About ready to give up!!!

Ok, we rescued a bp last Saturday.

At the moment we live in a basement apt (moving to a farmhouse August 1st) but right now the air system where we are is TERRIBLE and since we brought home the snake, we have NOT been able to keep her enclosure at steady Temps.

I have a uth with a thermostat that I've set to 91. On top of the enclosure over the hot side, I have an ambient heat black light that I have to change about 2 times a day between a 75 watt and a 100watt.
The cold side I have to keep putting stones under that fixture to raise it away from he enclosure, then taking them away and lowering the fixture. It's constant. I'm checking her Temps about 4 -5 times an hour every single day. Her cold side started at 78/79 and now ranges from 79-84. Her hot side was originally 98/99 and now has shot up to 96 (ranges from 89 to 95), so I switched to a lower watt again and turned a fan on in the room. But, if I check in an hour, the Temps will be way off again.

At night, the ac doesn't come on and the house heats up and her Temps rise rather than drop. I swear, I'm going to cry.

I'm about 30 seconds away from asking her previous owner to take her back! I don't want her to get sick and I really want her to eat. I am going to try it next Monday, but with the constant hourly fluctuations and us messing with her enclosure, (we even had to take her out today,) I doubt she will eat! She doesn't seem overly shy. She comes out to inspect while we make adjustments.

Until we move, is it safer to run her on the cooler side or warmer?

She "seems" to prefer cooler, as she stays on the cool side of her tank and her old owner had her on a 100watt bright white basking light 24/7/365, so I'm sure she was cold when not under it.

Cooler is always safer than warmer. (By this I mean that a few days in the 80's won't kill but a few hours in 100's potentially can)

What kind of thermostat do you have? It seems to be failing big time. Have you tried just using the UTH? The thermostat might not be able to handle both the UTH and extra heat from a lamp.

The thermostat keeps the mat between 91 and 95. But on top of the bedding it only reaches 85, so I put the extra light on it.. it's not the thermostat, it's the ambient air that keeps changing in here..

So a month in the high 80s is ok?

She's got a Zoomed Hygrotherm. It does humidity as well.

Right now she's at 91.2 and 82.4 but in an hour she could be at 89 and 80....

The wild changes temps all the time, a snake can handle some wiggle room. Having a hot spot exactly at 90 at all times isn't really feasible. As long as it doesn't rise up past 100 life is fine. I keep my snakes at a hot spot of 80-85 all winter for 'cooling' purposes.

Quit with the extra lighting on the hot side. It is screwing with your thermostat because it is more heat than needed.

x2 on Pit's thoughts

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Originally Posted by piedlover79

The wild changes temps all the time, a snake can handle some wiggle room. Having a hot spot exactly at 90 at all times isn't really feasible. As long as it doesn't rise up past 100 life is fine. I keep my snakes at a hot spot of 80-85 all winter for 'cooling' purposes.

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So ranging throughout the day cold side 79-84 and hot side 88-94 is not going to hurt her? Like....going up and down between those numbers?

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Originally Posted by PitOnTheProwl

Quit with the extra lighting on the hot side. It is screwing with your thermostat because it is more heat than needed.

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Without the extra light the hot side is 84-85

Ranging with those number is just fine and totally normal.

It could even stand to be a little cooler over all, just by a few degrees but nothing really to worry about. Try without the light and see if the thermostat takes over for you. And they tend to bury in the substrate to get closer to the warm if need be.

I had a snake shipped to me on a day where the weather took a sudden nose dive and the poor little gal was ice to the touch when I got her...but she was just fine.