Thermostat and UTH along with bedding

[mebigbadbrat]

I have a few quick questions about a thermostat and UTH.

I am looking into purchasing a Vivarium Electronics VE-100. Anything I should need to know about it would help out.

Also, I was thinking about getting a ultratherm undertank heater. Any issues with those? How do I determine the size I would need to purchase? Would that hook up to the thermostat right?

Also, what is the best bedding to use? I am sadly allergic to pine and ceder.

Thanks
Nichole

[The Serpent Merchant]

I am sadly allergic to pine and ceder

So is your snake... never use either of those.

The VE-100 is a on/off style thermostat, this means that it won't hold terribly consistent temperatures. I would suggest that you look into the Herpstat intro, it is a better/more accurate thermostat for only $10 more.

http://spyderrobotics.com/home/products.html

Ultratherms are good quality UTHs, you shouldn't have any issues with them as long as you are using them correctly. (UTH's cannot increase the air temperature in the cage. this means that if the room the cage is in drops below 75 degrees a secondary heat source will be required (like a heat lamp))

Paper towels/newspaper works best with UTH's, the thinner the substrate layer the better. If you use aspen, Eco-Earth, or cypress you will need to keep the layer 1/2" thick or less.

Check out this thread on cage heating: http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...t-Thermometers

[mebigbadbrat]

Actually I learned from my snake that I was allergic to pine and cedar. I broke all out. I should have known as my dad is allergic but oh well. Now, for the UTH is her cage is 4 ft long by 18 inches wide, what size UTH should I get? Like do I need it to cover the whole length? Or just maybe half? Also can this thermostat hook into two different UTH?

Sorry. I have never owned a thermostat. Trying to make sure I pick out the right one.

[The Serpent Merchant]

You want to have a a UTH that covers 1/3-1/2 of the bottom of the cage. I would suggest something in the 11" x 17" range.

Cedar and pine are TOXIC to snakes, and should never be used.

You can run 2 UTHs off of a single thermostat if:

• the cages they heat are identical in every way
• the UTH's are identical in every way
• and you want the cages to be the same temperature.

Personally I don't like to run UTH's without being directly regulated by a thermostat (to run 2 UTH's off of a single thermostat you can only measure the temperature of one of them)

I use multi-chanel thermostats (a single thermostat unit that has more than 1 thermostat inside) This way I can directly regulate all of my heat sources individually. I highly recommend the Herpstat 2 (for controlling 2 UTH's) and the herpstat 4 (for controlling 4 UTH's)

http://spyderrobotics.com/home/products.html

[mebigbadbrat]

I didn't know they were toxic. She has had no issues but now I use bark something. I couldn't tell you the name but it keeps the humidity up a little. That is where I am having issues so I thought about the UTH being under the water bowl.

Hmm. I will look at that one that holds 2. I have to downsize my collection and will be going from 5 to 2 come tomorrow. =( Damn car issues.

So with I need to keep the UTH at what degree? I know the cage has to be 88-90 hot side and cool side around 84ish.

[The Serpent Merchant]

Well that depends on the cage. I have to set my thermostat to around 100 degrees to achieve a 90 degree hot spot. (remember UTH's can only create hot spots they do nothing for the cool side temperature) But my cages are made out of 1/2" thick PVC sheets.

You will need to set your thermostat to whatever temperature is required to generate the basking spot of 90 degrees. (the thermostat probe will go in between the UTH and the bottom of the cage). You will then need a probed thermometer to measure the temperature inside the cage so you know what to set the thermostat too.

What type of cage are you using? what are you currently using to heat it?

[Skiploder]

I didn't know they were toxic. She has had no issues but now I use bark something. I couldn't tell you the name but it keeps the humidity up a little. That is where I am having issues so I thought about the UTH being under the water bowl.

Hmm. I will look at that one that holds 2. I have to downsize my collection and will be going from 5 to 2 come tomorrow. =( Damn car issues.

So with I need to keep the UTH at what degree? I know the cage has to be 88-90 hot side and cool side around 84ish.

Cedar is.

Pine isn't.

[mebigbadbrat]

Oh. Hmm. Currently I have a tank. It is a 75 gallon which is a little big for my 4.5 ft female, but at the time I didn't know about racks when I purchased the tank. I have thought about getting a rack but with lowering my collection due to money problems, I just can't afford it at the time so I need to make do with what I have. =(

Right now to heat it I have heat lamps that get my warm side at 92 and my cool side at 84 but my humidity is at 40% usually. I have a blanket covering most of my tank too which helped a lot at first. I really wanted to get a T-8 cage so I can see inside to watch her but that will have to wait.

[kitedemon]

You have the hot side temps correct 88-90 is great especially for a young snake as they age you can lift the temps a bit 90-92. The cool side most suggest 80º is correct. I too would suggest the herpstat it is only a few dollars more less than 10$ and is like comparing a BMW to a push bike. There is no comparison at all, proportional controllers simply are more accurate and consistent than any on off type.

[mebigbadbrat]

Thanks. I will have to look into them.