96 degree basking spot????

[mark and marley]

ok my ocd doesnt let me rest with this.im reading varied info everywhere.help.
ok the hottest part of my tank gets up to 96 when the substrate is fully dry but when moistened drops to 89 90 then as it dries slowly rises and stops at 96.
im going to go get a thermostat this weekend as this rheostat is dumb.its at its lowest setting.my substrate is a combination of cypress mulch and sphagnum moss.this hot hide i have is a terra cotta pot with a piece of slate rock with moss on top of it and it sits directly on the glass below the pot and below the glass is a uth. ive spoken to numerous herpvets and reptile stores ,they said the rock is fine as long as you supervise its heat.if you can hold it in your hand for a min without it being uncomfortablely warm its fine.ive felt up on the rock at its hottest point and its just warm to the touch.my snakie loves it.buuuuttt the heat seeps around the moss and mulch i have smashed around the rock.there are other less warm hiding spots on the warm side for her to choose from but here is the actual question.is 96 too hot?

[mc5guy]

I think for a shot time it should be OK. I try to keep mine 88, but sometimes it gose to 91 when the room is too hot. But the snake will chose the place he want to be.

I heard if it gets too hot, your bp will get sick, even RI. I am not sure.

Is it a light? if it is, try to place in a distance. If it is heat pad, put something on under the mulch. like a plastic bag or something.

[hunter1987]

usually for a basking spot is around 90, to 92 on that side of the tank at the most, anything eles to high, and could burn your snake

[mark and marley]

i use two heating pads side by side.they cover one third of the floor.on the warm side there is three hides with different temps.that specific spot is closer to the uth with less substrate.the other spots on the warm side have more substrate under them.theres the humid hide which is inside 87 to 89 and the hollow tree which stays around 85 to 88 and in the middle is a coconut hide which stays around 80 to 84 and the cold hide at the end which stays between 75 to 80. summer time is coming and this problem just arose as my room is getting warmer.i use two uths cause one alone doesnt cut it and my heat lamp just dries everything. a vet and that reptile store i talked to said 90 to 94 is perfect.but with the summer coming up i could drop a uth for sure.my bp doesnt touch that specific hide unless its over 90 from my observations and that was when i added the warm rock and lower substrate level.oh i use probes to gauge the air temps at the snakes level.i used a heat gun on the rock when the air temp in that hide was 96 and the slate rock read at about 88 so the surface is safe but the air temp is the prob.i could just do away with the stone but Marley loves it.thanks for the replies

[kitedemon]

The rocks make a great thermal mass they will take the edge off the spikes of a on off T-stat (I know you have a rheostat at the moment but...)

94 is the top end of 'safe' being long term exposure a short term 96 is ok not stellar but ok. There are 2 things to take into account,

The accuracy is suspect of most thermometers, The vast majority of IR guns and digital thermometers are +/-2ºF that is up or down. With that in mind I don't like hearing 94 (94+2) so I usually say 92 at the top end and 90 being safer. Smaller snakes (sub adults) don't need as much heat and can be quite content at 88-90 They actually produce enough heat during digestion that it can lift hide temps by 1-2 degrees so 88 isn't a problem at all. Small snakes adults need a bit extra as they have more mass and slower metabolisms.

The second thing is ambient temps not surface temps but the air temp hot and cold. It is often over looked, or dismissed as not relevant. Snakes in general have long large lungs compared to over all girth. The air temp that fills that lung (s) will go along way to regulate the core temps. I believe (educated guess) that many burns are due to high surface temps and low ambient temps the snake tries to raise core temp by over heating the surface. I like to see ambient temps in the low 80s like 81-4 or so.

Your snake will tell you how it is feeling if it is always on the cool end the hot end might be too warm the hot end the cool end or ambient temps might be too warm. They typically stay a lot of time in one or the other but a 80/20 split seems normal much more than that I start to adjust temps. What that means in my case, is no two enclosures have the same temp. I have hot spots from 92-88 and cool end temps from 78-82 in different set up each is tailored to that snakes preference.

[kitedemon]

A humid hide works but a humidifier can too which ever is easier...

[Keyboard Warrior]

Advice is gonna vary. Some will say 92, 94 or even 95 is the cut off point. I've never heard anyone on here say for it to go above 95. I think kitedemon has the best advice in that 96 is only good, temporarily. And that you should also see how your snake handles it.

I used a dimmer for a little bit on my heat pad. Went to bed with temps being fine, and woke up to my UTH being 100 degrees. He was not sleeping in his hot hide like he always does. He was on the colder side hiding in a corner. That behavior told me he wasn't happy with the temps.

My advice is to put substrate in it. Substrate can be added or thinned out to meet the required temps.

[mark and marley]

yeah i didnt think it was good.today was the first day i seen it reach 96.its always under that.but it is getting hotter here where i live.it was 99 outside today and 84 in my room.
the ambient air temp throughout the middle of the tank would be 79 during the coldest parts of the morning and night and throughout the day is 80 to 82.i have the probes in the hides ground level measuring the air temps where she spends her time.the cold spot as i mentioned 75 to 80 depending on my rooms temp.the cold side is generally 2degrees colder than my room temp.in the middle is my room temp and back to the hot side. when i set up this tank it was nearing the end of winter and now its getting hot so i ditched the second uth turned the uth that stayed to cover more ground of the warm side and the temp is smoothing out nicely.
when i get Marleys bigger tank ill go all out humidifier and waterfall e todo.i cant wait.
hmmm the uth that stayed is one of those stick on uths.i heard once you put em on dont take em off cause it damages the heating elements and becomes a fire hazard is there truth to this?and thanks for you input fellas

[Keyboard Warrior]

There are ways of removing it, to prevent damaging it. You can see how by checking out the link below

http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...o-Remove-a-UTH!

If you don't do it this way, and you just rip it off, it will likely not work right, and the heat will be uneven, possibly causing a fire hazard.

As for humidity, I was having problems too. First off, do what it says in the link below

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

Next, I bought moss, which when wet activates itself, and creates a kind of biosphere in the tank. Next I bought a repti fogger, which helps boost that humidity. This should really help as far as humidity goes.

Hope I helped.

[mark and marley]

i wedged it off with my hand.i hope i didnt hurt anything.mother of jimminy eff en cricket,ocd kick in now i need another uth great.why would they make em so fragile knowing people have to take it off to do a good scrub down?sheesh.

that mod you speak of is for if im going to use a heat lamp i presume?
i fixed my humidity problems a while ago by not using the heat lamp and switching to cypress mulch mixed with sphagnum moss and moss placed strategically around the water bowl and other spots in the tank.i also did some plexi glass work.but i think im going to do another plexi glass modification soon like this one.
http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...arium-Solution