Quote Originally Posted by Egapal View Post
I think its worth mentioning that no one is trying to attack you. You said you are new to keep snakes and had some problems so we are trying to help. I want to try and break this down a different way. You have a BP and 3 big concerns in my book. One is a safe place for them to hide. You should have two one on the warm side one one the cool side. You don't need to get fancy with these, especially if your snake is not an adult. People use the bottoms of ceramic pots with entrances cut in, bowls and small cat litter pans. After that you have proper temps and proper humidity. I mention them both together as your choice of one effects the other.

CHE will suck the humidity out of your tank. So will light bulbs. UTH's are the best that I have seen and I have no experience with radiant heat panels. If you are not going to buy a thermostate (I think you should) Radiant heat panels are the best. You can attach this to the underside of the screen top. The reason they are the best is because their surface has the lowest max temp and your snake can not lay directly on it. It will be able to touch the surface directly but its much less likely to get burned.

I live in Norther New York State and I keep my house in the mid 60's to 70 if we have company over. If you had two UTH's one with a thermostat and one with a rheostat you could keep the warm side on the thermostat and the "cool" side on the rheostat.

At the end of the day its your snake and we are all just trying to help you and your snake. The lower maintenance your snake is the better. Its great that you are willing to adjust its temps and really stay hands on. The problem comes when you have to leave the snake in someone else care. If you get sick or injured. I have great peace of mind knowing that all my snake needs for at least a few weeks is fresh water. Obviously I would rather be able to care for my snake daily but if something happens she will be fine for a while without me or for longer with a person who is not afraid of snakes who can pop in and check on her.
i know your all not attacking its just its always about the temp.. lol i dunno if this thread has the pics of my cage but the temp is hot/mid hot/cold

the reason for the third temp is simple.. i have a water dish pretty much the size of the cold side there isnt enough room for the snake to have a hide.. and if i down grade the size the humidity will need to be tweaked.. i cannot mount the thing you all are talking about because......... i have a sliding screen top.. i wouldnt be able to open the cage if i mounted on the top of the cage.. and im not drilling through my glass.... so as of now i cannot use the best of the best.... lol my skink alone was 200 the bp 90 his cage 150 extra hide 10 3 digi therms 30 uth 27 water dish 20 beding 30 < bought alot lol
lights each basking light was 15 i have 3 100s 1 75

it all adds up... not to mention the 400 dollar light bill i gotta pay.. so for now im tryn to make the best of what i can afford
scraped up 80 bucks over the week and bought him his real UTH instead of a human heating pad lol along with his other 2 digis and his extra hide...


but really what works for you all doesnt mean it works for me becuase in order for it to work for me i would have to buy another cage.. and atm my wallet cannot take that blow... someone is always with him and my skink lol my fiance stays home and i work... lol

but atm im way frustrated since now i cant run my lights without the humidity getting to 90... the substrate is in the oven once again trying to dry it out ... izzy is in a plastic crate with a space heater and a human heating pad under him... i know how important the temp and humidity is so its the first thing i make sure is perfect.. and right now i cant get it perfect and its pissing me off... nothing that worked before is working now... theres either not enough heat or theres to much heat and not enough humidity <cage top open is y no humidity

put it this way there is so much humidity when i finnaly got tired of fighting with it in the cage.. i lifted one of his hides on the hot side and there was watre droplets on the roof of it... 1.40am no sleep again taken care of him