Some advice Please

I have a Ball python female that I have had a little over a year. I use Aspen shavings for her substrate, I use a lamp for heat the warm side stays between 80-85 during the day, this is just a regular 75watt bulb. I am very paranoid of using a UTH so I would like to stick to a heat lamp. Any advice on staying with the 75 watt or another heat bulb? I don't have a night bulb should I get one? Also I currently have her in a 20gallon going to upgrade her to a 30 gallon should this be a good size for an adult? I feed her a large rat once a month is this good enough or am I not feeding her enough? Also when she sheds she usually doesnt have a thorough shed any advice on bringing up the humidity or what I should do to help with this? Thanks

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Originally Posted by ToriLuv

I have a Ball python female that I have had a little over a year. I use Aspen shavings for her substrate, I use a lamp for heat the warm side stays between 80-85 during the day, this is just a regular 75watt bulb. I am very paranoid of using a UTH so I would like to stick to a heat lamp. Any advice on staying with the 75 watt or another heat bulb? I don't have a night bulb should I get one? Also I currently have her in a 20gallon going to upgrade her to a 30 gallon should this be a good size for an adult? I feed her a large rat once a month is this good enough or am I not feeding her enough? Also when she sheds she usually doesnt have a thorough shed any advice on bringing up the humidity or what I should do to help with this? Thanks

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first, heres a care sheet on ball pythons, it explains everything about temps and humidity http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...ius)-Caresheet

a heat pad is fine as long as you have something to regulate it. you can either buy a plug in dimmer switch, or a thermostat.

as for feeding, an appropriate feeding schedule would be one prey item that is between 10-15% of the the snakes body weight, once a week.

for humidity, it should be kep between 50-60% and raised to about 70 during shed. if she has pieces of stuck shed on her, you can have her crawl through a warm moist towel until the pieces come off

as for cage size, a 30gallon should be fine, just remember to put a hide on both the hot side and the cool side

I would rather not use a UTH I prefer to use heating bulb is this ok and if so what type should I use? What can I do to raise the humidity?

if you really want to use lamps, use either a CHE (ceramic heat emitter) but your still going to need a higher wattage, with a regulator of some sorts. and for humidity, you can spray the cage down to keep it up. do you have a hygrometer?

With the UTH I am against that because I am worried about the safety of it and it causing a fire?

I do not have a hygrometer, I am trying to do right for my snake, it was another family members pet that I kinda took on so I am trying to make things right for her and redo her cage and get what I need to get so any advice would be greatly appreciate!

If a UTH is plugged into a thermostat it is actually less of a fire hazard than a heat bulb but...

You need the heat lamp on 24/7 I suggest that you use this particular bulb as it won't disturb your snake or you at night

http://m.petsmart.com/mt/www.petsmar...3&lmdn=Reptile

As for a hydrometer/thermometer you should get this, it costs $12 at Walmart and measures 2 temperatures and humidity

http://i1186.photobucket.com/albums/...nt/photo-3.jpg

You put the probe on the hot side and the unit on the cool side.

With the bulb and thermometer I recommended your snake will be much better off.

Your tank should look something like this

*there is no thermometer in this cage. That is because I don't use tanks anymore and don't have a spare thermometer to use in the picture.

http://i1186.photobucket.com/albums/...t/bd98c3f5.jpg

Note that the 2 hides are exactly the same. This is important as it allows your snake to decide if he wants to be on the hot side or cool side without having to give up his safe hiding spot.

Make sure that the hot side of your tank is between 88 and 92 degrees and the cool side is between 78 and 82 degrees. The humidity should be between 40% and 60% normally and between 60% and 80% during shed.

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Originally Posted by ToriLuv

With the UTH I am against that because I am worried about the safety of it and it causing a fire?

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with a good regulator, a fire is extremely unlikely.

with ball pythons, they do much better with belly than back heat, so under tank heating will make your snake alot more comfortable. make sure the floor temps are 89-92 on the hot side, and 79-82 on the cool side, with an ambient (air) temp of 80. have a hide over both the cool and hot spots. the hide should be about the same size as the snake when its balled up, i.e. the snake wants to cram itself in something as small as possilbe. buy an indoor/outdoor thermometer with a built in hygrometer, i use an accurite, you can get them at walmart for about ten bucks. keep the humidity between 50-60%, raise it during shed. to help, you can cover about two thirds of the lid with foil. feed it a rodent that is as wide at the hips as the widest part of the snakes body every 7 days

serpent merchant, you beat me to it

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Originally Posted by cmack91

serpent merchant, you beat me to it

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I can type really fast on my iPhone lol

The bulb is the reason your snake doesn't shed right. Bulbs wick out all the humidity. You'll need to completely cover the screen top with something like wax paper or foil taped down around the edges except around the heat lamp. This will hold some moisture and heat in.

Also change your bedding. Aspen is not that great for tanks in my opinion, especially with heat lamps. Its way too dry. It doesn't hold moisture. You will need to spray it down daily to keep the humidity high enough. Aspen will also mold very quickly when it gets slightly wet. If you switch to cypress mulch bedding it will hold the moisture for days and it does not mold. It's still as easy to spot clean as well. You'll barely ever have to spray it.

