New ball python keeper, really need some advice!

[thejenius77]

Do you have the heat pad INSIDE the tank? How are you measuring the temperature?

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk

[200xth]

It's under a lot of substance, and I felt it just the other day, with everything on top of it, it's really just leaving a warm spot. I don't think it's burning her. When I picked her up from the breeder, he told me to watch for pink on her belly and if some shows up, the heat pad is too hot. No pink has came up, and she spends most of the day in her hide on top of the heat pad. I would imagine if it was burning her, she'd stay away from it. I'll definitely look into getting a thermostat once the holidays are over!

They can burrow into/under the substrate. They will lay on something that is too hot and get burns at times so relying on her to get off it if it's too hot is a crap shoot at best. Your breeder's advice is essentially, "Check her...if she's burned it's too hot" which is extremely obvious and too late.

She's your snake, but I would recommend getting the thermostat sooner as opposed to later.

[kittymeow]

I live in Canada too and I get how cold it could get, especially in the basement nonetheless! Having a heat lamp really sucks all the humidity out of an enclosure. You should try making a humid hide- which is basically a hide with damp sphagnum moss (great at holding humidity) or try changing your substrate from aspen to either coco husk or cypress mulch (both retain humidity better than aspen). Lastly, you could try changing her from an aquarium style tank to a Sterilite tub (holds humidity and temperature very well). There are many threads on this forum that teach how to make your own Sterilite tub style enclosure for ball pythons.


You should really get a thermostat. I bought mine off Amazon for only $35-40 and it ships straight to your door in just a few days. It's really not worth risking your snake's life because a burn can be really serious. Even if there is a lot of substrate over the heat, she can bury underneath the aspen and that can cause serious damages. I've seen so many threads with people posting up pictures of their burnt snakes because of unregulated heat sources and it's horrible since it's something that can be easily avoided.

[Mr. Misha]

Like everyone here already said, get a thermostat to regulate your under tank heater as soon as possible.

Like most people pointed out already, snakes like to burrow so thickness of substrate doesn't matter. Also, if your substrate is too thick, your UTH is pretty useless because the heat is not getting through to your snake.

Anyways, here's a recent thread about snake burns (im not shaming you. Just want you to make an informed decision).

http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showthread.php?t=206173

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using Tapatalk

[Crazymonkee]

I live in Canada too and I get how cold it could get, especially in the basement nonetheless! Having a heat lamp really sucks all the humidity out of an enclosure. You should try making a humid hide- which is basically a hide with damp sphagnum moss (great at holding humidity) or try changing your substrate from aspen to either coco husk or cypress mulch (both retain humidity better than aspen). Lastly, you could try changing her from an aquarium style tank to a Sterilite tub (holds humidity and temperature very well). There are many threads on this forum that teach how to make your own Sterilite tub style enclosure for ball pythons.


You should really get a thermostat. I bought mine off Amazon for only $35-40 and it ships straight to your door in just a few days. It's really not worth risking your snake's life because a burn can be really serious. Even if there is a lot of substrate over the heat, she can bury underneath the aspen and that can cause serious damages. I've seen so many threads with people posting up pictures of their burnt snakes because of unregulated heat sources and it's horrible since it's something that can be easily avoided.

Tubs hold humidity well, not heat... the room would need to be heated to at least 75-78 to keep temps up.

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk