Ball python help

Hi I recently got a ball python and I just wanted to ask a couple question about the temperature. I want him to thrive and not have any problems. His hot side has a heat mat on it regulated my a thermostat at 90 degrees but the air around his heat mat and ontop of his hide is like 70-74 degrees. His cold side I have a heat lamp on keeping the air over their about 80-85 degrees. I was wondering if I needed to do anything to warm up the hot side or if that heat mat is plenty for him. Thanks for the input

How big is his enclosure? You want to create a heat gradient. I would move the lamp to the hot side to see if you can create a gradient of about 90 max on hot to 78-80 on cool. You might need to play around with lamp placement, wattage, or ideally have a dimmer switch so you can adjust output as needed. Measure air temps with a digital thermometer (Accurites are popular) and measure surface temps with a heat gun.

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Originally Posted by Drazub

Hi I recently got a ball python and I just wanted to ask a couple question about the temperature. I want him to thrive and not have any problems. His hot side has a heat mat on it regulated my a thermostat at 90 degrees but the air around his heat mat and ontop of his hide is like 70-74 degrees. His cold side I have a heat lamp on keeping the air over their about 80-85 degrees. I was wondering if I needed to do anything to warm up the hot side or if that heat mat is plenty for him. Thanks for the input

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To be clear. Is it 90F on the heat mat, or is the thermostat set to 90F?

What size tank? What's humidity, etc?

We need more info, but I would probably move the heat lamp closer to the middle to warm the air, or get a second one. I also recommend using ceramic heat emitters of lamps/bulbs as BP's like dark at night and do not need a temp drop. Also, is the lamp controlled by a thermostat? Unless it's a tiny bulb and not capable of producing heat, you should have all heating elements controlled by thermostat, not just the UTH. However, very good the UTH is controlled by one.

Hot side: 90F

Ambient/middle temps: 80-84F

Cool side: 78-80F

74F anywhere is cold.

Please give us more information so we can better help you.

The uth is set at 90f with the thermostat and I check it with a heat gun to make sure it stays at that. I currently have him in a 20 gallon tank and the humidity stays between 50-60 percent. I am using a 75 watt red bulb for the heat lamp.

Keep the uth about 90f. Try putting the lamp near the warm side or the middle so you can have about 80f on the cool side and 85-80 on the warm side