proportional thermostats

[naturabornkilla]

Hello. I have a caramel corn snake, and I want to get a proportional thermostat for her to maintain temp of the enclosure.

Most people seem to recommend an expensive thermostat that's at least 100$ US, such as a herpstat, vivarium electronics, helix, etc.. But a lot of them seem to be either breeders, or people with multiple reptiles.

My question is, how reasonable is it to get something like a herpstat, just for 1 reptile? I still would like a proportional thermostat but I am wondering if there is any that are cheaper. Also, if anyone has had a cheaper proportional thermostat that is of good quality and lasts a long time which you would like to recommend, please do

Any answers greatly appreciated.

[erich_7719]

I am in south east Michigan. My corns are in the living room that is about 68-72 in the winter and 72-85 in the summer, with no additional heat source. The corns are very active and are at a healthy weight.

With that said, if you need the additional heat source. The herpstat and vivarium is good for a rack with heat tape or a single enclosure with a heat mat, and they're both (in my opinion) very reliable.

[JoshSloane]

For just one corn you can save yourself the money and just get a lamp dimmer. It acts as a rheostat and you can modulate your temps. Many people do spend over 100$ on a tstat for one snake, but for your purposes I think a dimmer would do just fine, provided your temperatures in the room don't shift much.

[naturabornkilla]

I have a couple heat sources in this enclosure just because otherwise the temp would drop too much (the room is pretty cold). on the hot side of the enclosure it fluctuates from 80-85 degrees quite a bit, is this something to worry about or is it fine for a corn snake to have that much of a change in tempurature?

[naturabornkilla]

also i do have a rheostat currently

[PitOnTheProwl]

Corns are a lot more forgiving than Balls.
As long as you can keep it in the 80s you should be fine.

[JoshSloane]

I wouldn't worry about 85 degrees as a high temperature. But from what I understand with corns you really don't need much more than around 80 degree hot spot for digestion. Maybe turn down your rheostat so that if it oscillates temp it will just go between 75-80 deg, which would be ideal I think.

[naturabornkilla]

Sounds good. Thanks for your quick replys people!