Yesterday when I checked my surface temperature under his hide, I got a 103 degree reading in one spot once. This concerned me so I tried to replicate it by retesting. I spent quite a while doing lots of surface readings over the UTH with the temp gun and never got a reading over 98 again. I put a thick layer of aspen over it just in case.
Today I got a reading of 108 which I could replicate, and the surface was very hot when I touched it. So, I believe the temp gun is reasonably accurate. The snake is okay. He's been staying in his cool hide and is not showing any symptoms of heat damage.
I am not sure what the Herpstat settings were. I will be learning how to do that; I'm not the regular snake care person. I DO know it was supposed to be set for a high temperature UNDER 100. The Herpstat display panel showed 100% and a temp of 95. I also know that the Herpstat controls have definitely NOT been manually changed for many many weeks---not even by accident. The control panel is protected from any changes by the other house pets, and I'm the only human in the house for a week.
The probe from the Herpstat is outside/underneath the glass tank between the glass and the UTH. Since I'm the only one here, I strongly believe the probe was NOT accidentally moved or bumped.
I immediately unplugged the UTH and the Herpstat. I can keep the ambient temperature in healthy ranges without the UTH, and the snake has not been fed this week and will not be for at least a few days. So I'm under the understanding he can live without his basking spot for a few days.
The glass aquarium is too heavy for me to mess with, so I'm waiting until Thursday or Friday to try to fix things and triple check the placement of the probe and the Herpstat settings.
But once help arrives, is there any way to test the Herpstat? I will triple check the settings on it and the placement of the probe, but how can I find out if the Herpstat itself is broken? Is there a way to test the probe?
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