I was at the Arlington, TX Reptile Expo 2 months ago and I heard two different breeders tell customers they should have a heat source (UTH or heat rock) and keep it at 100*. I asked the breeders and they said they had been breeding BP's for years and always keep their hot spots 97-100*. I was thinking about when I was a kid, I had a large cage built out of wood by my dad and we had 3 heat rocks in with the Ball Pythons. I wrapped the heat rocks in 2 layers of newspaper (easy to clean when they defecate on them) and of course, those rocks were still very hot. I would say the rocks were at least 100*, if not probably closer to 110* and for the 2-3 years I had my snakes, they never ever got burnt. I was a dumb 11 year old kid at the time and I was going on the advice from the local pet store, so I probably just got lucky that my snakes never had any problems.

At what temp can and will a BP get burnt? My Helix is set to 96* which makes my tub surface about 93* right now.