My bp enclosure.

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Originally Posted by snake_lady83

are air holes in the bottom necessary? or just on the top and all sides?

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No...no holes on the bottom...just around the sides.

My main concern about using the UTH you have now is that if its big enough for your large tank, it would probably be way too big for a small baby-sized tub. But I'm just making assumptions...you're in the best position to know for sure if it would work or not.

That said...yes, it is fine to use standard reptile UTH pads under a plastic tub. The heat must be controlled for the safety and comfort of your snake...so it should never get hot enough to be at risk of melting or damaging the pastic to begin with.

i do mine in 3 rows evenly spaced, look at this post the pics and you will see what i am talking about in the pic i posted

http://www.ball-pythons.net/forums/s...ad.php?t=36122

Undertank heating is what should be used. I have my 4 '06 babies in 15qt tubs, newspaper as substrate, two hides and a water bowl. That's it. They thrive, they are fatbutt snakes, and they like to tell me to "Hiss Off!", LoL.

Here are pictures of how they are set up. The babies range in weight from 150-300g, and are happy as clams.
http://img210.imageshack.us/img210/6...00144ln.th.jpg
http://img210.imageshack.us/img210/4...00106lt.th.jpg

And there ya go!

You will need a GOOD thermostat for regulating any flexwatt or heating pad, it is a must. A good digital thermometer must alos be used to check ambient temps, cool and warm side temps as well as humidity. Those stick-on dials do nothing.

Sounds basic enough to set up. I'm a little uncertain about adjusting the temperature of the heat pad. I can't see anything on it that's "adjustable."It's made by ZooMed are they pretty reliable? I have a digital thermostat/hygrometer (I think I spelled that right lol) which seems to be doing its job.

What you have is a thermoMETER, it only MEASURES the temperature and the humidity. Good thing to have as well, but you need a thermoSTAT. You plug the heat pad into the Tstat, then plug the tstat into the wall, set the temperature on the thermostat, and let the sensor probe on the thermostat tell you what temperature the heat pad is being regulated at.

I recommend at the LEAST a Johnson Controls or a Ranco, with a Helix or Herpstat being your best bet. You're going to have this animal for the next 30 years possibly, if she's taken care of properly, why not spend a marginal amount of money now on a good thermostat and proper heating equipment, so you don't have to invest tons of money later in vet visits from malfunctioning equipment and a burned animal. Wow, that was a long run-on, LoL.

Hope that helps!

lol typo. Ok. Roughly how much would a thermostat cost and where can I get one?

Rancos and Johnsons cost around 60 bucks wired.

www.reptilebasics.com

Reptile Basics(www.reptilebasics.com) or MG Reptiles (www.mgreptiles.com) are both a good place to start, they have both Helix and Herpstat that I am aware of. I paid around $220 for my Herpstat 2, but it was definitely worth it. Johnson's and Ranco's go for $60-$85 depending on if there is a sale or not. You can get a 1ft piece of 11" flexwatt(11"x12") wired up and ready to plug in for around $7-8. Much more reliable than the Zoomed heating pad. I think Helix's go for around $110, which is also very reasonable for a proportional thermostat.

Is it something that is usually ordered on the internet or are they fairly easy to find?

PRetty much has to be ordered on the net. They are not easy to find in a pet store.