New BP owner- want to make sure I'm doing this right!

Sometimes I think reading too much information can be as troublesome as not enough! :taz: I have Mr. Mittens in a ten gallon tank with a 50 watt bulb. I purchased a small heat mat today, but I am unsure whether a heat mat and the light will be too much. Any feedback? I currently have a zoo med gauge (dial) which I know am thinking is worthless (based on what I've read). I tried a digital one today but I hated it and need to return it. The dial thermometer says it is 78 degrees and 85% humidity. I did recently move the lamp though from one side to the middle which might be why the temp is lower. I have a thermostat in my Amazon shopping cart should you say that I should add the heating pad.

Oddly enough, Mr. Mittens is super active around his cage. My corn snake hides all day and night and my bp is a mad man.


Any suggestions or feedback is much appreciated!

I have attachedhttps://scontent-b-atl.xx.fbcdn.net/...41751199_n.jpg

I would get rid of the bulb and go with a UTH connected to thermostat. You need a hot side around 90-92 and a cold side around 80-85 with hides on each for your snake to be comfortable and secure. I'm afraid the one bulb is going to provide a consistent temperature for most of the enclosure with no way to comfortably escape the heat. Humidity is also very high, try taking off some of the foil topping the tank.

I would say the dial indicators may be off. With such a large lamp housing (I am guessing 6 inch) I would think it would be much warmer in there unless the room itself is in the 60's. I would go with a ceramic heat emitter instead of the bulb and have it on a thermostat (or dimmer if that works with them). Maybe also move the heating element to one side so it is not direct heat over the entire tank. Lastly a UTH with thermostat for the hot side. It is very likely he is moving around due to it not being comfortable. This thermometer works well and can give you readings on both sides of the tank. Just make sure you bury the wire under the substrate well. Acu-Rite

I use an uth and 50 watt at night and it's working out great.


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There's no right or wrong way to set up a terrarium as long as you have the temp and humidity at the required specifications for the animal, both on the cool side and hot side of the tank. The zoo med dial gauge is only good for the trash. the acu-rite as mentioned above by BPluvr is fairly accurate, and has two temp readouts as well as humidity. going off the top of my head per mfg.'s specs they are accurate to plus or minus 3 degrees "F" and 4% RH in humidity and cost like 12 bucks at walmart give or take. i have two of them and i check them every 3 months (I'm a calibration technician). however i do wish the acu-rite had multiple probes rather than just one external but you can easily modify it to have three if your good with a solder iron. as for the UTH that is a must have since snakes thermo regulate through their bellies mostly. There are different reasons/opinions about the lighting rather daytime or nighttime. i have a 60 watt daytime and two red night time lights at 60 watt and 100 watt on timers only because the room my BP is in gets too cold and shes in a big glass terrarium. I rather pay a little extra on the electric bill than let my little girl suffer. i keep the ambient temp for her at 80-83 on the cool end and 85-90 on the hot end with the UTH temp offset to keep the top surface of my substrate (moss mats or terrarium carpet) at a steady 90 degrees, and humidity is a perfect 65%. there's a million ways to do it and the way i see it if your snake is shedding good, health is good, and eating.... we are doing somthing right.

Oh yeah i forgot to mention...lol, you need to have two hides, one for cool side and one for hot side at minimum. its better to have them identical too so the snake don't sacrifice temp for comfort.

Thanks for the feed back. My thermostat should arrive tomorrow. I need to get the identical hide. I have some stumps and leaves on the cool side. I guess I was afraid I would make it too crowded for him.

I also purchased a thermometer gun today. I need to find a balance. The under hide temp is great when the light is off but then the rest of the cage is at 75. If the light is on then the under rock gets in the mid 90's. which might be too hot.

Put your lamp on a dimmer so you can control the output

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Is there a certain dimmer I should get?


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ball pythons don't really need a lot of space but the ten gallon tank is hard to find a gradiant because of its small enclosure but it is poossible. a general rule of thumb is the tank not be less than 2/3 in length of the snake long. Mine out grew hers in two months (10 gal). during that time I used a 75 watt blue nightlight bulb to keep from getting to hot which would dehydrate. 75 degrees for an extended period of time is like us going outside in 40 degree weather with no jacket to a snake and would develope ri. snakes are real sensitive to temps but IMO I would rather have it a little on the warm side but closely monitor for dehydration (dry wrinkly skin, can easily be confused with pre-shed) because it would be easier to deal with than ri.

Home depot has light dimmers for $9-$12. They're in the lighting section

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Perfect... I didn't know if there was a special kind:)


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The one I got ya just plug the light into the dimmer then the dimmer into the wall and done... adjust as needed

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by winglesshornet

There's no right or wrong way to set up a terrarium as long as you have the temp and humidity at the required specifications for the animal, both on the cool side and hot side of the tank.

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There most certainly is a right and wrong way to do things. Things like a UTH in the tank or the use of tape in the tank is wrong and common among some new keepers.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by winglesshornet

ball pythons don't really need a lot of space but the ten gallon tank is hard to find a gradiant because of its small enclosure but it is poossible. a general rule of thumb is the tank not be less than 2/3 in length of the snake long. Mine out grew hers in two months (10 gal). during that time I used a 75 watt blue nightlight bulb to keep from getting to hot which would dehydrate. 75 degrees for an extended period of time is like us going outside in 40 degree weather with no jacket to a snake and would develope ri. snakes are real sensitive to temps but IMO I would rather have it a little on the warm side but closely monitor for dehydration (dry wrinkly skin, can easily be confused with pre-shed) because it would be easier to deal with than ri.

