newbie looking for heating help

[jimhodg]

Hi I'm new too this and have some questions about heating, I went today and bought a "starter" kit from my local reptile supplyer, it came with a plastic tank very sturdy and covered in vents a heat mat and all the gubbins to go inside. I filled the tank with the shavings and popped the bowl and hide in hoping to test that everything worked.. Plugged the heat mat in and waited.. My main concern is the mat dosnt seem to heat the tank much if at all, I have a termostate set to the right temp but that never seems too go off, at first I thought it was the surface being in the top floor in the winter the room is cold and the laminate top tesk the tank is on is cold, after adding some card to the underside of the heater it seemed to warm up but again nowere near as warm as I expected. I tryed plugging it in directly to the mains just incase the thermostat was just a variable resistor but alas still no joy or heat.. Sorry to ramble.. Any advice?

[thejenius77]

Do you have a thermoMETER as well, to measure your temps? You won't necessarily FEEL the heat. I can hardly feel the heat from my UTH through the glass, but my thermometer assures me that it's 90-92 degrees. Your snake will feel it much more than you will.

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[PitOnTheProwl]

Also the UTH is for a hot spot, not to heat the whole thing.

[reptiler]

Give the mat a couple hours to heat up. Feel the substrate above the mat. It should be warm. It's not so much the temperature of the air, it's more so the bottom. Ball pythons are bottom dwelling and need more belly heat. If you're still concerned, get a red heat lamp. It'll raise the overall temperature of the air.

[Saber402]

The denser the substrate is over the UTH the more difficult it will be for the snake to feel the heat. I keep all of mine less than 1/2 inch deep.

[jimhodg]

The denser the substrate is over the UTH the more difficult it will be for the snake to feel the heat. I keep all of mine less than 1/2 inch deep.

Thank you all so much the mat got up to heat and the bottom of the tank is warm now still no change in ambiant but I'm much happyer with it now thanks again

[PitOnTheProwl]

What is the temperature of the glass below the substrate at?

[jimhodg]

What is the temperature of the glass below the substrate at?

Its tottering between 80-84 thermostat kicks in at 80 takes it to 84 the offs it I figured the end of the uth was getting cold and slowing the current so I popped a bit of card over to insulate the end that is in open air and card under to stop the cold surface from doing the same to the underside, I'm going to replace the card with either cork or ruber to be on the safe side but it seems to be doing the trick.. Do you think it would be a good idea to cover up a few of the vents to try and trap a little heat or will purely ground heat do the job

[PitOnTheProwl]

what are you planning on keeping in the enclosure?

[jimhodg]

what are you planning on keeping in the enclosure?

Ball pyton.. Its a small female just under 1ft I think.. Been a few days and carnt quite rember