• Posted 12/19/2024.
    =====================

    I am still waiting on my developer to finish up on the Classifieds Control Panel so I can use it to encourage members into becoming paying members. Google Adsense has become a real burden on the viewing of this site, but honestly it is the ONLY source of income now that keeps it afloat. I tried offering disabling the ads being viewed by paying members, but apparently that is not enough incentive. Quite frankly, Google Adsense has dropped down to where it barely brings in enough daily to match even a single paid member per day. But it still gets the bills paid. But at what cost?

    So even without the classifieds control panel being complete, I believe I am going to have to disable those Google ads completely and likely disable some options here that have been free since going to the new platform. Like classified ad bumping, member name changes, and anything else I can use to encourage this site to be supported by the members instead of the Google Adsense ads.

    But there is risk involved. I will not pay out of pocket for very long during this last ditch experimental effort. If I find that the membership does not want to support this site with memberships, then I cannot support your being able to post your classified ads here for free. No, I am not intending to start charging for your posting ads here. I will just shut the site down and that will be it. I will be done with FaunaClassifieds. I certainly don't need this, and can live the rest of my life just fine without it. If I see that no one else really wants it to survive neither, then so be it. It goes away and you all can just go elsewhere to advertise your animals and merchandise.

    Not sure when this will take place, and I don't intend to give any further warning concerning the disabling of the Google Adsense. Just as there probably won't be any warning if I decide to close down this site. You will just come here and there will be some sort of message that the site is gone, and you have a nice day.

    I have been trying to make a go of this site for a very long time. And quite frankly, I am just tired of trying. I had hoped that enough people would be willing to help me help you all have a free outlet to offer your stuff for sale. But every year I see less and less people coming to this site, much less supporting it financially. That is fine. I tried. I retired the SerpenCo business about 14 years ago, so retiring out of this business completely is not that big if a step for me, nor will it be especially painful to do. When I was in Thailand, I did not check in here for three weeks. I didn't miss it even a little bit. So if you all want it to remain, it will be in your hands. I really don't care either way.

    =====================
    Some people have indicated that finding the method to contribute is rather difficult. And I have to admit, that it is not all that obvious. So to help, here is a thread to help as a quide. How to become a contributing member of FaunaClassifieds.

    And for the record, I will be shutting down the Google Adsense ads on January 1, 2025.
  • Responding to email notices you receive.
    **************************************************
    In short, DON'T! Email notices are to ONLY alert you of a reply to your private message or your ad on this site. Replying to the email just wastes your time as it goes NOWHERE, and probably pisses off the person you thought you replied to when they think you just ignored them. So instead of complaining to me about your messages not being replied to from this site via email, please READ that email notice that plainly states what you need to do in order to reply to who you are trying to converse with.

Interested in ATB

fishermanzack

fishermanzack

Zack the Noob...
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Ok, so first of all please don't hate me. I've never had a reptile besides a bearded dragon when I was like 10 and it died... I'm now 21 and I've been keeping fish mostly for the past few years, hardcore is what most normal people would call me. I mainly keep cichlids b/c everything else is boring... Well I didn't learn too much until I joined forum sites. I now work at a pet store called Petland and before that I worked at one called Pet Warehouse, always working in fish of course. Well this new one is fish and reptiles, and ever since I worked at the first store I've been thinking about getting a snake. Well we had a small brown ATB in the other day about 18" or so maybe a little longer. I absolutely loved the thing! We actually handled it quite a bit. I myself got him (or her) out at least 3 times that day and then we ended up selling it... So after that night I read up on them for like 3 hours, I tried to find a forum site to ask questions but never found this till now, and I'm glad I did. No one knows better than those who have them or have had them. So anyways there's the preface haha. After reading up on them I've been looking at colors and sizes and size tank I'll need for an adult. I've found a baby orange that is about 16" that I'm really considering getting. Here are my questions... again please don't hate me. I know they are naturally mean snakes and I've only heard of a few nice ones, if I get it at this young of an age and handle it quite a bit, could it get used to being handled and be less aggressive towards me? My boss said he had one and another guy that works there used to have a reptile store and they both said they are ok once you get them out of the cage, is that true? And my next question is... if you had to suggest something different that I could handle and would be about the same size, sweet colors, I love the tree part about them, and about the same price, what would you suggest? I also want to start with a small one like 16-18". Thanks to everyone who helps.

Zack
 
ATBs are great. Neat looking snakes like mad.

No snake is mean. They just have particular stress levels.

ATBs are great. Just be ready for it to tell you that it is a little beyond when it should have been put back. You'll come to see the signs before that over time.

