 86-90° or even higher depending on whether they are sitting directly under heat source or move away from it to a cooler area.
Conditions at your home will determine heating methods you will need. However, we recommend under tank heating as part of your set-up to warm the water/damp paper towels to create evaporation/humidity. For general cage heating, we are slowly switching all of our cages over to Pro-Heat panels as we really like them, although are still using ceramic heating elements on many. You will need a thermostat to control the heating devices. If you use a ceramic, be careful to place it at one end where there are ventilation holes and high enough/far away enough not to melt the container. Make sure the heating element is well secured and will not fall/drop on the cage.
We do not recommend heat lights as ETBs do not require much light (think dense rainforest), really don’t like too much light, and you cannot use a light at night.
Make sure you do NOT set the cage where it is exposed to direct sunlight at any point during the day, you can quickly overheat and kill your animal.
Humidity should be kept 80%-85% in the daytime and around 60%-70% at night. We set one end of our neonate/juvenile cages on 4” flex-watt. This is more than ample to maintain temperature and humidity in the ambient room conditions of our nursery room. We use 11″ flex-watt under our adult cages to create humidity.
The ETB should have a period of 10-12 hours of darkness each night.
Feeding: Neonates are fed every seven days for the first few months of life, then they go on a 7-10 day cycle, then at about 7-8 months a 10-12 day cycle, and at one year go to an every 14 day cycle. Allow the cage to cool off a bit before feeding at night. We try to switch them from live to pre killed to frozen/thawed ASAP, but each animal progresses at its own pace. Size should be gradually increased as the animal grows, eventually increasing in size from mouse hoppers (as pictured below) to rat pups. Adults are fed size appropriate rats, again, gradually increasing in size as the animal grows.
VERY IMPORTANT RULE: Three meals and then a bowel movement before another feeding. One or even two meals is better, especially for neos and young juvies, but never ever more than three before a BM. This cannot be stressed enough! A bowel prolapse is something to definitely be avoided!
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