Thermostat Probe Placement!

Hello Everyone!

I have recently obtained my first ball python :) And her name is Rhea. I believe I am having some husbandry issues and need your opinion/help.

Everything is going great, minus my temps. Humidity sits around 50-60 percent. For heat I am using a UTH 10 gal and a general heat lamp with a red 100 watt bulb which hangs about 7" from the top of the tank. I use the bulb to just primarily give a little ambient temp, and closer and eats away the humidity.

Here is my problem, I have about an inch of substrate in any given spot in the tank, however the substrate temp records anywhere from 93 - 105 degrees. However 1 inch off of the substrate and I am sitting at 86 degrees in the vicinity of the UTH. Obviously the hide on the warm side is a little cooler than the outside ambient air, but what should I be trying to regulate?

Should I be placing the probe for my thermostat on the actual substrate to make sure it never gets hotter than 90 degrees? Or should I be moderating the temp right above the substrate? Here are my temps right now:

Cool End Ambient 1" from substrate- 76 degrees ambient
Mid Tank 6" from substrate - 82 degrees ambient
Warm End Substrate - 96 degrees
Warm End Ambient 1" from substrate - 86 degrees

Right now I have my thermostat prob 1 inch above the substrate, which is keeping things nice at 88 degrees. But I am worried that the belly heat is way to hot and that should be 88, while ambient would be cooler around 80 or so?

Please help! My snake will not eat and she is just a baby and has already lost 3 grams :(

Welcome to the site!

UTH's only heat surfaces, they don't heat the air in the cage. Heat lamps heat the air in the cage, and is probably what is causing your high temperatures.

You need to thin out your substrate if you want your UTH to work properly. 1/2" thick or less is best.

The thermostat probe should be in 1 of 2 places:

1. attached directly to the UTH on the outside of the cage (usually sandwiched in between the bottom of the tank and the UTH itself)

2. On the floor of the cage (under the substrate) directly over the UTH.

Here is a thread that goes over in detail how I setup glass tanks, it has pictures and is step by step:

http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...With-Pictures!


More info on cage heating:

http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...t-Thermometers


As for ideal cage temps here is what I shoot for:

hot spot basking temperature between 88-92 degrees F (surface temperature)
cool side / air temperature inside the entire cage between 78-82 degrees F
humidity between 40%-60% (closer to 60% if possible)

In one of my cages I keep mine on the floor of the cage about the UTH, but under the substrate. In the other I have it directly on the UTH because the Probe was too big and I didn't want to put a huge hole in my Vision Cage.

Thank you very much for the details! I have yet to find many sources that talk about the difference of surface heat and ambient heat and very few people very properly discuss probe placement for your thermostat. I will work on changing things up a bit tonight and let you know how things go!

Thank you again!

Surface (touchable item) temp is what you really want to worry about.
Nothing over 95ish degrees.
Probe between flex-a-watt and bottom of habitat.