Heat Regulation for Juvenile BP

[CrashSammich]

Hi everyone, first post here - been lurking for a little put and the forums have been an indispensable fount of good info. I know temperature and setup questions have been asked a million times but I'm new at this so please bear with me.

What I'm trying to determine is if this habitat setup meets the needs for cool vs hot areas and affords her the ability to temperature regulate.

I've had my juvenile mojave BP in a 10gal aquarium for the past 2 weeks and she seems to be doing well, she's very active and is eating. The tank is set up with the UTH on the left side, a dark hide on the left over the UTH, a water dish on the right side, and the heat lamp on the right over the water. For a 10gal aquarium this takes up about all the usable space except a small open spot in the middle.

I've kept the UTH around 90° F and maintaining an ambient temperature with the lamp around 85° or so. My thought process is that the warmest direct heat is the UTH, and if she wants to get away from that she can go on top of the hide, which doesn't receive direct lamp heat, or she can go over to the water dish (which is under the lamp) or find a cool spot in the middle between the UTH and lamp.

Once she's in a 20gal tank or bigger I know this will be a whole lot easier, but just want to see what everyone thought of this setup. Thanks!

[Regius_049]

Your setup is not ideal, but probably OK. Personally I think 85 for the cool side is probably a touch high, but unlikely to cause any real issues. If possible, I would reduce the bulb wattage so it is closer to 80. Typically when animals are kept warmer, but not too warm, they are more active and have higher metabolic rates (as you may already be observing). Also, optimally, you would have a hide on the cool side as well. I suspect that you already know this however, but ran out of space in the 10 gallon. With such space limitations, your setup is best. If a snake feels insecure, they are prone to "wall surfing" and not eating, but if your snake is not doing this, you are good.

My larger concern is in a 10 gallon tank with a heat bulb, what is the humidity in the enclosure?

[CrashSammich]

Your setup is not ideal, but probably OK. Personally I think 85 for the cool side is probably a touch high, but unlikely to cause any real issues. If possible, I would reduce the bulb wattage so it is closer to 80. Typically when animals are kept warmer, but not too warm, they are more active and have higher metabolic rates (as you may already be observing). Also, optimally, you would have a hide on the cool side as well. I suspect that you already know this however, but ran out of space in the 10 gallon. With such space limitations, your setup is best. If a snake feels insecure, they are prone to "wall surfing" and not eating, but if your snake is not doing this, you are good.

My larger concern is in a 10 gallon tank with a heat bulb, what is the humidity in the enclosure?

Thanks for the quick reply! Yeah, we knew it wasn't ideal and it did come down to space...I may try to cram a 2nd hide in under the lamp anyway. It's a CHU bulb (which I know can crank out some heat) regulated by a Herpstat 2 so I can definitely drop its temp a few degrees.

As for humidity, it's a screened lid so I expected to have trouble with that, but we've actually done ok keeping it between 50-60%, and I even saw it go up to 70% one day. I live in GA, so I don't know if our high ambient humidity helps with that at all.