So, like most snake keepers, I use an UTH to boost the temps in my ball python's tank. I use a Zilla thermostat to keep the pad from getting too hot... or so I thought. Until one day I realized the thermometer over the UTH sky rocketed. I kept turning it down but the thermometer kept reading way too high so I unplugged it and checked it out. Lo and behold, I found the pad had melted off of the tank and down onto the floor burning a hole in the carpet! Of course I called Zoo Med to try to gain some understanding of what could have happened. Apparently the way I had it set up is wrong and I just wanted to pass this along to hopefully save someone else from a melted heat pad. I had the pad on the bottom of the tank. Inside the tank I had the thermostat probe and a thermometer probe placed directly on top of the heat pads location. Next I placed a layer of paper towels down to prevent my snake for laying directly on top of the pad. On top of the paper towels was a layer of Aspen bedding. Apparently the problem is the paper towels. The representative at Zoo med told me that the paper towels make the pad over heat and that's what caused it to melt.

So for anyone out there using heat pads, I have been told do not use paper towels, or newspaper.