Hi,
What make of heatmat do you have? - some specifically do not heat the air in the way you would expect. Ultratherm for example are like that.
While it is good to get ambients at a good level it is more important to make sure the animal itself can raise its body temperature to the needed level I think.
The second piece of UTH should get the cool end temps right - or you could try the bulb idea to see how that works as it would be conventional radiant heat.
Anyone else got any ideas to try?
dr del