New to snakes.. need help

Hi I'm a new bp owner. My 4 yr old daughter was able to pick our new pet and she wanted a snake. My snake is only about 85g. It has fed for me twice and tomorrow is feeding day. I'm feeding it a mouse hopper weekly and so far so good.

I've been doing pretty good keeping temps and humidity where it should be in my glass tank. I have two heating pads one on each side under each hide. Both on thermostats. One is set to 87°f and the other is set to 79°f. I also have a day night light on the hot side. It is set to a 12 hr. timers. I have a digital thermometer. It says 77.5°f ambient, 87.6°f and 64% humidity. I've noticed both fluctuating but I just plugged the heating pads in a couple hrs ago.

So I'm wondering if I'm doing the feeding right or if I need to change anything and if I'm heating correctly.

[IMG]https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...om/2mfyecp.jpg[/IMG]

Your temperature is ok. Humidity also ok. It can drop to 60%. When shedding increase it to 70%-75%

Welcome to the forum!!! You've come to a great community and a great place to learn!

As you can see in the chart posted above a hopper is to small. Hoppers are fed to hatchlings straight out of the egg, for only the first 3-5 meals. A snake at 85 grams should be on small adult mice or switched to rat fuzzies.

Also, ambient temps are a bit on the low end. Your heat mats are there solely to provide a hot spot and should not be used to control ambient temps. So in order to maintain proper temps you may need a stronger bulb or a CHE.

How and where are you getting your temp measurements? You should be getting the surface temps on the glass directly above the heat mats to accomplish a proper hot spot and adjusting the mats accordingly. Your digital thermometer is there to read your ambient temps.

My digital thermometer probe is right next to the probe for the heating pad thermostat. Both under the hot side hide. Then I have the actual temp gage on the other side of the tank for the ambient temp. When I woke up this morning my thermoter for the hot side said 100 but the thermostat says 87. I immediately pulled my snake out and trying to figure out what's going on. I'll try to figure out how to attach pictures

I now have my snake out. He looks fine, acting normal. And temp has dropped back down to where it's supposed to be. I noticed the thermostat probe had moved. I don't know if that made a difference. Is there any way to stick them to the glass?

https://photos.app.goo.gl/edo4b5PjMEUYiUkQ2

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Amanda1987

My digital thermometer probe is right next to the probe for the heating pad thermostat. Both under the hot side hide.

---

the thermostat probe should NOT be inside the enclosure. it can be moved, urinated/defecated on, come in contact with water, which can cause an inaccurate reading, resulting in a heat spike or drop. the thermostat probe should be sandwiched between the outside bottom of the enclosure and the UTH where it has very little chance of moving or having any variables which can fluctuate the temperature.

if you have a UTH that is adhesive, you can use aluminum tape to adhere the thermostat probe to the underside of the UTH, or veeerrry carefully pull down a corner of the UTH and slip the probe inside. be VERY careful pulling up the UTH as they are NOT meant to be removed and you can easily damage the internals.

https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...582b53876a.jpg

forgot to mention: do not tape over the probe head itself if you're attaching it to the underside of the UTH, rather you tape over the insulated wire.

Should I move the indoor out door probe I have on the hot side as well? The cord isn't long enough to go from inside the tank on the cool side to the outside of the tank to the hot side. I haven't had a problem with it moving. I had the cord buried from the cool side where the gage is to the other side of the tank words the hot side

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by tttaylorrr

https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...582b53876a.jpg

---

I just can't help but love this diagram every time I see it. Thanks tttaylorrr for sharing and thanks PitOnTheProwl for the original

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Amanda1987

Should I move the indoor out door probe I have on the hot side as well? The cord isn't long enough to go from inside the tank on the cool side to the outside of the tank to the hot side. I haven't had a problem with it moving. I had the cord buried from the cool side where the gage is to the other side of the tank words the hot side

---

are you talking about the thermoMETER probe? if so, then yes that can stay inside the enclosure.