Although snakes have a limited amount of recognition, the more handling they get, I feel the more used to it they get.

Good luck with your ATB, just get some crazy weird color going on.

Erik
 
I agree - ATBs are great,
and less dependent on rigid attention to husbandry details (like temp & humidity) than ETBs...in other words, though you still have to keep them within an acceptable range, they tolerate a wider range.
As for attitude/temperament, it varies. After a while, you get a feel for them, and even the ones that are inclined to bite can be easily dealt with if you pay attention to the cues. The whole "once they are out of the cage" thing is only slightly more pertinent with any other snake, and that is because you often have to get them off their perch (and when they don't want to come off, that can be an adventure in itself, lol). Move too fast, or do things they don't like, and you could find yourself with a few new holes - regardless of how long it is out of the cage, or how often you handle it.

A couple of hints - they tend to prefer thin branches/perches
- they will spend more time on the ground than you expect
- use long tweezers/tongs to feed them (unless you plan on using live :ack2: )
- don't overfeed
- if it regurgitates even once, figure it is something you are doing wrong. check and correct all husbandry issues, and make sure you give it time before feeding again. If it regurges again, get it to a vet for a fecal
 
Hey guys thank so much for the info thus far. It's really helpful. I'm glad to hear snakes aren't mean and they just have different stress levels. I'll probably end up getting this little guy next week or so. He won't have the best conditions at first but within a week of getting him I'll have a nice cage for him. I get a pretty sweet discount at Petland of 25% and could easily talk my manager into 30% on an exoterra cage that is 18x18x24. Sounds good right? As for husbandry, are we just talking about general care of the snake when we say that? And feeding live or dead, what's the difference? As for overfeeding I think I'm going to only feed it once a week considering it'll be in my dorm room (shhh.... ;)) and I won't want it to grow too fast. Thanks again guys, and I'm really grateful for the quick responses!

Zack
 
Husbandry includes temperature and humidity. How they are being kept.

Feeding live means lots of potential bites to the snake which can be extremely painful for the snake and expensive for you. I had one BCC that got bit once and refused to feed for the next two months. Of course, I went through the process of switching them over immediately after that.

I tend to think that I would prefer to die by asphyxiation through carbon dioxide rather than being caught and suffocated, personally. Just another bonus to feeding frozen/thawed, I don't think the mice/rats suffer as much.

Get your conditions proper before introducing the snake, it is much less stressful for the poor guy and you'll probably wind up with better results coming from a happy snake. 18x18x24 sounds big enough. Like HH said, be sure to give some ground hides and such, mine used to curl up underneath the water bowl for some odd reason.
 
Alright thanks for the info so far guys, really appreciate the help. Well I went out and bought a cage for him tonight and I think I'm going to get him next week hopefully. They were out of the big ones so I just bought a 12x12x18 until they get the bigger ones in in about a week and a half and my boss said he'd let me trade it in for the bigger one. So he'll only be in this one for a short period of time, and since he's only about 16" I didn't think it would be too big of a deal. And as for feeding dead mice, I'll probably do that just to be safe. What are we looking at for heat and humidty? I bought gauges tonight. thanks again.

zack
 
I've kept a number of them and yeah they are nippy even when babies but some settle down and tolerate handling.. They are pretty easy to keep but if you'd like something that is just as easy or even easier look at The Solomon Island tree boas, they don't get very big and I've never had one try to bite me though I'm sure some must. The only problem is that there are not many captive bred available though you can find WC easily, just make sure it is a long term Captive and feeding on frozen thawed rodents before buying. Though I've never had much trouble getting fresh WC to eat it is best to go with LTC or CB animals . They are usually fairly inexpensive and you would do best with a sub adult or an adult as the babies are really small and are work to get started on pinkie mice. Either way you go be it ATB or SITB you'll have a good starter Arboreal... Randy
 
thanks ravensgait for the help. I'll probably still end up getting these ATB though, but at least now I know another option. Ok so like I said I bought the cage tonight and here are some pics. I also was wondering what am I looking at for temp and humidity? The cave is decently ventilated at the top and even has some front air vents. It's a pretty sweet cave, maybe you'll like it.

DSC00342.jpg

Here's the whole cage
DSC00344.jpg

Here's a look inside with the doors open
DSC00345.jpg

Heres the doors open and you can see the ventilated top
DSC00346.jpg

And here is where I'll be hiding it from other people in the dorm, haha.

Zack
 
I also put some exoterra jungle earth in as the substrate, tree bark, stuff, says its good for humidity and I hear ATB's like it humid.

