Kind of New, a couple quick questions!

[kiasyd]

Hi everyone! I've been lurking the forums for a while but I haven't really posted anything. Anyways, I've already got a Normal KSB (That's a picture of him as my avatar!) and I was looking into getting a Ball Python soon (snakes: you can't have just one!). After doing a few months of outside research and browsing the forums here, I feel like I've got almost everything down so that I can properly take care of a BP, but there was some mixed information and some things that I just couldn't find any info about!

I'm going to either be buying a sub-adult Normal or a baby morph (I'm trying to choose between a Cinnamon, Mojave, Genetic Stripe, or Pastel), and I'm planning on housing in a 36"x18"x16" glass terrarium with three sides covered for more security. I'm getting it set up with a ZooMed Reptitherm UTH designed for 30-40 gallons with a thermostat.

I'm setting everything up at least two weeks before I actually get the ball python, that way I can make sure that I've got a handle on keeping the temperatures and humidity stable BEFORE it can affect my snake!

Now here's where the questions start!:

-I live in Southern California and I often keep my window open, so my room temperature tends to vary between 73 and 78 degrees. Because of that, I was planning on getting a heat lamp and connecting it to a dimmer so I can keep the terrarium ambient temperatures high enough. I was going to get a UV night light (Specifically the ZooMed Nighttime Moonlight bulb) so that I could keep it running whenever needed and it wouldn't stress out my snake. My question is, is that appropriate? Or should I get something else? I haven't been able to find much information on what kind of wattage to use for what size tank, so what wattage would I want to get for a 40-gallon?

-I've seen a lot of people on here specifically say that they don't use in-tank thermometers but instead rely only on a temperature gun. I know that temp guns can get more accurate readings wherever you want, but is this really an okay setup? Or do you think it's something that should only be used in supplement to thermometers?

-IF using a probe thermometer, is hot glue a safe way to secure it at the bottom of the terrarium, so long as care is taken to make sure there are no sharp edges (I'm avoiding tape for obvious reasons)? I'm worried about the snake potentially moving the probe out of place.

-I've been looking at weight scales and I've heard a lot about people having them; is this a tool that you feel is necessary, or just something that's nice to have?

-There seems to be a lot of debate about what kinds of substrate to use. I personally use aspen shavings for my KSB but that's because they like it dry and they like to burrow a lot, but I heard that aspen isn't very good at holding humidity. From what I can gather, it looks like the top choices seem to be cypress, coconut husk, and I also heard good things about EcoEarth. Which do you recommend?

I feel like I wanna emphasize with the weight scale and temp gun questions that I'm definitely not looking to cut corners on costs, I just want to see what people's opinions are on the topic! Sorry for such a long post and sorry for all the questions, and thank you so much in advance!

[JPR]

If you aren't really looking to breed, then a scale is nice to have but definitely not a necessity. As for the temp gun... I highly recommend it. You can manage well without one of course, but it's one of those things that once you have, you wonder how you ever managed without.

Substrate wise I use unprinted newspaper in my rack. But if you want it to look pretty exo earth would be my choice. It retains humidity well and coco fiber tends not to mold. Just make sure you feed on something to avoid your bp getting a mouthful of substrate (I used to use a piece of slate as a plate).

I see no issue with hot glue. But I may be wrong here. Aquarium safe silicone could be another option?

[JPR]

Eco earth*

[kiasyd]

Thanks for the reply!

For the temp gun, I personally feel like it might be best to have both the thermometers AND a temp gun, but more of what I was asking was that I've seen a lot of people swear by having a temp gun and not using thermometers in their terrariums. Is that an okay/safe thing to do, or is that something that's best left to "the professionals", so to speak?

[JPR]

Redundancies are always good. But I'd tour uth is controlled by a good thermostat, and you check regularly with the temp gun, I don't think thermometers are a necessity. I don't use any thermometers in my rack. But I don't think anyone here would fault you for being too safe.

[JPR]

If your uth**

[sopa]

Hello~

I use a thermostat, and have a probe on my uth, and use a temp gun. I only have 1 snake and am currently housing her in a 20 gal (until she gets big enough, then upgrading to a t8! woo~). In my honest opinion, you can never be too careful. The thermostat could malfunction, or the probe could not be completely accurate or might move from the hot spot. Although these are unlikely, its just good to be safe than sorry.

