Belly heat vs Over-all temperature?

Hey everyone,

I recently made a post about my cage set up for my new ball python, Casper. Through many helpful comments, I found that there were many things about my DIY set-up that needed work. But I have a question about temperature.

I'll try to be as clear as possible about what's going on in my cage currently.

I have a large heat pad under one side of my cage. It is directly under Casper's hiding area.

I also have a thermostat that the heat pad plugs into to regulate the heat pad's temperature. The probe is directly on the heat pad, under the cage. I have the thermostat set to 95 degrees.

So basically, Casper has an area where he can get 95-degree belly heat all throughout the day.

I also have a thermoMETER inside of the cage to measure the overall temperature. The heat pad doesn't seem to affect the overall temperature of the cage. My thermometer reads 75 degrees almost all day long with few exceptions.

My question is this: Does the overall cage temperature need to be higher? My original thinking was that, as long as the ball python has an area where it can get belly heat of about 95 degrees, then the overall cage temperature doesn't matter. What do y'all think? I emailed BHB reptiles about this issue and I got the reply that I was doing the right thing. But I know Brian keeps his snake rooms at higher temperatures than I have in my house.

- John

I would personally try to get the ambient temperature a little closer to 80 degrees. As you already know, a properly regulated UTH does little to nothing for ambient temperatures.
This weekend I will be firing up my oil filled heater and usually keep the whole room around 83ish degrees.

I personally would lower the heat pad to 90 and bump up the ambient to 80. 75 is fine if you have the heat pad but don't forget that temps can fluctuate at night so your temps might be lower without you realizing it.

All my terrariums are set up for 80 degrees ambient heat. I don't provide belly heat or heat gradience. This set up has worked perfectly for me. This is also how large breeders set up their racks. Their rooms are set up for a certain ambient temp. They don't provide any supplemental heat.

Your hot spot is way overkilled most will not recommend over 94, I don't even recommend over 92 for an adult and 88 for an hatchling, I would highly suggest you to lower the temps.

Cool end is fine so long it does not fall below 75 also usually but for new owner I would recommend more along the line of 78/80 on the cool side.

I keep mine at 75 and 88 during the winter without issue.

Like mentioned, i would try and bump up that ambient. I keep all my ambient for all my snakes around 78-80F. While the hot side is a bit on the high side, as long as the snake can get away from it, it should work but really you want it around 88-90F. You can kind of tell what your snakes likes. If he never uses it, then its probably too hot, if he is always on it, then its probably too cold. They should use both sides ideally. Of course my snakes almost never use their warm sides and always like the 78-80F temps lol.

My daughter requested (and received) her first ball python for her birthday last month. We purchased the recommended set-up from our local reptile store. Before bringing her beautiful pastel banana boy home we had a problem with ambient temperature as well. She has an Exo-Terra 24x18x12 cage with an Ultratherm 6x23 UTH. What we ultimately concluded was that our substrate, Exo-Terra Forest Bark, was too thick and was actually acting like a layer of insulation on top of our UTH. We reduced the depth of the substrate over the rear of the cage (where the UTH was located) to 1" and left it at 2" toward the front of the cage. That seemed to correct the problem.

Her boy has been home for two weeks and seems happy in his new habitat. He has readily eaten his last two meals and seems to enjoy cruising around his cage at 2am. The only mistake we are certain we have made so far was buying "pretty" hides that he would grow into. When he began to show a preference for sleeping under the many plastic plants in his cage we swapped pretty for inexpensive smaller hides. He clearly prefers them.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by larryd23

My daughter requested (and received) her first ball python for her birthday last month. We purchased the recommended set-up from our local reptile store. Before bringing her beautiful pastel banana boy home we had a problem with ambient temperature as well. She has an Exo-Terra 24x18x12 cage with an Ultratherm 6x23 UTH. What we ultimately concluded was that our substrate, Exo-Terra Forest Bark, was too thick and was actually acting like a layer of insulation on top of our UTH. We reduced the depth of the substrate over the rear of the cage (where the UTH was located) to 1" and left it at 2" toward the front of the cage. That seemed to correct the problem.

Her boy has been home for two weeks and seems happy in his new habitat. He has readily eaten his last two meals and seems to enjoy cruising around his cage at 2am. The only mistake we are certain we have made so far was buying "pretty" hides that he would grow into. When he began to show a preference for sleeping under the many plastic plants in his cage we swapped pretty for inexpensive smaller hides. He clearly prefers them.

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do you have a thermostat to control the temp on your uth?

Yes. We bought the Herpstat 1 Basic model. We're only using it for the UTH. The boy gets natural (indirect) daylight so we're not using any artificial lighting for his cage.

Yes. We bought the Herpstat 1 model (my daughter corrected my post). The boy gets natural (indirect) daylight so we're not using any artificial lighting or heat lamp for his cage.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by larryd23

My daughter requested (and received) her first ball python for her birthday last month. We purchased the recommended set-up from our local reptile store. Before bringing her beautiful pastel banana boy home we had a problem with ambient temperature as well. She has an Exo-Terra 24x18x12 cage with an Ultratherm 6x23 UTH. What we ultimately concluded was that our substrate, Exo-Terra Forest Bark, was too thick and was actually acting like a layer of insulation on top of our UTH. We reduced the depth of the substrate over the rear of the cage (where the UTH was located) to 1" and left it at 2" toward the front of the cage. That seemed to correct the problem.

Her boy has been home for two weeks and seems happy in his new habitat. He has readily eaten his last two meals and seems to enjoy cruising around his cage at 2am. The only mistake we are certain we have made so far was buying "pretty" hides that he would grow into. When he began to show a preference for sleeping under the many plastic plants in his cage we swapped pretty for inexpensive smaller hides. He clearly prefers them.

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I use a space heater for ambient heat close to my enclosure.

I use Eco Earth as my substrate, I just have my thermostat bumped up to compensate for the heat loss through the substrate, and when I temp gun it, my substrate reads 91.