Needing a little help with a couple questions about UTH, please..

Good evening. We added a new member to our family today. Her name is Gypsy, and she is my first ball python. She's only 2 months old. My son got her for me from the same breeder he got his ball python, Nagini, from a few months ago. I've only had her for11 hours and I'm already in love. 18 years ago I had a red tail African boa, so I'm not totally a newbie. But 18 years is a long time and they're different types of snakes. So any advice is welcomed. I have read many care sheets and want only the best for Gypsy. We have her in a 10 gallon glass tank. I'm going tomorrow to have the plexiglass cut. I originally bought her a heat rock. But the care sheet on this site says not to use them. Soooo, my questions are: what proper wattage do I need for her UTH pad? And do we leave it on 24/7?

Wattage isn't what you really look for. You want the size of it to be about 1/3 the cage floor. That way the snake has room to get warm but also room to get cool. Most of important of all is you want a thermostat to run that UTH. You never want to let one run unregulated off wall power. They can get very hot and burn the snake or give the snake neurological problems from being overheated. Also you only want the substrate about 1/4-1/2" deep and you want to take the temp reading from the glass floor on the inside of the cage as snakes can and will push substrate aside to get to the bottom.

A under tank heater(uth) is what you want. The rocks are not good and can be dangerous for your snake.

If you are going to a pet store to buy a uth you will find they go by size. You want a uth that can heat the entire footprint of your snake coiled. You will see the size of the tank suggested on the packaging.

A uth should NOT be used alone. You need to monitor it and control it with a thermostat. Now you will probably be able to find a tstat at the pet store but they are typically junk. It is suggested here to go with a nice digital model like a Herpstat from Spyder Robotics. All of mine are Herpstat, all four.

http://spyderrobotics.com/

There are other brands like Helix http://helixcontrols.com/

or

Vivarium Electronics from Reptile Basics. http://www.reptilebasics.com/thermostats

Having a good tstat is very important, the most important, thing you need for your snake. It is not an item to go cheap on. Look up pics of burned snakes to see why. Your snake can live 20-30 years and buying a good tstat will give you great service much longer than any el cheapo you may find at most pet stores.

Most people do keep their uth on 24/7, I do. Using a tank you may also need a heat lamp as a uth does not help the ambient temps and depending on the room the tank is in you may need to raise the ambient temps with a secondary heat source.

When you get a uth and tstat you need to also make sure to set it up correctly. The UTH goes outside the tank as does the tstat probe. It is common to sandwich the tstat probe between the uth and the bottom of the tank, again on the outside. Then inside you need to keep any substrate over the uth thin, 1/4 inch or less.

Also a good tip if you get a uth from the pet store you will probably find it to have a peel and stick method to attach it to the bottom of the tank. The tip is to peel the plastic off but instead of putting in on the tank bottom cover the stick part with foil and trim it. Then use aluminum foil tape(duct tape) to secure the now foiled uth to the tank bottom. This will allow you to easily remove the uth if it is ever needed for cleaning or a tank change.

Thank you. You're response is very helpful. Now I know what to look for tomorrow.

You should check your local Craigslist and such. You can many times find a person getting out of the hobby or that has upgraded their system and offering a nice tstat for sale. You can find some nice used cages this way too. PVC is the way to go and will be much less of a hassle than a glass tank.

Not that a glass tank cant work. I still use two glass tanks just because I like how they display. They are much easier to deal with in a heated snake room like I have now but before when I didn't my 40 gallon tank had a uth, a 100watt che, and a 60 watt heat bulb to keep the numbers where they needed to be. I like my home cold so I had to pump a lot of heat into the tank to keep things right.