Low humidity also can lead to RI and stuck eye caps.

Fix your husbandry issues and feed it proper sized meals more often and it will be happier and healthier.

By the way, that care sheet, is the best one you can find anywhere for ball pythons. A UTH on a thermostat to regulate it is far safer than any bulb. Completely covering screen tops of tanks is always recommended as well to hold in heat and humidity. Also attaching a thin layer of cardboard or pink insulation sheets (painted to look however you like) to 3 sides of the tank is a great idea to insulate it as well. Glass tanks are horrible for reptiles since they do not hold heat in and most of us don't use them but there are ways to compensate :)

Wow thank you all so much. So you all feel that a UTH is better and safer, havent heard of fires from them? What is the best things to get to control the temp on them? We did use a UTH for a while and used a reostat by zoomed i think it was, and it did not hold the temp right it kept going up over 100 it was scarey. Also we had used other bedding before I thinkwe used cypress and her scales started looking weird so we changed back to aspen and now they are normal looking.

UTH can and have caused fires but it is very rare. Heat bulbs are much more likely to overheat.

To control a UTH the best thing to get us a Herpstat. A Herpstat is extremely accurate and will keep the UTH at the right temperature. (the zoo-med thermostats are crap)

Here is a link to the Herpstat website:

http://spyderrobotics.com/

If you are going to use a UTH I would recommend that you use paper towels/newspaper/corrugated wrap as substrate.

UTH's don't effect air temperature so if your room stays below 75 degrees most of the time I would recommend that you just stick with the heat lamp.

I really like the aspen bedding, can I stick with that? That herpostat is way to expensive for us right now any other good suggestions? So either way I should use a UTH and a heat lamp? I can't just use one or the other? Thanks again for being so helpful I am sure I am being very annoying and sorry if I am.

Foschi beat me to it...You guys sure can type fast for being so early on a Sat morning...

No, the entire point of this website is to help people, not annoying at all :)

You can use both at the same time but i personally don't see the point. A heat bulb can get the hot side hot enough alone and if yiur room temperatures are high enough to use a UTH the it's all you need. If you want to keep using aspen it needs to be a thin layer (1/2" thick or less otherwise the UTH cannot heat through the aspen)

These thermostats are also good, cost less, but aren't as accurate:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B000NZZG3S

So if I just want to use a heating bulb this is fine? But not as safe as far as fires?

Fires are extremely rare no matter what the heat source is. You can just use a heat lamp, I used heat lamps exclusively for awhile when I first started. The heat lamp will need to be on 24/7 so the bulb I put a link to in my first post on this thread will be important (a bright white light will stress your snake.

as far as the bedding i dont know if anyone uses it but my breeder and i use if its moss it doesent mold it holds mosture extremely well it isnt pretty to look at but all my snakes have shed correctly everytime and people that use is havnt had any problems with it it comes in a cube you soak it squeeze the excess water out as much as you can and then its good to go ive never been happier i didnt like aspen myself because when i tried to mist it the heat would mold it so give the moss a try i like it

I will go with that heat bulb its a 75W? is that the strength I should get. Will the red light confuse her with daylight and night light? I dont like to use moist bedding due to her scales looking funny when it was used almost looked like scale rot which is all clear now. Should I make a humid hide? Or what can I do to keep humidity up if I continue to use aspen?

You have 2 options for the heat bulbs. You can get the 75 watt bulb and just use it, or you can get the 100 and the hydrofarm thermostat ($30) and regulate the bulb (this would be safer and keep the temperature better just make sure that the light dome you use can accept 100watt bulbs should have a ceramic socket not plastic)

There are a few threads on here about keeping humidity up in glass tanks. I will see if I can pull up a few. The basics are to cover up as much of the screen top as possible with a wet towel or aluminum foil and to most the cage.

Here is one of the humidity threads I'll post more if I can find them.

http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...tment-Tutorial

I think I will start with the 75 watt and see how that does and maybe go up to the 100watt? I dont need a thermostat with the 75 watt correct? Thanks so much for all your help your my hero and Morticias also :)

No problem, the 75 watt should be fine without the thermostat. Just make sure you have a good thermometer like the one pictured in my first post to keep an eye on it.

If I were you I would get the 75 watt bulb and thermometer now, and when you can get a thermostat (either the hydrofarm or Herpstat any thermostat sold at pet stores are crap and overpriced for what they are. Same goes got thermometers sold there) when you can. You can then use the 75 watt bulb with the thermostat and if needed move up to the 100 watt bulb at that time.

There is a difference between regular red bulbs and the bulb I recomended to you so make sure you get that particular one.

