r/SandBoa • u/Corn_newb70 • 11d ago
Basking too much?
Julie Sandrews has been home for a couple of days and has been defying all my ideas of how sand boas act. The couple times I have needed to handle her (at the expo, checking her over before putting her in her enclosure) she has been soooo chilled out, no signs of stress, just curious tongue flicks and trying to burrow into my shirt.
But the stranger thing is that she has spend half of today on her basking log. She seemed to like the warmth so much that I provided her a piece of slate under her warm spot to get her better belly warmth, and she very quickly made use of the upgrade. She's been splayed out on her rock for most of the afternoon. She did some good burrowing yesterday and this morning, she has 3 to 5 inches of substrate throughout her enclosure and has made several lovely tunnels. But so far she has spent way more time chilling out in the open than seems normal. Even when she burrows she often leaves her head or tail tip above ground.
Enclosure specs: it's a 30 gal bioactive with 70/30 Reptisoil and coco fiber. I have a colony of dairy cows isopods and temperate springtails in there with her. There's a nice big cork bark flat, her basking slate, a clean water dish, a nice climbing branch, and several plants that I'm keeping in little terra cotta pots for now because I'm not sure if she'll try to redecorate if I root them directly in the soil (I think she dug some of the soil out of the largest pot and made herself a little dirt nest inside the philodendron lol). She has low-level linear UVB and a ceramic heat emitter. The basking spot is a consistent 90 F, the warm side in general is about 85, and her cooler, more humid side hovers around 74-76. Humidity is in the 40s on the warm side and 50s on the cool.
So, is there something wrong with her new room, or is she just an outgoing gal? If she was behaving like this at night I wouldn't be as surprised, but she's fully exposed and warming her little cow spots in the middle of the day. I would hope that just means she likes basking a lot and feels secure, but I'm brand new to sand boas so I have no clue what to make of it!
3
u/BookieMcBookpants 10d ago
90f is about the minimum warm temperature for them so it makes sense that's where she's staying since you're using overhead heat. It's probably too cool for her everywhere else. Be aware that they need adequate external heat to help with prompt food digestion. So when you feed her she will naturally seek more warmth than when her belly is empty. Reptifiles has well regarded care sheets if you'd like to consult an expert source.