Hot vs Cool hide?

[357]

I am new to snakes and rescued a ball off from craigslist. I've had him a month and I am REALLY excited to work with him(her?) and hope to collect more in the future, I am hooked for sure! With that being said, read below.

History: I've had my snake for a month. He took a live mouse the first time we fed him (48hrs of him being "home"). He's had one shed and eaten 2-3 mice at a time each week. He seems incredibly healthy and I don't care what anybody says, he likes being handled. If my wife or I have him out and set him on our bed he immediately climbs back onto our arms and seems quite content to hang out on our shoulder (straight neck, no hissing and I almost have to wrestle him into his tank). The tank is where I have my issue. It is a 20gallon long tank with aspen and an UTH under his rock hide (bought it at PetSmart and he seems to love it). I have a thermostat with a probe under his hide and typically kept it at 82-85 degrees. I noticed the cage would drop to 75-80 ambient even with a towel over the top. I figured I should turn up his UTH to raise the temps, we have a heat lamp but only want to use it when we NEED to use it.

Issue/Question: I wanted to turn up the UTH but I didn't want him to be uncomfortable. I purchased an identical hide last night. I went so far as to inspect the inside to make sure the texture was the same. I have an UTH under the one and the other is just ambient. When I got home from work a few minutes ago I noticed the UTH had his warm hide at 91.7 and I am concerned as my wife said it was that temp all day. Should he have moved from there to his other hide? Is it too warm? Am I just worrying because I am new to this? Below is the picture of his home, his warm side is on the right.

Tonight we'll be getting some of that spray on window frosting and covering 3/4 of the glass panels to keep him happier. Sometimes he gets jumpy if I change web pages at night as the screen is just to the right in the picture.

[mackynz]

His hot spot should always be around 90F and if you are feeding 3 mice per feeding it's time for larger prey.

Also this.

[357]

I've thought about going with larger, in fact I was looking at rats last night. It's probably worth of another thread though as I have a lot of questions on that.

I'll go post that question now! Thanks for reminding me!

[mackynz]

Feeding 15% body weight is a good rule of thumb!

[The Serpent Merchant]

UTH's do NOT change the temperature of the air in the tank. Please read this thread on cage heating. It should clear things up.

http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...04#post1845904

Your hot side needs to be between 88-92 degrees

Your cool side needs to be between 80-84 degrees

Your humidity needs to be between 40%-60% normally, 60%-80% during shed

[357]

Alright, thanks for the great read. I'll be ditching my analog thermometers tonight and getting the digital one you suggested. I already use the hyrdofarm thermostat for my UTH.

I suspect my analog thermometers are reading false if the UTH doesn't raise temps as my house is usually cooler than they have read.

So your advice is to use the heat lamp and monitor the humidity, correct? I purchased the tank and it came with aspen but I bought some cypress last night so I'd feel better about his humidity if he had a heat lamp and a better substrate for moisture.

- - - Updated - - -

Also, would a blacklight bulb work for him? I know it throws heat and I have a few on hand 40-75w from my partying days. I figure I could use less heat more often with a 40w bulb. The 100w infared we have is just too much for him to have on all the time, cage would be like a desert.

[The Serpent Merchant]

it all depends on what your temps end up being. I live in Florida where is is hot and humid so I don't need a heat lamp to boost the air temps in my cages but someone in Canada during the winter is going to have a totally different set up.

Get the thermometer/hygrometer and see where your temps are. then go from there.

[357]

it all depends on what your temps end up being. I live in Florida where is is hot and humid so I don't need a heat lamp to boost the air temps in my cages but someone in Canada during the winter is going to have a totally different set up.

Get the thermometer/hygrometer and see where your temps are. then go from there.

I live in Maine, all the perks of Canada's climate with the pride of being an American! But yeah, it is usually sub 70 every night year round here.

[The Serpent Merchant]

Then an infrared heat lamp is going to be required to keep the air temperature in the right range

[357]

Then an infrared heat lamp is going to be required to keep the air temperature in the right range

May be a silly question, will a blacklight disturb him at night?