Do ball pythons require belly heat?

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Originally Posted by Dumdum333

so are you guys suggesting that a radiant heat panel would work well inside a wooden vivarium? Yes

Would a regular heat mat inside the viv not work equally well?No. Think first urine and all other fluids.......

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Originally Posted by Dumdum333

so are you guys suggesting that a radiant heat panel would work well inside a wooden vivarium? Would a regular heat mat inside the viv not work equally well?

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Cant use a UTH (heat mat/under tank heater) with wood. You have to tape them to the Bottom of a Aquarium or PVC cage.
Also the wood is going to smell terrible after your snake passes Uraites and Poo a couple times. Thats a recipie for bacteria and sickness unless you covered the inside with some kind of plastic/shower enclosure/tile And im dont know..
a suggest a RHP (Pro Products Radiant Heat Panels herein NY) instead of CHE. Use the CHE until you can get a RHP but that CHE is going to dry that enclosure out fast.. You'll be trying to spray it 3 times a day just to keep Humidity about 50%. Especially if you use Butcher Paper/Newspaper for substrate. Thats what I use, easy clean up as I dont like wood chips I think it always has that smell, and im a clean freak with my house.

I can't seem to find a seller in the UK though, by che do you just mean a bulb?

Although the precise answer to BP requiring belly heat is no, the short answer would be yes. Sure is the best way to provide the proper heat gradient.

Heat bulbs, CHE (ceramic heat emitting bulbs), and radiant panels work great for basking / arboreal reptiles. For a terrestrial snake that spends most of his time in the hide they provide little thermal gradient as they heat the air, plus all the humidity problem described.

There's plenty of heat pads that are watertight and can go inside the viv, you recognize them because they look like this

https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...arge_54343.jpg

It might be useful to you to find a forum of UK keepers just to see where they buy their equipment. It seems that wooden vivs are more common there than in the US, as well as the bulb-in-cage setup you describe. There might also be brands of heat mats that are designed to be used inside a viv that aren't sold outside the UK for all I know.

Incidentally, a bulb in a cage that is entirely inside the wooden viv isn't going to be nearly as bad for humidity as American keepers assume it is. The reason is that in the US the more common way to use a CHE or a heat lamp is to put it in a fixture that sits above a screen top of a tank, or above a screened-over cutout in the top of a vivarium. So the freshly heated air rises right out of a big hole in the top and takes the humidity with it. If your entire fixture is inside the viv, you won't have nearly as much loss of humidity (and heat, for that matter).

As for whether the 75 watt bulb you have is adequate, you'll just have to try it and find out what temperatures you get. If your house is 50 degrees it's probably not enough, if your house is 75 degrees it's probably way more wattage than you need. But as long as the wattage is at least adequate, your thermostat should take care of the rest.

BTW, healthy ball pythons do not need calcium or other vitamin supplements. They get everything they need from their whole prey. The only reason you would ever need to supplement would be in case of illness, and that would be only at the direction of a vet.

The main uk reptile side nowadays is RFUK . There was another equally popular forum called CaptiveBred but that one has mysteriously disappeared off the face of the earth !!

I have a Glass Tank with an UTH. Wood helps insulate so your UTH would be insulated to keep heat out. What about adding a sheet of glass or acrylic into the enclosure on the bottom under the substrate. Then you could have a UTH under the glass and above the wood. The wood underneath would then keep the heat inside the enclosure.


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Originally Posted by Coluber42

It might be useful to you to find a forum of UK keepers just to see where they buy their equipment. It seems that wooden vivs are more common there than in the US, as well as the bulb-in-cage setup you describe. There might also be brands of heat mats that are designed to be used inside a viv that aren't sold outside the UK for all I know.

Incidentally, a bulb in a cage that is entirely inside the wooden viv isn't going to be nearly as bad for humidity as American keepers assume it is. The reason is that in the US the more common way to use a CHE or a heat lamp is to put it in a fixture that sits above a screen top of a tank, or above a screened-over cutout in the top of a vivarium. So the freshly heated air rises right out of a big hole in the top and takes the humidity with it. If your entire fixture is inside the viv, you won't have nearly as much loss of humidity (and heat, for that matter).

As for whether the 75 watt bulb you have is adequate, you'll just have to try it and find out what temperatures you get. If your house is 50 degrees it's probably not enough, if your house is 75 degrees it's probably way more wattage than you need. But as long as the wattage is at least adequate, your thermostat should take care of the rest.

BTW, healthy ball pythons do not need calcium or other vitamin supplements. They get everything they need from their whole prey. The only reason you would ever need to supplement would be in case of illness, and that would be only at the direction of a vet.

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Thank you!
This got my attention now you mention it.
I am from uk and to clear something up my vivarium is wood but it has small circular vents and glass sliding on runners surely u guys seen them?
Yes, i noticed the ones i mostly see over the pond on youtube etc are like a fish tank but with a mesh lid with a lamp on top. Another thing is humidity, now in UK i have been told i dont need a humidity sensor/gauge and no need to spray as room humidity is adequate for a ball python? All the display vivariums at the pet shop have none i thought about still buying one as better safe than sorry. What you guys say on that subject? It may sound alien as its something you would have always done. I been watching alot of Brian from Snakebytestv or Animalbytes on youtube i think he is ace, he's helped me anyway.

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Originally Posted by Paty

I have a Glass Tank with an UTH. Wood helps insulate so your UTH would be insulated to keep heat out. What about adding a sheet of glass or acrylic into the enclosure on the bottom under the substrate. Then you could have a UTH under the glass and above the wood. The wood underneath would then keep the heat inside the enclosure.


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Thanks, that seems a good idea too.

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Originally Posted by Fritzl

Thank you!
This got my attention now you mention it.
I am from uk and to clear something up my vivarium is wood but it has small circular vents and glass sliding on runners surely u guys seen them?
Yes, i noticed the ones i mostly see over the pond on youtube etc are like a fish tank but with a mesh lid with a lamp on top. Another thing is humidity, now in UK i have been told i dont need a humidity sensor/gauge and no need to spray as room humidity is adequate for a ball python? All the display vivariums at the pet shop have none i thought about still buying one as better safe than sorry. What you guys say on that subject? It may sound alien as its something you would have always done. I been watching alot of Brian from Snakebytestv or Animalbytes on youtube i think he is ace, he's helped me anyway.

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Lots of people over here use vivariums with sliding doors too, but lots of them are plastic instead of wood. People do use heat tape/under tank heaters with those too, but it takes more power to heat through plastic/melamine/wood and the heater has to get hotter in order to do it.

As far as humidity is concerned, it really depends on your specific climate. Where I live, my living room has pretty much ideal temps and humidity for a BP in the summer all by itself, but in the winter it can get below 60F and 30% humidity.

I don't know about the UK, but in the US a lot of pet stores are pretty clueless about even the bare minimum of appropriate care for reptiles (the bare minimum being appropriate temps, humidity, and hiding places). And in many cases (especially smaller shops), they can actually kinda sorta get away with it too, because they're often kept relatively warm and pretty humid if they also sell fish - because the place is full of aquariums with lighting and lots of water around. So pet stores aren't really a good gauge. A digital thermometer/hygrometer is cheap and it will tell you what you need to know.