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A 75 watt bulb is way to much for a 10 gallon tank. Was it on a dimmer? How cold was the room?

My home is 68 and on the cool side of a 40 gallon glass tank I have a 60 watt bulb for added heat and even using a lamp stand that suspends the fixture about 15 inches from the tank floor it creates 78-82 degree surface temps under it. If I was to lay the fixture on the screen like many do it would create a hotspot that is to warm without the use of a dimmer. I do not use dimmers and instead adjust the heat by adjusting the height of the lamp stand to create more or less distance which equates to less or more heat.

My snakes never have dry wrinkly skin during a shed. They get loose skin but they never appear to be dry.

Do you use a IR temp gun to check surface temps? You can show to have correct ambient temps while having surface temps that are to warm.

Just remember with a dimmer, when your room temperature fluctuates, you may have to adjust the dimmer, also if you have any kind of draft or run a fan, especially in summer it will change it. A temp gun is very helpful especially with a dimmer. I have one dimmer that I use to use and especially in winter I had to adjust it constantly, so I kept track of the cages temps for a few days to a week, then I made two marks on the dimmer, one for night and the other for day. My house temps are crazy in winter.

I have a temp gun now! Great tool:) I also bought a dimmer. For my temp/ humidity register I bought a wireless one.. Can I stick this whole remote in the cage? Or should I return this?http://img.tapatalk.com 14/01/01/nupa4amy.jpg

It was the only one they had.


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Mr. Mittens.....we need a pic of this snake named Mr. Mittens....

Quote:

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Originally Posted by rocknrollmama1980

I have a temp gun now! Great tool:) I also bought a dimmer. For my temp/ humidity register I bought a wireless one.. Can I stick this whole remote in the cage? Or should I return this?http://img.tapatalk.com 14/01/01/nupa4amy.jpg

It was the only one they had.


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I can't see the pic

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by KMG

There most certainly is a right and wrong way to do things. Things like a UTH in the tank or the use of tape in the tank is wrong and common among some new keepers.



A 75 watt bulb is way to much for a 10 gallon tank. Was it on a dimmer? How cold was the room?

My home is 68 and on the cool side of a 40 gallon glass tank I have a 60 watt bulb for added heat and even using a lamp stand that suspends the fixture about 15 inches from the tank floor it creates 78-82 degree surface temps under it. If I was to lay the fixture on the screen like many do it would create a hotspot that is to warm without the use of a dimmer. I do not use dimmers and instead adjust the heat by adjusting the height of the lamp stand to create more or less distance which equates to less or more heat.

My snakes never have dry wrinkly skin during a shed. They get loose skin but they never appear to be dry.

Do you use a IR temp gun to check surface temps? You can show to have correct ambient temps while having surface temps that are to warm.

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As far as the UTH or heat tape going into tanks is a big no no, I grant you that and I failed to mention it, as well as not to use heat rocks. My house is old and it gets cold at night especially during the winter and the upstairs room temp been known to drop to upper fifty's even though the furnace is set at 78 with 90 blowing out of the register ducts. The 75 watt blue bulb i used kept the old tank at 83 at the surface during the night even though i didn't not have to adjust the dimmer and the light off during the day. The day light bulb i had suspended above the hot side (and the UTH on thermostat. For temp monitoring was two acu-rite gauges modified to have 3 probes (two temps & 1 hum.) and probes were mounted accordingly to give me readings at the surface and ambient (not mounted on the glass or side) at hot and cold side. The only probe under the substrate (at the time terrarium liner) was the thermostat for the UTH. I calibrate/verify my thermostats and the acu-rites every three months with a N.I.S.T. traceable standard. I rescued my snake from my neighbor who had her for four weeks and neglected her. When i first saw her, the 3 gallon tank my neighbor kept her in was at 130, with no water, and one hide that she was sitting on top of, i kid you not. She looked like a raisin, we had a little chat and I ended up taking her home. The vet gave her a 10% chance. I've had her for three months now got her from 75 grams to 180 grams (currently 8 months old... basing from the age i was told from guy I got her from). I make certain that she is comfortable, she's been shedding good since i had her (other than the very bad shed my third week after rescuing her).

winglesshornet,

Good rescue.

Thank you for your added information. One thing I always try to do is explain my heat sources with a description of my homes conditions. You and I have cold homes so larger heat sources are needed but if we don't explain that a noob can read your post and think a 75 watt bulb will work for their 10 gallon tank when they have a warm home. They could cook their snake because they applied a heat source that is inappropriate for their conditions.

While what you say makes since to you it may not to somebody else because they are not in your head with the rest of the knowledge.

KMG,

Thanks, yeah I'm pretty bad about leaving pieces of info out while not trying to write a volume series...lol. I appreciate the help.

http://img.tapatalk.com/d/14/01/02/qaza6u5u.jpg


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Never used that one... I'd get the acurite indoor/outdoor thermometer

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I don't use that model because it don't have the probe cable to give me my surface temp readings. That one will get you your readings in ambient temp and humidity (unless you modify it to have a probe, or use an ir gun for surface temps). However I have had customers of mine send them to my shop for calibration/verification and they tend to stay well within MFG.'s tolerance. The model I use is the 00891W3 and comes with a 10ft probe cable (I modified mine to have three, 2 temp and 1 humidity) You can have the probe on the hot side while the unit itself is on the cool side measuring all three parameters at the same time. I modified mine so I could save space in the enclosure and prolong the longevity of it by keeping the unit out while the three probes are within the enclosure.

Can I fly all of you to florida so you can do your thing :)


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