Temp issues after rebedding

[BoopNoodleMom0606]

Hello! I am a new BP owner, I’ve had my little Cinnamon since the beginning of February.

Quick explanation of my set up: I have a 40gal glass tank with a 75w and 50w night heat bulbs as well as UTH on the warm side, with ReptiChip bedding. Temperature wise, everything was going smoothly. My temps were staying with ranges on both sides. I began having humidity issues, so I did a rebedding that was overdo to begin with, thinking the freshly hydrated coconut would help. And it has, along with covering the lid with a towel. However, im now having temp issues.

I don’t know what’s happened, but I’m now barely reaching 85° (measuring with a temp gun) on top of the substrate, where as before I was getting 89-90. Has anyone had this issue? Is the moisture in the coconut playing against me at the moment? Please help! I’m scared to set my UTH much higher than I have it (was at 115° and I had the pre-rebedding temps. Right now it’s at 120° to try and get those temps back). I don’t know what to do…

[Lord Sorril]

Welcome, and congrats on your new ball python!

My recommendations based on your description (of which you can take'em or leave'em ):

-Keep a humid hide only: raising the humidity of the entire enclosure (if not done properly) can easily result in a respiratory infection. From experience: a 40 gallon tank is troublesome to balance the humidity properly.

-Keep a water bowl large enough for the ball python to completely submerge in.

-Your UTH should be on the outer bottom of your tank with your thermostat probe sandwiched in between the UTH and the glass.
-Measure the temperature on the inside of the glass with a temp gun and adjust your thermostat on the UTH so that the temperature is 88`F on the inside of the tank: at that point you can add a layer of dry substrate. (and do not adjust the temp.)

-Keep your ambient temps above the substrate stable by using ceramic heat emitters (instead of bulbs: which have an uneven heat distribution)-all heating elements should regulated by thermostats (not rheostats)-while a UTH is nice, it is not a substitute for ambient heating.

Anyhow, my two cents...I keep a ball python or two....

[Homebody]

I’m scared to set my UTH much higher than I have it (was at 115° and I had the pre-rebedding temps. Right now it’s at 120° to try and get those temps back). I don’t know what to do…

First, I hearty amen to Lord Sorril's advice. Follow that and your BP should be fine. If you're trying to create a hotspot on top of a thick layer of bedding using a UTH, that's dangerous. To get the temperature on top of the bedding high enough, the temperature on the bottom will have to be too high. Your snake could burrow to get closer to the heat source and get burned. Use only a very thin layer of substrate, or none at all, over the UTH. This will give your BP access to a safe basking spot.

[xAnthemia]

It is normal for temperatures to decrease at the introduction of humidity. Humidity is a measurement of atmospheric moisture. More specifically, absolute humidity is equal to the mass of the water vapour divided by the net volume of the air and water vapour.

As more water vapour is introduced into the vivarium, the thermal energy is transferred to more water vapour than before, which leaves less thermal energy for other things, such as the substrate. In simpler terms, your heat source has more to heat, so temperature decreases a bit to make up for the fact the amount of heat emitted by the heat source does not change (well, unless you change it yourself).

Lord Sorril is correct: keeping a humidity hide will raise the temperatures again, as the amount of water vapour introduced over all is lower. Less water vapour => Less stuff to heat => More heat for everything else. A humidity hide is also just a lot easier to manage too, and gives the snake the option to move to a drier location if needed.

Congratulations on your new ball python!