Crazy temps thermometers and humidity

[cinderbird]

I was lucky enough to find a wonderful reptile only "place" around where i live. Its a father and son and they breed all of their animals i think it is a wonderful set up. I purchased a female ball python 07 hatching from them on friday and brought her home. everything has been fine except for the temps, i'm beginning to think she's getting stressed.

she's in a 20g Long aquarium with reptibark substrate, two hides (one on each end ) and a little grape wood log in the middle and a toilet paper roll tube since i figured she might like it. i covered the two sides of the tank with black paper to minimize reflections and shadows and she's got a pretty little backdrop ( all these are outside the cage ) because, well, i like it when its pretty (lol). she also has an UTH, that keeps the amient temp around 72-74 degrees at the substrate. ( somehow..both therms read between that. the digital at 74, the analog at 72).

but onto the temps. the little temp gage they gave me is one of those tiney analog ones that i thought was aweful. i tried to gage it to the thermostat in my home to calibrate it. it went well until we turned the themostat off ( we dont have air and its not cold here yet ). so..i went out and bought a digital thermometer and hydrometer (all in one) at home deopt for like 10 bucks and thought it was great. i put it in her cage right at belly level. well..humidity read 65% at that point and i thought it was too high, so i ended up putting a 25 watt bulb in the light fixture i also got with her. the temp was initially at 84 F according to the digital thermometer. this was supposed to be the warm side. All the mean while she is acting fine. moving around occasionally, stopping to relax. however the one weird thing she is doing is not using any of her hides. neither at night nor during the day. Last night i switched out the 25 watt bulb to a 60 watt in hopes of being able to raise the temperature on the hot side. before i went to bed the temp was at about 88 F or so the thermometer said. I have the light on a timer so at around 10 o clock it turned off.. well, i didnt go to bed until about 1 something and woke up a lot during the night. The temp dropped down to 78F and the humidity spiked at 84%! this was at 6am. however, all during this time she seemed fine. acting like she'd been acting. not cruising around, but sometimes moving, sometimes not. At 9 oclock i turned her light back on. the temp went back up to 88 F and the humidity went down to 65. the next time i went to check on her she was balled up all the way at the cool end of her tank like i'd never seen her. i put the analog therm. in and it read 100 F. its a 10 degree discrepancy. i ordered a thermosat, and a red bulb ( so i can keep it on at night ) from..lilreptiles.com i think, but it will take 5-8 days to get here. i'm also pestering friends for known calibrated thermometers because i need to get accurate temps. i'm measuring everything ON the substrate because thats where she is.

and wow im so sorry for the novel. she's my first snake and i thought i knew how to get everything done but i need some help. i also looked at the care sheet i was given by the store owner.

im thinking my digital thermometer is not reading right, or that she just likes it cold.

- Samantha

[ edit ]. didnt put in she had an UTH.

[BostonMacK]

Go to Wallmart and buy an Accurite digital thermometer for $12, tons of people here swear by them. It will give you your hot side/cool side temps as well as humidity.

Also, you really cant go by the temp on the substrate because the bottom of the cage will be much hotter. You can have a 95 reading on the substrate and have the bottom of the cage read over 100 which is not good. This is where it would be nice to have an infrared temp gun to do instant spot check in your cage for peace of mind. As long as the bottom of the cage is at your desired temp you should be fine. Your snake will burrow down in the substrate if it wants more belly heat from the bottom. Never let the bottom of the tank get too hot. Your ambient temps are another story all together and this is the hard part when using glass aquarium style setups.

I will let some other people with experience in tank setups help you on this. There is a nice sticky here for tank setups which you should read.

Rule of thumb though is that you want to maintain a constant temp of around 90-95 hot side/80-85 cool side with a humidity level of about 50%, slightly more during shed cycles. If your tank is fluctuating and dipping constantly you are going to end up with a sick snake. You did the right thing coming here though!

[cinderbird]

okay, thank you SO much!.

ill go out and get one today for her.

[BigCeC43]

The first thing that would help would be a more detailed description of exactly how her tank is set up (more specifically the heating devices). As far as the heat pad goes that should be on the hot side undernear the actually tank. The lamp should be on the screen above it..wait...here this should help,

http://www.ball-pythons.net/forums/s...ad.php?t=32800

As someone who bought there first BP about a month ago I know exactly how you feel. I still wake up in the middle of the night to check on my boy . If you thoroughly read through and follow that link you should have very few problems left. On a side note a 20 gallon tank is large for a yearling and could stress her out, be sure to clutter it up w/ as much stuff as you can (newspaper is often reccomended). Temps should be about 90-92 on the hot side 80-82 on the cool side day and night. Humidity slightly above 50%, unless there in a sheding process when it should be bumped higher. Here's another link that should help

http://www.ball-pythons.net/modules....warticle&id=59

I have learned a ton from the experienced members on this site in the past month, any other questions feel free to ask.

