Help with Care.

You can say goodbye to the heat lamp with the tub. Just get the proper size UTH and you should be fine if your room temp is over 70. The UTH should cover approx 1/3rd of the bottom of the tub. Without a rheostat or thermostat the hot spot will soar to over 110 so don't leave that out. Good luck and let us know how it works out for you.

Yeah; heatlamps are generally more trouble than they're worth for BPs. I guess that if you had to, you could get 2 UTHs and set one lower for a cool side, and set one to your hot spot temperature. As others mentioned, a digital thermometer/hygrometer is a must. They are pretty inexpensive and often sold as "indoor/outdoor" thermometers. Just make sure to switch it so that it's reading the temp. of the probe (outdoor part!) or you could just be reading your room's ambient temperature, where the thermometer unit itself is!

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Originally Posted by deeplove

Yo...Thanks a lot guys. This is great information. I'll be going to Walmart at lunch time to get some stuff. I saw that 41qt or so, and I'll look for some bowls and the Accurite.

With the heat mat and say the Aspen, will that be enough to heat up one side to about 90F+? Would I still need to use a heat lamp for that size of tub?

Anywho, I really appreciate all your help guys.

:gj:

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A 41-quart tub is great for a subadult-to-adult BP. With aspen substrate, I would only use a relatively thin layer, so that the heat from underneath can get through. You don't want to use too much, and overheat it, because the snake can burrow into it and get into contact with the underside of the tub anyway, and would possibly get burnt if you were measuring the temp. on the surface of a thicker layer of substrate. I hope that this makes sense!

uh, not too much aspen so the heat can go through. maybe a thick layer of a different substrate below? can I just use newspaper below the aspen?

http://img262.imageshack.us/img262/9025/startyw2.jpg

Alright. I got the 66qt one but I don't have enough money for the heating pads at the moment. I'm testing out the light to see how hot it gets and the humidity. As for the holes, how much should I put on it? Can I go with the lights for the time being? Oh, and that's aspen in there.

I found that two rows along the top of the sides of tub (all the way around), one spaced about 2 inches apart, and the other row at 4 inches (so they end up forming triangles) and then a grid on the top spaced at about 3 1/2 - 4 inches between each worked out very well for humidity and air flow. It depends also on how large you make the holes.

You think I can go with 1/2" spaced out about 6" - 8"? 1/2" is a decent sized hole. I can place about 5 of them on the left and right sides. I could probably squeeze in 2 of them on the front and back.

Money right now is going to be very tight. My car just broke down and I'm not looking to spend money on my car anymore. I'm going with a new one.

I'm going to try my best to get the heating mats on my next check, but if I can't then I have to stick with the lighting. They're 100w ZooMeds. Those basking lights. I have a black heating bulb also. I think that's about 75w. All this was given to me so I wish had more for the good stuff.

But anywho. The tepm in there was about 90 - 94 degrees. It hovered around 40% - 50% with a small disposable bowl. Now, I'm making the holes, I'll be adding the bigger water bowl for the snake and 2 covers. Do you guys think that the one water dish for the snake will keep the humidity +/- in the 50%'s?

All this needs to be for the time being until I can invest on the heat mats.

The holes don't need to be that large.... Think more the size of your average nail or screw.

It's the only drill bit I had. Well, I did put it about 12 holes on each side. With the lamp on top it's about 94 degrees and the humidity at about 49% - 53%. The cold side is about 77 - 82 degrees with the 75w bulb.

I can see why you would go with the Thermostat. Could a Thermostat work with these bulb setups?

When I put the ball in there, he was looking around a lot. He was trying to push the lid off. Is that normal? he did go into it's hide on the hot side.

Put clips on the sides so any escape attempts are thwarted, then, hopefully, he'll give up.