Quote Originally Posted by xdeus View Post
Congratulations on your new snake. Obviously there are many ways to successfully keep a healthy snake, so there is no "right" way.

However, I find it interesting that you have so much praise for this "Steve" person and yet discount all of the excellent advice that is on this forum. FWIW, I have lived in the Monterey area for about 20 years now, and have never heard of Steve or done business with him. I'm not saying he is a bad breeder, but he probably isn't as popular as you may believe.

I'm not sure why he would claim reptile UTH are bad and would recommend a regular heat pad. Heat pads are designed for occasional use and reptile UTH are designed for constant use. Personally, I have racks and cages with UTH that I have used for many, many years and have not had a single failure. That's not to say that they will never fail, but I would rely on them much more than a human heat pad.

Good luck with your new snake and congrats again.
Thank you. This is the only post I have seen that offers even semi-specific reasons that the setup might not be ideal. Everyone else is just saying the setup is bad, to trash it, that I am a troll, etc. without giving specific reasons why. I still haven't seen anyone say why the cellulose litter is a bad idea, but plenty of people certainly said to trash it.

However, Steve did give me specific reasons why some of the "standard" items are bad. He has had bad experiences with UTH giving uneven heating and shorting circuits. He has seen snakes ingest Aspen, waste is harder to clean and see, and it tends to make a mess when removing the snake from the tank.

So that is why I was going with his advice and not yours. He was specific. Xdeus at least said human heat pads are designed for occasional use. Not too scientific, but at least it's something.

And thank you to the people who are more welcoming, I appreciate it. I guess in any community there are cool people and not so cool people, same with snake enthusiasts.