Advice

[Skitzmixer]

The panel under the doors are glass as well, but there's small vents that allow air flow. I'll tape part of the vents up when I get home to see if that helps. I've put some foam on the sides to help with it retaining a bit more heat already.

At the moment its sitting at 31.6 (just below the first perch) and its at 88% humidity. She's perched up on the 2nd perch as we speak.

Is it worth just giving up on the idea and move her back into the tub and build a HMR Melamine enclosure?

So I think my options are:
- Buy a 40w heat panel and she can stay in the glass enclosure (maybe?)
or
- Build a new HMR Melamine enclosure that's longer rather than taller. say 3x2x2.

I don't really know what to do. If I have to start again in a different setup, then Im happy to do that, its just an expensive learning curve haha.

 

[Skitzmixer]

A few more things come to mind... the fact that the enclosure has so much glass doesn't help, but is the bottom panel under the doors just mesh? If your room is cold, the glass doesn't help at all, but if you have vast expanses of ventilation mesh dragging cold air in the bottom and letting it out the top, there is a major convection thing going on and you'll never heat the space appropriately. Zulu is quite correct however when he says that tall cages make it difficult to manage good heat gradients, even with effective heating, especially in colder climates.

In cold places you'll need to reduce the ventilation in order to manage the heat distribution effectively, cover most of the area where cold air gets in at the lower end, and at the very least reduce or eliminate the area at the top where heat can escape. If you can cover the sides of the enclosure with thinish polystyrene foam (such as used under aquariums) you'll further reduce heat loss, and probably allow the use of a smaller heat panel.

Taller cages work OK in mellow climates, but are very difficult in cold places. Don't forget that much of the info on housing comes from the US or Europe, where they keep GTPs quite successfully even in Alaska and northern Germany.... but... the houses have central heating so are already fairly comfortable by human standards. Especially in Southern Oz, it's a bit of a no-man's-land, not cold enough for central heating, but can still get bloody cold for 3 months of the year. Our houses aren't equipped for effective thermomanagement in many cases, especially the older ones.

Jamie

So, do you think its worth just scraping the idea or getting a 40w heat panel? I've got a vine in there now so if she wants she can move to a higher or lower perch easier.

 

[Skitzmixer]

Well I've decided to scrap the idea completely. I'll put her back in the tub that I know is working perfectly.

I shall hang my head in shame, but at least I tried something new. I'll add this experience to the ever growing knowledge bank.

 

[Pythoninfinite]

Now Skitzy, DON'T hang your head in shame... you have no need to do that. If you can manage the temps in that encolsure, you'll be fine (and so will you GTP )! All you've done is set yourself a task which has been a bit more difficult than you thought it would be, but the prospects are OK if you consider your options. Sure, a cage which is wider than it is tall is easier to fiddle with, and glass is not the best insulator but I reckon you can do OK with this one too.

There is no need to be too prescriptive about GTP conditions (many new keepers micro-manage their GTP enclosures with great concern about temps & humidity) but you should always be aware that these animals actually are not artefacts of captivity, they are a living, breathing species which exists in the real world, and which, while maybe needing a bit more attention to the above parameters, is able to withstand significant variations in their environment.

By all means return her to the tub until you get the parameters within acceptable limits. I think the biggest problem you have is the ventilation - with convection the taller, narrow enclosures act like a chimney if a lot of air can enter the bottom and leave via the top. If you stop the heat from escaping out of the top, you'll create a cell of warmer air in the higher parts of the enclosure. That should be all you need. GTPs are so lazy that they'll almost never leave the place where they're comfortable (in any enclosure), so what happens elsewhere in the cage is of little importance.

Jamie