Hello, I am new to this forum and am looking for assistance for my viv for my first pet, a ball python. Firstly I bought a large viv from pets at home, they told me it would be okay and i later discovered that the medium viv may have been enough, my python is 18 months old and I could guess near 4 foot. The heatmap they supplied me was struggling to heat up such a large viv and for the first day I struggled to average an air temperature of around 24c.
Today I bought a basking lamp to try counter this (something I wasn't expecting to need to do an have no knowledge on) the guy sold me a 60W bulb and a ceramic dish wish is mounted atop the viv and protected by a cage and is doing a much better job of heating the tank up when paired with the heatmap. I now have an air temp in the tank of around 28c. However I am now curious if the heatmap is necessary, I later found out its not recomendded for pythons due to the risk of thermal blocking. I am paranoid however the cold end of the viv may plumit to low, or even the lamp may struggle to heat up the entire viv without it, the snake still spends most of its time ontop of the heatmap in the shelter, which was initially meant to be the hot side, but because the light fitting is on the other side has now become the cold side but is still evidently fairly warm at around 25c. what is the best way to get an overall warmth in the tank? will a 60W bulb be enoug to heat that tank as a hole? on the platform its about 31c directly under the light. Is that too high? could that harm the snake? I am hoping to remove the heatmap completely if possible, but then comes the problem of maintaing heat in the night, I am able to keep the light on but I also read how this can cause stress for the snake, so i am confused as to how I would maintain any kind of heat if the lamp is off in the night and the heatmap has been removed?
Any tips/products/procedures are appreciated.
Reply With Quote