Zack
 
Zac, you'll need to cover the screen top to keep humidity up.. Cut a couple pieces of plexi to fit and you should be fine... Randy
 
Ok, I have the cage set up, except I haven't put the plexi glass on yet, I'm doing that tomorrow. I put the light on top that i have and it's a 60W bulb. I put the thermometer close to the bottom of the cage and the hygrometer is still at the top hanging. It's been on for a couple hours because I wanted to just see what it's at and the thermometer reads 95 degrees and the hygrometer reads 46... So I need some suggestions on what to do again, I know the plexi-glass will help with the humidity but will it help keep the temp down or should I just get a lower wattage bulb?

Zack
 
You'll want to tone that 95 down. Figure a nice 85 with humidity peaks around 80. Temp and humidity will fluxuate between day and night from 75 - 85 and humidity should run 60-80. You'll know you're doing it right when it has a nice full shed.
 
Ok, so now that I know what it needs to be at, how do I get it there? Lower watt bulb? Move it further from the tank (it's sitting right on top of the tank right now), and as for humidity, misting regularly?
 
Well you best bet is a heat pad or panel ,, someone gave me one of those cages a couple of years ago and I had a chondro in it for a while.. I have pictures somewhere I'll see if I can find one and post it so you can see the set up I used a heat panel.. Randy
 
This is all I could find which doesn't show much, the heat panel is right above her I used plexi and just cut it to fit around a small heat panel.

For an ATB I'd use a heat pad mounted low on the side, with the temp inside next to the heat panel around 85.. These guys don't like getting to hot and will need a gradient of around 85 to the low to mid 70s.. Lights are something I don't like to use as they are more dangerous and more difficult to set up right. They also dry things out which you don't want to do.. Randy
 
Thanks Randy, I'm going in to work today to return a couple things and I'll see if I can't get a heat panel or is it the same thing as a heat pad? Could I just put it under the substrate? Or should I somehow mount it on the side? And I didn't see a picture on your post.

zack
 
Heat tape or an under tank heater (UTH) mounted on the outside. Don't electrocute your ATB, it won't take much. Heat tape may be your better bet. Don't let it drop below 70 at night.

I have a few of the electronic thermometer/hygrometers. They cost about $25 each and have a min/max display so that you can see what it gets at it's lowest without staying up until 4am watching the thing.

Be sure to read about ventilation as well. One of those difficult things is being able to maintain humidity and temperature while providing some airflow. Those enclosures are pretty popular, so they can't be too bad to maintain or people wouldn't use them.
 
Ok, so I talked to a guy from work who used to own his own reptile and fish store and he helped me out. He said he tries to stay away from heat pads when dealing with amazons, not sure why but I just said ok, he hooked me up with a 50W infrared heat glo bulb, and said I wouldn't have to worry about turning it off and losing heat. I also went and got some thing plexi glass cut to fit on the top screen. I got it cut in 4 pieces in case for some reason I need to ventilate the tank more I can just pull pieces off one at a time. The airflow should be pretty good though. There are vents in the front not to mention small cracks around the door that some air can circulate. I set up the light a few hours ago and the tank is around 83 and humidity is 60, without me misting the tank. So it's looking good so far. Turns out that the guy I'm getting this orange one from is going to just throw in a garden phase as well. I'll be ordering them tomorrow and getting them tuesday!

Zack
 
Make sure it's got a day/night (light / dark) cycle. Their eyesight is poorer than ours, but not non-existant. Infrareds are good for keeping heat at night, but don't forget some daytime hours for the doods.

Edit: You should be able to control the day/night temperatures to within limits, do not rely on the non-light heat control for that. They really do need a day and night cycle. Think about yourself in a heat controlled chamber. What's day? What's night? They are living things.

60 is good, get it a bit higher, 80 peak in the daytime. 60 is fine for the middle of the night.

Don't subject this living creature to conditions that you don't think that you can keep. The whole "hiding it from everyone else" thing can be manageable, but don't make this living creature give up it's comforts because of it.

I've killed my fair share of animals due to inexperience. It sucks.
 
Hey Erik, I totally understand where you are coming from. I've actually moved the cage on top of my desk right behind my computer in front of the windows so that I can see it more often. I'll be fine if anyone sees it, just as long as the dean doesn't. My RA is cool with it. So if I have lights on in my room and the infrared heat bulb does that count as a day and night cycle? Cuz he will have other light than just the infrared during the day, just not a heat light. If that still isn't good enough, I'll go back and get the heat pad, is that the same as a heat panel? Oh and the humidity is just without me misting it, I plan on doing it, I was just giving some stats. I'm ordering them today!
 
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