I agree with everyone else an UTH on a dimmer or the Hydroform T-stat would be a great place to start. I do not use bulbs because I dont like the light in the bedroom/snakeroom at night I use CHE (Ceramic Heat Emitter) on a dimmer. As for help with humidity in a tank I use a peice of Plexiglass I purchased at HomeDepot for about $15 and cut it with a jigsaw to fit. Just be sure the Plexi is well supported and go slow or it will crack. Here is some great advice for making your tank hold temps as well as making your snake feel a lot more secure it works great for all my tanks :)

First I covered 3 sides of the tank with aquarium background (the only good item I have found from Petsmart) just to make it look nicer for me to look at.

Second I took some cardboard and cut it to fit the 3 covered sides. Then I taped one side of the cardboard with foil tape to reflect heat back into the tank and taped the cardboard to the 3 coverd sides of the tank as seen below.

http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-...83841836_n.jpg

As for the screen top I purchased a peice of plexi from HomeDepot and cut it to fit just inside the slider top for my tank. Drilled a few holes in it for ventilation and one large hole for the CHE. Taped a portion of it with foil tape and left the back untaped for the tank light. I do like to see my snake when she is out

http://a7.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphot...64496118_n.jpg

Heat is supplied from a 60W CHE and Flexwatt 11 taped to the bottom. The CHE is set at about 50% on a lamp dimmer from HomeDepot (plan to get a dual T-stat for it in the future) The Flexwatt is set on a Vivarium VE 300 T-stat set to 96F. This keep my hot spot at 91F and ambient at 78-81F as room temps fluctuate a little. My Snake seems to love it she just got a great checkup from the vet and is eating like a pig. Hasn't refused a meal yet. As you can see in the photo below room temp was about 68f and tank temps were exactly what I wanted them to be. Hope this helps out and feel free to ask me any questions you might have.

http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-...84084614_n.jpg

As for your fear of fire I agree with what others have said so far the buld or CHE on top of the tank would pose more of a hazard than an UTH on a T-stat but even then the chance of fire is very slim. I hope this helps and if you have any other questions please feel free to ask :D

So I will get the 75 watt Zoo Med Nocturnal infrared heat bulb from petsmart and the thermostat from walmart that you showed. Do you feel that thermostat is crap also and should only be used temporarily? or can i use it forever? Also would that light bulb confuse her day and night pattern? and the probe from the temp gage where should i put it under the aspen or on top? Also when the moist bedding was used(cypress) and her scales were looking funny do you think that was scale rot? It has improved 100% since changing back to aspen.

where did ya go Aaron??

The thing from Walmart is just a thermometer and is the best you can get without spending $1000. It can be used as long as it functions. If you are referring to the hydrofarm then it can be used for as long as you like. If you want me to explain the difference between the hydrofarm and Herpstat I can.

It might have been scale rot but without seeing a picture of it I can't say for sure.

The probe should go just under the surface of the substrate this will help keep your snake from moving it around too much.

This is what the inside of my cages looks like without the substrate

http://i1186.photobucket.com/albums/...t/682c9a04.jpg

I'm using flexwatt (which is a type of UTH) but the thermometer set us is the same. The box goes on the cool side and the probe goes on the hot side.

The reason you get the red bulb is because they cannot see the light that it produces. So no natural light in the room the cage and the natural darkness of night will create the day/night cycle for your snake.

So I am going to get that thermometer from walmart and it also measure humidity correct? How do I know if it functions correctly? I do not need hydrofarm or herpstat unless i use a UTH correct? I will get the 75 watt bulb also, you think this is safe to use. So snakes do not see light at all? I am confused about that part. Sorry if I am making this more complicated then it is, I tend to do that :(

Yes the thermometer also measures humidity. You can trust it but just use common sense if it seems way hotter or colder than the temperature it is reading you might want to replace it. I have yet to have any issues with them so far.

You will need a hydrofarm or Herpstat with a UTH or a bulb with a higher wattage than 75 watts.

*warning physics content lol* red and infra-red light has a wavelength that the human and snakes eyes can't really see. Basically our eyes aren't designed to see this type of light. I can look straight into one of these bulbs without thinking that it is too bright.

SO they can see daylight and night but this light won't affect anything is what your saying. So I am getting that 75watt bulb you talked about and that thermometer. I was see how the temps work out hopefully I won't have to change anything. So I will keep this light on 24/7? You think it is pretty fire safe right?THanks for all your help Aaron. Do you mind if I add you as a friend?

Yes keep the light on 24/7. I used 5 of these bulbs for about 3 months without issue. Everything else you said was good.

I'm glad I could help, feel free to send more questions my way and of course you can add me as a friend.

Why did you only use it for 3 months because you went to a rack?

I actually use PVC cages now, but yes I stopped using them because I stopped using glass tanks.

http://i1186.photobucket.com/albums/...t/c22733cf.jpg

Wow those are probably a pretty penny lol thanks again aaron

Aaron so that question about them seeing the infrared was I correct they can see regular day light but the infrared will not interfere with there day/night cycle?

Yes, the Infra red light is practically invisible. They won't even know that the light is on except for the heat it puts off.

And yes they can see regular day light.

thanks again, i feel like such a idiot

Trust me I have seen people ask questions much worse lol owning these animals is a very stressful endeavor until you figure everything out. No need to feel bad about anything.

thanks :)