Ball Python Cage/Heating Help(First Post)

Hello everyone! My name is Danya(I'm from Russia), but you can call me Daniel. I am a very new and young snake hobbyist so I have a lot of questions but barely any answers. My first every Ball Python(Normal, Male, ordered from XYZReptiles) will be coming very soon and and I have a question about the heating of my tank. My setup: I have a 20 gallon tank with a snake hut in the back, a water bowl right in the middle of the tank and an 8 Watt(10-20 gallon) ZooMed heat pad upfront. My Normal Temp is at around 76 Fahrenheit, which is not the best, and a decent 89-91 Fahrenheit on the warm side of the tank. My humidity is usually around 59%. Anyways, I've heard that many people recommend placing a heat pad under the snake's hut and I want to put a small 5-10 gallon ZooMed 4 Watt pad under my snake hut to keep the lil noodle warm and to increase my tank temperature a bit. Is this an ok think to do? Thank you for reading and I will greatly appreciate any sort of feedback! :D

Yes you can run two heating pads, won't really do anything for your ambient temps but it'll raise your cool side temps. Do you have a thermostat for your heating pads? While you're at it I'd get another identical hide for him so he doesn't choose security over thermoregulation.

Thanks for replying. Yes, I actually have two thermostats(one digital, one non-digital). They both show pretty much the same stats(There on opposite sides of the tank). My hide is actually pretty big(It's big on the outside, but the inside should be perfectly fine) so a second one would make the tank look very big and bulky. Is a smaller hide fine in this situation?

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Originally Posted by Danya

Thanks for replying. Yes, I actually have two thermostats(one digital, one non-digital). They both show pretty much the same stats(There on opposite sides of the tank). My hide is actually pretty big(It's big on the outside, but the inside should be perfectly fine) so a second one would make the tank look very big and bulky. Is a smaller hide fine in this situation?

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I Do believe you have a thermostat confused with a thermometer. A thermometer measures temperature, a thermostat will control the temperature of a heat source. Every heat source needs to be regulated by one. And I'm not sure how big your hide is, but you want a snug hide. Your snake will not feel secure in a large hide.

Oh, my bad. I use a thermometer gun that I check my temp with. Ah thanks, I'll get two thermostats at one. Any decent not too expensive thermostats that you know of? The hide that I have right now is small on the inside but large on the outside. As far as I've read and seen, the hide should be a perfect size for a baby ball python.

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Originally Posted by Danya

Oh, my bad. I use a thermometer gun that I check my temp with. Ah thanks, I'll get two thermostats at one. Any decent not too expensive thermostats that you know of? The hide that I have right now is small on the inside but large on the outside. As far as I've read and seen, the hide should be a perfect size for a baby ball python.

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Jump Starts a decent lower cost thermostat, the probe goes in between your heating pad and your enclosure. This way the probe can't get wet or moved which could cause spikes in temperature. There's a diagram floating around here for it, if I can find it again I'll post it.

If you're willing to put down about $100 (American), Spyder Robotics has a great thermostat. Very easy to use and good looking.

On a side note, greetings from an American Russian! I was born in southern Siberia but my family moved here when I was very little.

Sent from my VS995 using Tapatalk

Great to see you here! Since I just recently installed a second heat pad, $200 is quite a bit for me, so hopefully I'll be able to get two for $100. Thanks for the feedback though! :D