Burn Temps

I've been reading about snake cage temps and how everybody needs to regulate them. Yup, I'm sold on that idea.

Okay, so what is the absolute maximum safe temperature measured at the glass for a UTH?

Snakes will burrow, but if you set the glass temp at say 85, the substrate level will be less than that, right?

So what is the safest at the glass?

Some places online around have said 100F. What does everybody else think?

*We're assuming this is just the hottest part, and the snake still has areas that are cooler so it can regulate itself.

Personally I believe NOTHING should be over 94ºF inside the enclosure. It isn't so much about burns but that if the animal were to stay beyond this temp it is questionable if the snake will be able to properly digest food.

I believe ambient temp effects snakes movement to surfaces too hot for their own good. This is one reason why I feel the ambient air temp is also a critical temp.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by kitedemon

Personally I believe NOTHING should be over 94ºF inside the enclosure. It isn't so much about burns but that if the animal were to stay beyond this temp it is questionable if the snake will be able to properly digest food.

I believe ambient temp effects snakes movement to surfaces too hot for their own good. This is one reason why I feel the ambient air temp is also a critical temp.

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by the serpent merchant

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I was playing around with the rheostat last night and with the temp probe buried under the mulch against the glass directly above the UTH I got a reading of 100F. At that same setting, with the probe moved to the top of the mulch, where the snake would crawl around, it gave me a reading of 80F. So there was 20 dgrees of heat loss in that little bit of space. That didn't seem to unreasonable to me. If I make it so that at the glass, the reading is only 94, then temp above the mulch will be way below what I feel is safe.

So the ambient air temp wasn't 100F, or even 94F. It was closer to 80F, for a night time temp.

Some might say use less mulch, but its only about an inch or so as it is now.
*I have thicker patches of mulch elsewhere, just not by the pad.

So how do I rectify the situation?

Hi,

You could use a different substrate and less of it?

BP's are perfectly capable of moving your substrate around or burrowing down to the glass. It's more about managing risk and preventing problems when setting the cage up.


dr del

Del has this one right. Less substrate on the hot side. I set my t-stats on the glass bottom enclosures I have at 91 and get 90-91 on the substrate but it is not thick. Less than 1/4 inch. it moves around a lot when I lift the hides I usually see a mound in the centre and along the edges but none in a ring.

Ambient temps are mis understood yours are fine at 80! Typically 78-85 is fine for ambient temps.

Snakes organs are all elongated. The lung is long and passes along the heart and liver. If the air temp is low or high the 'lung temp' is as well if dramatically low or hight the blood will be as well and thermoregulation becomes impossiable. This is where I think a lot of burn come from snakes will lay of a too hot surface in effort to warm the 'lung' or correctly body core temp up and burning them selves in the process.

Thanks everybody.

Glad we got that straightened out.