BP overly excited

[The Serpent Merchant]

most pet stores know nothing about snakes... from the pictures it looks really big. Your heating pad is a huge problem (it's capable of killing your snake right now) it must be controlled by a thermostat.

From my thread on cage heating:

Under Tank Heaters (UTH's)/Flexwatt:


UTH's are by far the most popular heat source for ball pythons since they do not effect the humidity levels in the cage. UTH's attach to the bottom of the cage (on the outside) and heat the floor of the cage. They do NOT change the temperature of the air in the cage so if the air temperature in the cage gets below 75 degrees an additional heat source (usually a heat lamp or radiant heat panel) will be necessary. UTH's get very hot, in fact they can and will get hot enough to kill your snake if they are not regulated. A thermostat is the best way to regulate a UTH. Lamp dimmers will work but the heat output of UTH's changes when the temperature of the room they are in changes so lamp dimmers will have to be constantly monitored/adjusted. Thermostats on the other hand automatically adjust the amount of power going to the UTH so you won't have to adjust them once they are dialed in. You will also need a good probed thermometer. because UTH's do not change the air temperature in the cage the stick on/non-probed thermometers will not be able to tell you how hot the UTH is making the cage floor. If you do not know hot hot the cage floor is your snake can easily get burns (which can be fatal)

I will go over thermostats and thermometers at the end of this write up.

Pros:
Does not produce any light
Does not reduce humidity at all
Uses very little power

Cons:
Must be controlled by a thermostat (which can be expensive)
Malfunctions can be hard to notice

Now I'll go over thermostats and thermometers.

Thermostats are devices that use a temperature probe to measure the amount of heat that a heat source is outputting. They them vary the amount of power going to said heat source to keep the temperature in the desired range that you set it to. There are 2 major types of thermostats. On/off style thermostats, and Proportional thermostats.

On/Off Style Thermostats:

On/Off style thermostats such as true Hydrofarm, Ranco, and Johnsons thermostats are cheap but lack accuracy. they work the same way a home A/C thermostat works. They run the heat source at 100% power until the set temperature is achieved. The thermostat then turns the heat source completely off until the "swing" is reached. The swing refers to how many degrees below the set temperature the thermostat lets the temperature fall before turning the heat source back on again. This is why they are inaccurate.

Pros:
Cheap
Will do the job

Cons:
Inaccurate
Usually don't have some of the additional safety features that proportional thermostats have.

Here are some good on/off style thermostats:

Hydrofarm: http://www.amazon.com/Hydrofarm-MTPR.../dp/B000NZZG3S

Ranco: http://www.reptilebasics.com/ranco-etc-111000-pre-wired

Proportional thermostats:

Proportional thermostats such as the Herpstat, Helix, and VE-200/300 are extremely accurate and much safer than on/off style thermostats do to more advanced design and high build quality. This does come at a price though. The cheapest I have seen a proportional thermostat sell for (new) is $99. The cost is worth it though. These thermostats especially the herpstat have far more capabilities than on/off thermostats and as I already said are more accurate and safer. Instead on simply running the heat source at 100% power or 0% power proportional thermostats adjust the amount of power in small increments. this allows them to maintain the correct temperature very accurately (usually to a fraction of a degree off of the set temperature)

Pros:
Safe
Accurate
More features (such as the ability to automatically drop temperatures at programed times/regulate humidity/turn lights on/off/etc.)

Cons:
Cost

Here are somme good proportional thermostats:

Herpstat: http://spyderrobotics.com/

VE line: http://www.reptilebasics.com/thermostats (note the VE-100 is not a proportional thermostat)

Helix: http://www.helixcontrols.com/DBS1000.htm

Thermometers:

Thermometers are very important they tell you exactly how cot/cold your cage is. You should never guess how hot/cold your cage is. The stick on thermometers sold in pet stores aren't very good. they are terribly inaccurate, overpriced, and don't measure in the right places. What you want is a good digital thermometer with a probe like this one:




This particular thermometer is sold at Walmart for $12 and measures 2 temperatures, and humidity. A single unit is all you need in the typical ball python cage set up. The probe will go on the hot side (directly over/under the heat source) and the unit will sit on the cool side and measure the cool side temperature/humidity.