These are my gages now that I've adjusted them. 88.7 is hot side 82 is cool side. Ambient is 73.5 but I just hooked my lights back up. Thermometer is reading different then the thermostat still. https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...177e76acf9.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...cf4b23ea4d.jpg

Sent from my SM-G920R7 using Tapatalk

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Amanda1987

These are my gages now that I've adjusted them. 88.7 is hot side 82 is cool side. Ambient is 73.5 but I just hooked my lights back up. Thermometer is reading different then the thermostat still. https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...177e76acf9.jpghttps://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...cf4b23ea4d.jpg

Sent from my SM-G920R7 using Tapatalk

---

where is the thermostat probe for the warm side located? what is the cool side thermostat regulating, a light?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by tttaylorrr

where is the thermostat probe for the warm side located? what is the cool side thermostat regulating, a light?

---

The probe is under the substrate under the hide. The cool side is regulating another under tank heating pad. It is programmed to 79. My house gets really cold at night. So I thought I'd give it a try with two heating pads

Sent from my SM-G920R7 using Tapatalk

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Amanda1987

The probe is under the substrate under the hide. The cool side is regulating another under tank heating pad. It is programmed to 79. My house gets really cold at night. So I thought I'd give it a try with two heating pads

Sent from my SM-G920R7 using Tapatalk

---

you need to move BOTH thermostat probes OUTSIDE of the enclosure as i have already stated in my earlier post.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by tttaylorrr

you need to move BOTH thermostat probes OUTSIDE of the enclosure as i have already stated in my earlier post.

---

I did. Both thermostat probes are on the outside of the tank. I left the indoor outdoor thermometer on the inside

Sent from my SM-G920R7 using Tapatalk

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Amanda1987

I did. Both thermostat probes are on the outside of the tank. I left the indoor outdoor thermometer on the inside

Sent from my SM-G920R7 using Tapatalk

---

my apologies for the misunderstanding. now you'll have to monitor the bottom of each side of the enclosure and adjust the thermostats accordingly. my warm side UTH is set at (i think) 95° to achieve a 90° hot spot at the bottom of the enclosure.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by tttaylorrr

my apologies for the misunderstanding. now you'll have to monitor the bottom of each side of the enclosure and adjust the thermostats accordingly. my warm side UTH is set at (i think) 95° to achieve a 90° hot spot at the bottom of the enclosure.

---

Mine is set to 90° and thermometer says it's 82 but it keeps adjusting
I'll keep an eye on it today. Thank you for your help.

Sent from my SM-G920R7 using Tapatalk

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Amanda1987

Mine is set to 90° and thermometer says it's 82 but it keeps adjusting
I'll keep an eye on it today. Thank you for your help.

Sent from my SM-G920R7 using Tapatalk

---

you'll have to let it run for an hour or so to see if they stabilize at the right temperatures. just keep an eye on it and keep dialing everything in; you'll get there. :gj:

Just a heads up as well. Your snake's body can and will raise the temperature near any probe it rests on. I have thermometer probes under my hot and cold hides and he will raise the cold side by as much as 4 degrees while in a hide and the hot by up to 3 degrees

My thermometer is still reading 85.6°f and thermostat is programmed to 90° but says it's only at 88.8°f. So it's only been about 3° difference

Sent from my SM-G920R7 using Tapatalk

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Amanda1987

My thermometer is still reading 85.6°f and thermostat is programmed to 90° but says it's only at 88.8°f. So it's only been about 3° difference

Sent from my SM-G920R7 using Tapatalk

---

do you have a temp gun? i rely on my temp gun more than my thermometers if i'm questioning things.

try setting the thermostat to 94° and see where that gets you.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by tttaylorrr

do you have a temp gun? i rely on my temp gun more than my thermometers if i'm questioning things.

try setting the thermostat to 94° and see where that gets you.

---

No i don't have a temp gun but I'm going to look into getting one. I'll adjust my thermostat to see of that helps. Thanks

Sent from my SM-G920R7 using Tapatalk