Under tank heater question

[The Serpent Merchant]

All UTH's MUST be regulated by a thermostat. without a thermostat UTH's can and will get hot enough to kill your snake if they are not regulated.

So about what temp should the UTH be? And would it be better to just use an overhead light and not use a UTH at all?

The UTH should be regulated to the mid to upper 90's. The thermostat will control the temperature of the UTH (The thermostat will have a temperature probe that gets sandwiched in between the UTH and the bottom of the tank. This temperature probe tells the thermostat how hot the UTH is) You need to have the thermostat set so that the floor of the cage is between 88-92 degrees on the hot side. Make sure that the cage floor never gets above 95 degrees. The cool side can stay between 75-85 but 78-82 is ideal.

What the best heat source is for you really depends on a few things:

1. does the room your cage is in stay 75-82 degrees most of the time?

2. Do you live in a humid area?

3. can you afford a good thermostat?

Heat lamps are ok, but generally keep the cage too hot. I suggest the use of a lamp dimmer with heat lamps to help dial them in. Heat lamps zap the humidity out of a cage though. Many people find them very difficult to deal with. UTH's on the other hand don't mess with humidity in the cage. This is why they are preferred... but they require a thermostat to be used safely and if the room is too cold have to be used in conjunction with a heat lamp.