BP moving from Hot to Cool side A LOT! What does this mean??

[Vilenica]

My 4 month old BP is moving from one hide to another a lot.

I have a 75watt heat lamp and a UTH on the hot side in a 10gallon tank....should I have both or just one of the heat sources??

This is a temporary set-up as i am awaiting receipt of 2 V221 Vision Tanks.

Thanks in advance for your input!

For your 'temporary setup' I think the easiest thing you can do is disable the heat lamp and make sure you have a neonate sized suitable hide over the Uth (hot side) a neonate shouldn't be roaming the 10 gallon but once a night or if he/she just pood.

[Ldag32]

For your 'temporary setup' I think the easiest thing you can do is disable the heat lamp and make sure you have a neonate sized suitable hide over the Uth (hot side) a neonate shouldn't be roaming the 10 gallon but once a night or if he/she just pood.

Thank you!

Would you consider 103 grams a neonate??

I have my spider (86 grams) in a very small set-up with a UTH, a small RBI hide and a water dish….she ate for the 1st time yesterday and her eyes turned clear today as she is going into shed.

Keeping a close eye on both as I want to make sure they don't get stressed.

Thanks again for all of your help.

LD

[The Serpent Merchant]

If you don't have a thermostat for your UTH then I would unplug it and just use the heat lamp. Unregulated UTH's are dangerous, and your 75 watt heat lamp should be enough on its own. And in a room that cold a UTH on its own cannot get the air temperature in the cage high enough.

[The Serpent Merchant]

i use a 75w in my 20l tank. its 12 inches tall and have it about 2 inches off the top of the tank. it keeps my hot side around 86-88. id say that tank is way to hot. you are prob close to 96* if not more. try dropping the bulb down to a 50w

86-88? The hot side of the cage should be between 88-92 degrees.

[Ldag32]

If you don't have a thermostat for your UTH then I would unplug it and just use the heat lamp. Unregulated UTH's are dangerous, and your 75 watt heat lamp should be enough on its own. And in a room that cold a UTH on its own cannot get the air temperature in the cage high enough.

Even those zoomed ones?? It's not flexwatt.... Thoughts?

[PitOnTheProwl]

Even those zoomed ones?? It's not flexwatt.... Thoughts?

can run 130 degrees +
Think of it as rubber coated flex

[The Serpent Merchant]

Even those zoomed ones?? It's not flexwatt.... Thoughts?

Those can get hot enough to give a BP brain damage in a matter of hours and hot enough to kill a BP in only a short time longer.

All UTH's cannot change the temperature of the air inside the cage. They only heat the floor of the cage. This is why you have to have a probed thermometer, otherwise you cannot tell how hot the UTH is actually making the floor of the cage.

Unregulated UTH's are also a pretty big fire risk.

[kitedemon]

Not all UTH are made the same there are hi density and low density units zoo meds are in between I personally an not a huge fan of them but that is me. UTH should not be unregulated. that said unplugging it is also perhaps not a good idea if it is required to hold the temps in a reasonable range and unplugging it drops them below an acceptable range then no do not remove the heat. If it stays ok then yes unplug it.

A while back a young girl from my area had a BP with an ultratherm unregulated (limited heat low density heater) and hot spot temps that were around the 83º range in a cool room. The advise from this forum was to unplug it. The temps dropped to 66º across the board and the snake developed serious RI and upon all the best help (vet and the agency I am on the board of) did not recover. SNAKES NEED HEAT removing heat and allowing temps to drop below 80º will end badly.

The zoo med if the instructions are followed carefully will not cause a fire why would they? This is the (stupid) way they are designed to be used. Unregulated is exactly that out of control. You have a great T-stat on the way make sure you temps are ok between now and then and everything will be fine.

Is the snake eating? How long have you had the enclosure this way 4 months? If the answers are yes and the surface temps are 94 and do not get much hotter then there is no great issue you have a minor problem and the solution is in transit. Removing heat sources and dropping temps from slightly high to potentially dangerously low is not good advise or ideas. The easy solution may be to place a tile on the area where the pad is (ceramic or stone) to drop the temp and insure the snake cannot contact the dead bottom where the temps could be higher.

[kitedemon]

Out of curiosity I plugged in an old zoo med pad and am going to check the temp in a bit...

[kitedemon]

Those can get hot enough to give a BP brain damage in a matter of hours and hot enough to kill a BP in only a short time longer.

All UTH's cannot change the temperature of the air inside the cage. They only heat the floor of the cage. This is why you have to have a probed thermometer, otherwise you cannot tell how hot the UTH is actually making the floor of the cage.

Unregulated UTH's are also a pretty big fire risk.

What UTH are you using? That are running so hot.

In all honesty I'd ditch them and get something that does not run so hot like an ultratherm, intelliheat or Kane, so even in a complete failure of everything the temp will never be able to get beyond 110º max too hot to be sure but not the dire results you clearly have experience with. There is no reason to have a UTH that is a high wattage unit not a single one of mine in current use has ever hit more than 110ºF when I run a wide open test on it that is also direct surface temps taken fro the pad.