Your hot glue gun idea sounds like great, but do you have plans on what to do to clean? Would you just leave it in there and clean out your tank, or would you take it out and hot glue it back? I currently just have mine sitting where my bp is usually laying so I can tell if she gets too hot or not.

I also have a small kitchen scale. It really is just nice to have, and to be able to document how big she grows and such. It also comes in handy when trying to figure out what size rat she needs. Most of the people on this forum have enough experience to just look at the snake and determine what size its prey item should be, but I'm still learning.

I live in Northern California where it is much cooler than SoCal, and I don't use a heat lamp unless it's winter and my ambient temps is below 75. I have the top 3/4 of my screen top covered with foil (I used this tutorial http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...tment-Tutorial) and my humidity never drops below 60%. Its pretty consistent with being at 72. I use coconut husk substrate and have a large water bowl. I've heard of some people getting mites from cypress mulch, but not everyone gets mites from that and I think you can buy the organic one from Home Depot. That would be much cheaper than buying coconut husk substrate.

I hope this helps! Good luck

[Darkbird]

Well, in no particular order, I almost consider the temp gun a necessity as they're far too useful to me, I have used and liked eco earth, cypres, and papertowel for various reasons, a scale is nice to have but not a necessity, and I wouldn't watse the money on any petstore light bulb. Though it will cost more initially, I would recommend a ceramic heat emitter on a second thermostat to control ambient temps. Then it will not matter if the room temps fluctuate a bit, and you can get a low enough wattage CHE so that if the t-stat fails on, it won't cook the cage. And good on ya for actualy wanting to get the setup right before getiing the snake home.

[CORBIN911]

TBH thermometers are fine and dandy, but a Temp gun is priority, once you got your temp gun/Thermostat tuned up, Your sailing and happy!!!

And honestly a Thermometer (unless probed) will be practically usless for at UTH as the ambient temps dont soar too much.

But if you do choose to get one, pick up the acu-rite ones or other decent name brand ones (not meant for reptiles as they usually invovle analog stick on glass off by 10 degrees)

[kiasyd]

Thank you everyone for your help!!

Your hot glue gun idea sounds like great, but do you have plans on what to do to clean? Would you just leave it in there and clean out your tank, or would you take it out and hot glue it back? I currently just have mine sitting where my bp is usually laying so I can tell if she gets too hot or not.
(cut some off so the post isn't too long!)

I use coconut husk substrate and have a large water bowl. I've heard of some people getting mites from cypress mulch, but not everyone gets mites from that and I think you can buy the organic one from Home Depot. That would be much cheaper than buying coconut husk substrate.

For the hot glue gun (if I end up doing that), I think what I'd do is end up leaving the probe there and cleaning around it! It'd just be a small dot of glue, so the probe should still be flexible enough to pick up the cord and get under everything but the glue itself. Thanks for your advice on the cypress mulch, I'm thinking that I might want to kind of poke around Home Depot's gardening section and my local pet store and see if they'll let me open a bag and feel the substrate and maybe that way I can decide for myself which kind feels better.

I wouldn't watse the money on any petstore light bulb. Though it will cost more initially, I would recommend a ceramic heat emitter on a second thermostat to control ambient temps. Then it will not matter if the room temps fluctuate a bit, and you can get a low enough wattage CHE so that if the t-stat fails on, it won't cook the cage.

You make a good point there, thank you! What wattage would you suggest for a 36x18x16 terrarium? Like I said, room temperature around my house tends to be somewhere around 75F, so I'd be looking to get the ambient temperatures up a good eight or ten degrees. An associate at my local pet store said that with a UTH, I'd need no more than 50 or 60w but considering that it's a large chain store, I'm not exactly sure how much I trust their expertise, so I figured I'd ask here too

Also, I've read that CHEs can really take a pretty hefty toll on the humidity of a terrarium, do they really? And how do you go about handling that, other than covering parts of the tank? Would it be enough to do occasional misting, or maybe put some damp sphagnum moss in the corners?

Thanks again, everyone!