Newbie!

Hello, I've had a pretty trying day today...

I drove 2.5 hours to the East Bay Vivarium and had to say a tearful good-bye to my anery corn snake because he was not feeding to well and I though it would be best to put him in comeptent hands.

I fell in love with a baby ball python there and after talking with an employee decided to purchase.

My current set up is...

-10gallon glass tank
-aspen bedding
- one UTH (rheostat being built)
-one heat lamp (hooked up to a rheostat)
-water on cool end
-two hides, on each end, more coming

I am having a really big problem with my heating situation. I have my UTH heating up the warm side and the heat lamp warm up the cool side (the house it at 62F)

The cool side hovers around 80F with the lamp hooked up with the dimmer, but the warm side is changing alot. I have dial thermometers right on his bedding ( I was told by the vivarium that was okay and what they do ).

What are your methods of keeping your tanks at the right temp?

Also, what would be okay reguarding handling at this point?

Well I'm still a newbie myself but heres my little exp. I started with a tank a month ago and my house temps are just like yours (its winter heat is expensive) I could not properly heat and maintian humidity in the tank. the best i got was to put the heat lamp and UTH on hot side and a small 5 gallon tank size UTH on the cool side. Go to walmart or Lowes and get an AcuRite indoor outdoor thermometer (seems to be the popular one here and works good for the money) for like $11. and you will see that those little round or stick on ones are not very accurate. I also put the water bowl directly over the UTH on the hot side to aid in evaporation and covered about 3/4 of the top of the tank with a damp towel. Plus I have a 20 gall humidifier running in my house and could not get humidity over 40% in the tank. Now i have a tub set up and a thermostate, heating is no issue and humidity is actually a little high (still working on bringing down).

I have a 30 gallon breeder tank, UTH , 2 hides, 1 large flat water dish, I use a thick towel over the side with the hide& UTH. The other side, I have the red nocturnal heat bulb., my temps stay between 88-95. The room temps here is about 70-75. I also use a small hand towel/wash cloth wet it & hang it in the middle of the tank, that helps with the humidity, also misting throughout the day.:snake:

using a UTH and the heat lamp on the hot side seems like alot of heat. I was thinking last night of getting another UTH and using it on the cool side with a rheostat.

Now, I am taking all these temps from the substrate, is this correct?

Yeah UTH and Lamp on same side can be alot thats where i used a low watt bulb cause I needed a small amount and the UTH alone wasn't cutting it. My house temp averages between 60 and 66 degrees. Hey its winter and I don't mind the cold.
I take my temps on top of the substrate (belly temp) for each side plus one halfway up on back wall is the ambient temp. I only check humidity on hotter side but should be the same on both I think. My ambient temp and my cool side temp are usually about the same +-1 degree. I believe that the ambient temp and the cool side should both be in the 80 - 85 range. Someone will correct if I'm wrong.

My UTH can get plently hott, but right now I am building another rheostat to connect to the UTH. I have a 100W bulb hooked up to a dimmer as well.

My new plan of action, spend the day fiddling with the UTH tep combine with the heat lamp. Then I am putting a blanket over the cool side to keep heat in. Does this sounds okay?

I also have those stickie dial thermometers. I got the from the vivarium. I am NOT sticking them to the wall because that is useless. I took off the adhesive and they are right on his substrate.

Also, will he mind me messing with his tank all day? Or should I put him in a holding tub? Should I be handling him at all?

BP's can get stressed out real easy. Looking back I think mine would have had the shakes (if it could) due to all the things I did wrong in the first week. The best bet is to get it set up as quickly as possible and leave it alone for a week to 10 days except to change the water and clean up. Then if it eats properly wait a few more days for it to digest then try handling it for short periods with a day or so in between to let it relax again. If your supper cautious like I am now you can wait till it eats a few meals before any major handling. Heres a good link about tank setups from the stickys at the top of this forum. Glass tank setup Like I said I gave up real quickly on the glass tank and switched to a tub much easier for me. But I would not recomend the towel on top (even though I did it ;)) due too possible fire hazard with heat lamp.