[BigCeC43]

I type too slow, I need to get quicker on the draw.

[cinderbird]

she dosent have too much floor space in there, i can take pictures if you guys would like. i always explain stuff really badly.

the UTH and the heat lamp are on the same side. there is one hide on the hide side, one side on the cool side, and i also put her water dish on the cool side since the humidity was SO high. the grape log which is thicker than my forarm and about as big is inbetween the two hides. shes also got a toilet paper roll in there as an additional albeit moving hide. i have also put paper on the sides of the tank to make it seem smaller, its black paper cut to size. there is also a background for the tank. cutting out the white reflections from the wall behind it. she's kept in my room, its a low traffic area and i can keep people away from her.

the heating devices consist of an UTH which has no temp setting, its plug in only. and according to both therms it gets the substrate temp to 72-74 F. then there is a heat lamp, located above the UTH. (the UTH takes up about half the bottom of the tank on the warm side, maybe less a few inches ). The lamp now has a 60watt daylight balanced bulb in it, but until i can get the temps right i have turned it off (im litterally waiting for something to stop cooking in the oven before i run to walmart ).

with the 25 watt bulb the temps were reading about 82, with the 60 watt it was at 88.4 F.

once i get an accurite, im going to post back to this thread to make sure everythings okay.

[BigCeC43]

What kind/brand of UTH do you have. I have a ZooMed pad for 10-20 gallon tanks and it has gotten my substate up to 98 along with a 40 watt black night bulb. Needless to say after a few weeks I've realized the importance of a Thermostat to regulate the power output of my UTH, hence regulating the exact temps in my tank. I don't believe there are any UTHs with build in thermostats to regulate the exact temps (although that would be a great idea for any of you engineers out there).

Your probably right about the inacuracy of your current thermometer if you got a cool side reading of 100 when there's no heat source over. Personally, I would leave the 60 watt on if it brings your temps up to 88-89 which is a much healthier range for than 72-74.

Don't worry about a pic of your tank(unless you want to post it, I did when I was first trying to set up and it helped me). I think we all want to see the little baby though

[cinderbird]

the 100 F reading was on the hot side.

i might not have said that.

and i -think- its a zoomed. think. thats what they use there. but the tank and the UTH were part of a used set up. ( i do like to save money where i can ). they use all Zoomed UTH. im sorry im giving you guys all the info you use. lol

ill post again once i get back with the new thermometer.

[BigCeC43]

That makes sense then, hope you can figure things out once you get the new thermometer. I'm all about saving money also, but you should really look into a thermostat. They're not cheap, but they will save you alot of potential problems in the future. And it's a one time investment for your new buddy. Good Luck, let us know what happens.

[cinderbird]

okay, just got the temp. my thermostat is in the mail.

the problem was the other thermometers. this one is calibrated and reading the right temps.

the probe i put directly on the glass on the hot side and i think its reading a little high, but it seems to regulate itself. anywhere from 105-107 RIGHT on the glass. the analog thermometer ( i calibrated it ) is reading 92-94. the temp on the cool side is 82.9. i think i was making it too hot with the additional light and that was the problem. ill keep an eye on the temps especially until the thermostat comes. it will be getting colder here so an additional heat source will be necessary as it easially gets to below 0 degrees F where i live for more than half the year.

the probe on the hot side has been reading 105.3 for the last 10 minutes so i think it may stay there for a little while. its at 104.9 now. the UTH does seem to have some "hot spots" but for the most part ive been measuring it at 94 at the substrate.

i did take her out to check her breathing and belly scales to make sure she was okay. no wheezing, or burns or anything and im just going to let her be. she's slowly making her way around the tank now, i feel bad for waking her up but i really think the bulb heat source was the problem. it isnt getting that much cooler at night here YET, so the UTH may be okay for a few more weeks.

is it weird that she isnt using her hides though? she sleeps on top of them, but i have yet to see her inside them.

my room mate suggested a name, im thinking of naming her Aspen.

and here are some pictures of her ( not from today, dont worry ).

she has a little star on her, and a heart. she's such a girl. and you cant see it in this picture but she's got white up her sides next to her saddle markings. she's so pretty.

THANK you for the help, ill be browsing these forums more and more for extra info. ill take more pictures of her when shes all settled in.