Baskden a warm den for reptile folk

🩺 Your free vet-prep sheet

Your Green Tree Python Vet-Prep Sheet

Reptile vets are rare, and it is easy to freeze in a crisis. This is the one page to have ready — how to find a vet, what to bring, what to tell them, and the questions to ask. This helps you prepare for a visit — it is not a way to treat at home. Print it and keep it with your care notes.

Black & white saves ink and prints cleanly on any printer.

Not sure it’s a vet trip yet? Try the Is this normal? triage first — many worries turn out to be a husbandry fix.

Baskden a warm den for reptile folk · baskden.com
Green Tree Python — Vet-Prep Sheet

🔍 Find a reptile / exotics vet — before you need one

  • Search the ARAV Find-a-Vet directory (the Association of Reptilian & Amphibian Veterinarians), or in the UK the RCVS Find-a-Vet — or search "reptile / exotics vet near me".
  • Call ahead and ask the key question: "Do you see reptiles?" Not every practice does.
  • Ask the exam fee when you call. Knowing the cost up front removes the money-panic in a crisis.
  • Find and save one now, while things are calm — not in the middle of an emergency.

📇 Fill this in now — before the crisis

Two minutes now saves ten in a panic. Print it and keep it with your care notes.

My reptile vet
My green tree python
What I'm seeing

🚨 Is this an emergency now?

See a reptile vet promptly if you notice any of these:

  • Open-mouth breathing, wheezing, whistling/clicking, bubbling around the nose or mouth, or discharge — classic respiratory infection signs; see an exotics vet promptly.
  • Sitting lower than usual, refusing food for an extended period, noticeable weight loss, or unusual lethargy.
  • Redness, swelling, petechiae (tiny spots), or cheesy/caseous material in the mouth — possible infectious stomatitis (mouth rot).
  • Retained shed, especially around the eyes (retained eye caps) or tail tip, or repeated incomplete sheds — often a humidity problem plus a health check.
  • Any burn, blister, or wound on the belly/scales — usually a thermal or wet-substrate injury that needs treatment.
  • Straining, a swelling that doesn't resolve, or regurgitation of a meal — all warrant a vet visit rather than home guessing.

When in doubt, a vet call is never wrong — most issues are reversible if caught early.

🚗 On the way / while you wait

✅ Do

  • Keep it warm at a safe transport temperature — a cold reptile crashes fast (a warm car or a covered container with a warm, not hot, pack helps).
  • Keep it calm, dark and quiet in a secure, ventilated container — stress makes almost everything worse.
  • Bring it in its own container so the vet sees it as it lives.

⛔ Don't

  • Don’t offer food, or any OTC, aquarium-shop or online-forum remedy — many are useless or harmful and can mask the signs.
  • Don’t let it get cold on the way in.
  • Don’t handle it more than you must.

🎒 What to bring

  • A short video and a couple of clear photos of the behaviour or sign — it may not show it in the clinic.
  • A note of your setup (basking, cool-side and night temperatures, UVB, humidity, substrate) and exactly what — and how often — you feed.
  • Your reptile, transported safely in its own secure, ventilated container — kept warm (see below), not in a cold car.

🗣️ What to tell the vet

A general vet may not know this species. Come ready to explain its correct care:

Temperature
Warm perch / basking zone 80–86°F (27–30°C). This is the temperature of the sturdy horizontal branch at the warm end where the snake will drape and coil to digest — never a hot rock, and never a bare bulb it can press against. Cooler perch / cool end 70–80°F (21–26°C), giving the snake a true horizontal branch at each temperature so it can thermoregulate by simply shifting which perch it drapes on. Night drop to about 68–72°F (20–22°C) is fine and natural; Dubia advises not letting it fall below 68°F.
UVB & lighting
Low/optional but genuinely beneficial — a modern-best-practice choice, not a strict requirement. GTPs can survive without UVB (they don't rely on it for calcium the way a diurnal basker does), but ReptiFiles strongly recommends providing it for welfare, targeting a UVI of 2.0–3.0 in the basking area (e.g., Arcadia ShadeDweller MAX or Zoo Med Reptisun 5.0 T5 HO), on a 12-hour cycle. Adults are crepuscular, so pair modest UVB with a bright, well-lit day; mount over mesh and measure with a Solarmeter rather than guessing.
Humidity
High but breathing: roughly 40–70%, allowed to spike higher right after an evening misting and then dry back toward ~40% before the next one. The goal is a humid rainforest that ventilates — never a permanently soggy box. Track it with a digital probe hygrometer placed mid-enclosure.
Enclosure
Adult minimum is a tall, front-opening enclosure of at least 3 ft L x 2 ft W x 2 ft H (36" x 24" x 24"), per ReptiFiles and Dubia; bigger is better for welfare, and vertical height matters more than floor space because this snake lives in the branches. Prioritize a tall, well-ventilated setup — good airflow is what lets you run high humidity without stagnant, infection-breeding air. This is an arboreal, perch-based species; it will almost never come down to the floor voluntarily.
Substrate
A moisture-holding, forest-floor substrate 2–4 in deep — coconut fiber/husk, ReptiSoil or Eco Earth, plantation soil, or a bioactive mix — to buffer humidity. Since a healthy GTP rarely touches the ground, substrate is mostly a humidity engine; keep it clean and spot-clean promptly, because chronic wet filth is a fast track to skin and respiratory infection.
Diet
A whole-prey carnivore and ambush feeder: appropriately sized mice and rats (with quail, chicks, or other rodents adding variety). Feed from long, soft-tipped tongs — this snake strikes at warm, moving prey and you do not want your hand in that arc. Frequency by age: hatchlings ~every 5–7 days, juveniles ~every 1–2 weeks, adults ~every 2–4 weeks. Prey should be no wider than the thickest part of the snake.
Supplements
On an all-rodent whole-prey diet, whole vertebrate prey supplies balanced calcium and vitamins, so routine dusting isn't the driver of health it is for insectivores — proper temperatures for digestion matter far more. If you're feeding a lot of non-rodent items or want a safety margin, a light dusting with a reptile calcium/multivitamin is reasonable; do not over-supplement, especially vitamin D3 if you also run UVB.

⚕️ Reptiles are ectotherms kept at species-specific temperatures — a cold reptile can’t metabolise medicines properly, so tell the vet your exact temperatures and keep it warm for transport. Reptiles are prey animals and hide illness until it is advanced, so early changes matter. Mention your UVB/lighting and any supplements or remedies you’ve already used, and ask for reptile-safe products and doses.

Then note which of the warning signs (above) you are seeing, when they started, and whether they are getting worse.

❓ Questions to ask

  • Do you routinely see reptiles? If not, can you refer me to a vet who does?
  • What are the likely causes — and could my setup or diet be contributing?
  • What is the treatment plan, the likely cost, and what should I watch for at home?
  • How do I prevent this from happening again?