Hi Shorty! Nice to see you here too! I already gave you my setup on cornsnakes.com, so I am just saying hi!!

I really need to get his UTH on a rheostat and working properly. I might just put him quickly in a small tub.

I think I am going to ditch the light. I have been hearing because getting their UTH to 92 and putting a towl on top of the tank and the cool side will get up to 80. We'll see.

Sorry for the 20 questions but, I am leaving for school on Saturday. It is a 2.5 hour drive to Chico. Any suggestions on howto travel with them? Maybe I'll just wait until I get to Chico to adjust his UTH. Its six days away, but it might be worth it just to closely check his temps every few hours and make the proper adjustments. Then when I get to Chico, I can make everything perfect without having to stress him.

Hahahahha Hi Rachel.

I'm stressin!

aww don't stress, it'll be fine :)
Lots of good advice on this forum, nice people!

I've been reading like crazy.

Do you think I should just wait until I get to Chico to fine tune his viv? I leave on Saturday. With the light on relaly low the cool side is 80. Irwin is still sitting on the thermometer of his warm side, but it was 90 last time I looked. He hasn't moved so it can't be too hot.

I miss Ziggy :(

Having it be around 80F on the cool side and 90 on the warm side is good. Just make sure th humidity is OK. If you have time to fiddle around with the temps to get them correct, you can do that until you leave. It is up to you. I personally like to try to get the setup perfect so I don't have to stress over it for days :D

I think I'm going to go to walmart (yuck!) and gey one of those Acu-Rite Hygrometer/Thermometer. Would it be in the pet section? It's time to invest in a digital thermometer lol.

Also, I plan on feeding Irwin next Monday. East Bay Vivarium showed me his feeding record and he looks to be a great eater.

haha i am not sure where hat would be in walmart...i haven't been to walmart in ages.

good idea to get a thermometer/hydrometer though. It will take out the guesswork

good luck and please post pics of the new BP soon!!!!!!!!!

I recently purchased a digital thermometer......

I actually looked at both Wal-Mart (yuck indeed!) and Target, and did not find anything of value, meaning I found some digital thermometers, but nothing with any quality. (i.e...no Acurite ones like everyone recommends here).

I ended up going to Lowes Hardware Store and finding an Acurite Digital Thermometer in the garden/lawn section for $10. I'm sure you could also find one at a Home Depot as well. That is, if you have those stores in your area.

I just read your PM to me, but couldn't respond as the site kicked me off a few times...(it isn't just you..it is REALLY slow).

so here is what I would have responded had I been able to:
I do not like heat lamps because of the way they dry the air, but right now I am using one on the new mojave and misting frequently to keep the humidity up. It works fine for now, but I plan to switch her over to UTH+ towel+being closer to the heater in my room.

With a rheostat, it will be all about fiddling with it to make sure
it stays where you want it to be. Some work better than others, but over time you may want to invest in a thermostat (it is much less worrying!).

As for handling.....it is a lot like corns. I wouldn't handle him until after you have fed him plus two-three days for digestion (like in corns). Then just lift him out for a few minutes and increase the time you hold him each week. You will be able to tell from the way he acts how stressed he is or how calm he is about being out. Let that be your guide for how long to hold him. They are all different!

I take some pictures once I get the little guy settled in and get some better looked decor! LoL

I also have a really funny picture that I took at the vivarium of this turtle trying to make some baby turtles with another turtle that didn't wan't anything to do with him. :rolleyes:

LoL the closest Walmart from me is about 30-45 minutes away across the boarder to Neveda. Probably longer because it's snowing.

Also, I've only been a ball python owner for a little more than a month now, which is my first snake, so I definatley understand where you are coming from as far as stressing out.

While i admit I spent at least a month with just the tank, uth, heat lamp, etc only, so I could make sure I had the temps/humidity correct before i purchased the baby ball. But even after i purchased him i made modifications to ensure i had the right humidity/temps.

