Quote Originally Posted by kitedemon View Post
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.
Thank you!!!

I have only had the normal female for about a month….she is 103 grams and as eaten readily every 7 days since… (3 feedings)

I just picked up the Spider female last week (86 grams) and she ate for the 1st time on Sat.

Bigger than anything else is the quality of the thermometer! I think the one i have is terrible. I have 2 thermometers: the zoo-med with the probe and the Flukers combo thermometer/hygrometer. The zoo-med probe is located on the UTH and reading 85.6 degrees. The Flukers is in the middle of the tank on the bottom and is reading 83.1 degrees.

Should I invest in a temp gun so I can be certain???