inconsistent temps

[unrezt]

Greetings fellow repti-lovers!

I recently brought home my first Balls (2)! Many years of wanting to finally came true. I did much reading/research before making the commitment, and had their home set up 48 hrs. before introducing them to it. Since then, the ambient air temp here has dropped and I am having a very hard time maintaining consistent temps in their habitat. I am able to get the warm side up to around 90 during the day, but I am very worried because it gets as low as 75 - 78 over night. The cool side seems to be more consistent at around 75 - 80 during the day, but has gotten down to as low as 73 over night. I am using a 75w basking lamp above the enclosure to warm it. However, to get the warm side up around 90 I have to move the lamp nervously close to screen. It seems like the utc heat pad just isn't cutting it, especially at night. I imagine that the substrate above the heat pad is a little warmer than the thermometer reads, but not that much. Please, any suggestions are welcomed. I am worried about my beautiful babies!

Are you using a thermostat? These are very important, and will keep your uth at a constant temperature regardless of ambient room temps. A heat pad will have no trouble going well over 100 degrees if uncontrolled. Also I have learned from asking around here that you won't necessarily feel the warmth on the substrate, even if the temps are right, but this depends on outside factors like the temperature in the room.

You said screen, so I am guessing you are using an aquarium. If this is the case, I recommend you do the "foil treatment" to the screen top. It helps a lot keeping heat in the tank, and also combats the humidity loss that the heat lamps cause. You can find out more about that here... http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...highlight=foil

Also if you are using an aquarium, you should insulate the back, and sides in some way. Not only does this keep heat in, but it adds privacy to the enclosure making for a happier snake.

What type of thermometer are you using? A lot of people here recommend an Indoor/Outdoor thermometer with Hygrometer, from Acu-rite brand. This does everything you need with one device and is cheaper than buying three separate units. I found mine at Wal-mart, just ask an employee to direct you to the thermometers or you will never find them

From what I gathered, the temperature inside the warm side hide should be 92-94, and the temperature inside the cool side hide should be 82-84. The are temperature outside the hides should be mid 80s. This is important in determining your temperatures because the placement of the thermometers does make a difference. I was told its best to place the thermometer probe on the glass, under the substrate, under the warm hide, and make sure that that temperature is not higher than the max temperature a ball python should have. Then place the probe on top of the substrate, under the warm hide, and make sure that it is warm enough. Depending on the substrate you have you may have to adjust the depth...I actually had to change it completely under the warm hide and use paper, as no heat was being transferred through it.

A uth should be more than enough to heat the warm side of the hide. I have my light over the middle of the enclosure to keep ambient temperatures up. I don't know where you live, but here it has been getting down to the low 50s at night, and I have had no trouble with this setup. Make sure your enclosure is not located by any drafty areas.

Good luck, I hope this helped a bit. It is pretty much everything I was told this past week after asking a lot of questions and getting an awesome amount of help from the users on this forum. So thank you, guys!