Keep reading the forums here, u can get a lot of great advice to remedy whatever issues u may he having!

Once you land yourself a digital thermometer, u will get a lot better read on where you are at. It will all work out though, no worries!

Well, I need to bite the bullet and go all the way to Neveda to Lowe's because Walmart...well sucks.

Tell you have everything goes later.:snake:

Okie dokie, be careful driving!

Oh one more question before I take off on this epic jounrey.

Where should I place the probe of the Acu-Rite thermometer? On the substrate of the warm hide?

That's what I would do. I have a thermometer with a probe right next to the heat pad (I use paper towels, tho). You want to measure the hottest place your BP's skin will touch. That may be on top of the substrate or under it, depending on the substrate and the BP. I also have a thermometer/hydrometer that I place in the middle or on the cool side to gets temps/humidity there. Other people use two thermometers with probes, one on each side. It just depends on what works for you.

That was probably the most epic journey I've ever taken.

My plan was, go to Lowe's and get the thermometer, then go to Michael's and pick up some leaves.

First it took me 1.5 hours to get to Reno because of the snow. By the time I got there is was dark and I could not see three feet in front of me. I'm driving up and down the main street where Lowe's is suppose to be, and I can't find it. I pulled into about 6 other shopping centers. I went to OSH, I went to PetsMart, I want to Ace Hardwear, I went to Home Depot...nothing. I finally did manage to find Michael's and get some way cool plants. They then told gave me directions to Lowe's. I finally made it after 2 hours of looking. :rage:

Anyway, got his Acu-Rite thermometer. I just put the probe right in his substrate, hooked the UTH up to a heater, put black construction paper around three sides of his viv, washed plants and stuck him in. Thermometer is reading 90.9 on the warn side, 68.4 on the warm side and rising. Phew!

I'll post pictures when I get home. Irwin lives at boyfriend's place.

Cool,

Once you know the temperatures it makes everything a lot easier to evaluate.

As mentioned earlier I like to measure the hottest area the snake can get to ( usually on the bottom of the tank underneath the substrate) and make sure that stays around 95 ish tops and then adjust everything else till it is 90-93 inside the hot hide and 80-84 inside the cool end hide.

The contact paper will definately help him feel more secure but to improve the temps you could try cork sheeting or reflectix to raise the general cool end temps. :)


dr del

wow, well, no one can doubt that you will go to great lengths to care for this BP! Glad you got back safe!:banana:

Welcome to the site. I'm a little surprised more people haven't jumped in here. The most important thing I have discovered in maintaining temps and humidity in a tank is to regulate the amount of air that goes in and out of your set-up. I couldn't imagine having to use wet towels and mist all the time.

I find that a piece of one quarter inch thick plexiglass works great. Just cut the plexi to fit exactly the top of the tank. There is a quarter inch recess around the top of the tank it should fit into. Then drill holes in each end. I drill about a dozen quarter inch holes in the cool end and about twice as many in the warm end. This creates an air flow from the cool end to the warm end. There is no need for a light when you do this. In fact, the only problem I have is keeping my humidity down to 60%!!! And temps are perfect. I just use a smaller water dish and keep it on the cool end.

Well I was up all night last night being an insomniac and I had big tempurature woes.

The warm side it okay, the temp fluxuated alot, but it stayed in the general area of 90 and when I wake u pit was 94, so turned it down a little.

During the night I had a 100W red bulb him the warm half of his tank, it was all I had and man, my humidity dropped like a rock. 38% So I took a damp towel, draped it over 3/4 the mesh top and covered that with plastic. Humidity is now at 60%.

Bad news. the cool side because I took the light off (the wattage was just way too high) was 68 this morning!!! I immediatly took a 60W day bulb and the temp is going up already. Good thing Irwin was nestled in his warm hide!

Here is my plan. I am getting a red 50W bulb so I can keep it on all the time. I am going to keep the damp towel onto of his tank, re-wetting it as needed.

Also, I have the actual Acu-Rite unit on the cool side, but its in the back corner, will I still get an accurate reading this way?