Do ball pythons really need an UTH?

When you take your temp of your uth you must take it under the substrate on top of glass right over the uth. The temp must not be over 94 under the substrate. Leave it unplugged until you get a thermostat or something else to regulate it.

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Yes, I ordered a thermostat online, and until it comes I've unplugged the UTH. And what I mean by the thermometer with the probe is that it will show me my temp and humidity in the tank using probes and is shown on one screen. The probes will allow me to move them around to be able to monitor the temps and humidity within the tank.

Get the acurite 00891. Only $12 from amazon and the most accurate I've come across. It will give you the hot side, cool side, and humidity all from one device.

When you get your thermostat you will want to put the thermostat probe sandwiched between the uth and glass and set your thermostat until until you get a temp of no higher than 94 under the substrate. You may have to set the thermostat a little higher than 94 do to the heat loss through the glass.

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Sorry to stress it and it sounds like you have it all under control once everything arrives. I didn't have a thermostat at first and didn't know that you needed one for a small heat pad, luckily it was only a short time and Valentine never got burned. Since then I've seen SO many posts about the same thing (no thermostat) and people end up with very burned snakes which is hard to see. The sticky post on how to set up a cage in the Husbandry forum was what I went off to setup my tank which was incredibly helpful. Good luck with your newly acquired pet.

Yeah I'm sorry as well. I feel like a broken record repeating you need a thermostat in someone's post everyday and I know other people feel the same way. Some people just don't get it and then you end up seeing a new thread about a ball pythons belly turning red and they don't know why, almost every time it's a burn from a unregulated heat source. To the people the members on this forum and I tell that don't listen that is there fault but to those new owners it's not there fault bc the store never told them they needed one, a lot of employees don't know either unfortunately and the normal pet store uth like zoo med packaging doesn't even say you need one.

Anyways good job on ordering the thermostat, your che will keep your bp warm until you get one. After you have your thermometer with probe or if you already have an ir temp gun make sure you take the temp on top of the substrate where the che heats the ground, check all around the ground that the che is over and you want it to be no hotter than 90 on top of the substrate IMO. If it is above that temp a simple lamp dimmer or raising the dome off the cage will lower the temp.

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Yeah! no problem for stressing about it. You should have seen the conditions he came from before I got him. I'm surprised he's even alive. No heat, No humidity, in a shed, and underweight? A plastic tub used for storing food as his water dish, which hadn't been cleaned in weeks, a melted screen? Horrible conditions, and even after I got him I've probably spent close to $200 on different little things he needed, and of course I'm still figuring out everything. I did extensive research before requiring him, and I may have overlooked the thermostat thing, reading it as "thermometer" kinda like I did here. But I do not remember reading anything about the thermostats for ANY heating device in the tank. Thank you so much for all of your help. I've placed the orders and they should be here soon (thank god for prime or this would be costing me so much more). I really appreciate all your help, So far he's doing extremely good. Thanks again!