placing heat mats

[Snakeman]

i was wondering where the best place was to place a heat mat.a guy from petco told me to place it on the SIDE i would use to warm my BP with.but lately ive been reading that other snake keepers place their mats on the bottom to provide belly heat,which is better?

[Freakie_frog]

Alot of us do it under the bottom on one end. This alows for a warm side and a cool side.

[Snakeman]

ah ok thanx,i'll change mine to the bottom then.

[Rapture]

If you put it on the bottom, make sure you monitor how hot it is getting... some heat mats can get hot spots on them. Ball pythons can burn themselves from sitting on these hot spots. It would be a good idea to plug the heat pad into a thermostat or dimmer to control how hot it gets.

[hoo-t]

i was wondering where the best place was to place a heat mat.a guy from petco told me to place it on the SIDE i would use to warm my BP with.but lately ive been reading that other snake keepers place their mats on the bottom to provide belly heat,which is better?

I wasn't there, so I don't know his exact wording. But the way I read your post, the guy at Petco may have meant (bold italics text added by me) "to place it on the bottom of the SIDE i would use to warm my BP with".

In any event, yeah, it should go on the bottom of the warm side.

Steve