Making a snake room

[Amberlove]

Ok so I set my room up today with thermometers in the room as well as in the cages. The only animals in the room are my ball pythons now. I moved my tortoise to my bedroom because she's a greek and with her MVB it would make it to hot for her in there. I should have mentioned that my a.c. unit stays between 80-85 because I can't handle cold temps. (I'm a T-10 paraplegic and have never really been able to keep my body heat even before my accident). I have a ceramic space heater with a built in thermostat but I'm not really having to run it right now. With the vent shut off and the window insulated the ambient temp is staying around 85. The whole reason I wanted to do this is because my male bp is kind of dumb. He will bury up at the hot spot and just lay on the glass on top of the UTH until he gets a burn (this has happened once because I wasn't home and the person snake sitting for me didn't check every hour to make sure he wasn't buried.) I don't want to have to worry that he will be stupid and burn himself again, my girls have never buried and so don't have this problem with them but if I'm trying to fix it with him might as well do it with all of them. Plus gives me something to do with that empty room. Thanks for all the input, I'm going to keep a very close eye on the room for the next several days to see if I need to tweak anything.

On a side note I didn't get a Hog Island, I ended up getting this very sweet Dumeril Boa instead (I will post pics on a new thread).

[Neal]

Ok so I set my room up today with thermometers in the room as well as in the cages. The only animals in the room are my ball pythons now. I moved my tortoise to my bedroom because she's a greek and with her MVB it would make it to hot for her in there. I should have mentioned that my a.c. unit stays between 80-85 because I can't handle cold temps. (I'm a T-10 paraplegic and have never really been able to keep my body heat even before my accident). I have a ceramic space heater with a built in thermostat but I'm not really having to run it right now. With the vent shut off and the window insulated the ambient temp is staying around 85. The whole reason I wanted to do this is because my male bp is kind of dumb. He will bury up at the hot spot and just lay on the glass on top of the UTH until he gets a burn (this has happened once because I wasn't home and the person snake sitting for me didn't check every hour to make sure he wasn't buried.) I don't want to have to worry that he will be stupid and burn himself again, my girls have never buried and so don't have this problem with them but if I'm trying to fix it with him might as well do it with all of them. Plus gives me something to do with that empty room. Thanks for all the input, I'm going to keep a very close eye on the room for the next several days to see if I need to tweak anything.

On a side note I didn't get a Hog Island, I ended up getting this very sweet Dumeril Boa instead (I will post pics on a new thread).

Before anybody else jumps in and says anything rude I'll say it nicely.

If your UTH is hot enough to cause a burn on your snake then you have it set way to hot. What I would do if I had an UTH on an aquarium for a BP is keep a shallow bit of aspen so that way the heat gets through easier and doesn't have to be hotter, then he may not push all of the shavings out of the way. I still have almost all of my bp's do this.

My bee is the biggest one taht will do it, but my black pastel & spider do it as well. I haven't had an issue with any other ones doing it as of yet. Just a thought for measure.

[Trackstrong83]

I made a thread about this a while back, take a gander.

http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...use-a-hot-spot

[Amberlove]

Before anybody else jumps in and says anything rude I'll say it nicely.

If your UTH is hot enough to cause a burn on your snake then you have it set way to hot. What I would do if I had an UTH on an aquarium for a BP is keep a shallow bit of aspen so that way the heat gets through easier and doesn't have to be hotter, then he may not push all of the shavings out of the way. I still have almost all of my bp's do this.

My bee is the biggest one taht will do it, but my black pastel & spider do it as well. I haven't had an issue with any other ones doing it as of yet. Just a thought for measure.

Actually I have it set to a lower temp and the aspen is really shallow (not even a 1/4 inch thick) so he doesn't have to dig. The problem is he is dumb and dug and laid on it for 3 days straight without moving. The person watching them didn't think anything of him laying in his hide for 3 days straight and not coming out to regulate. I'm sorry but if you put your hand on something warm and keep it there for 3 days without ever moving it, you will get a small burn and that is what happened to him. The burn was very small and healed and shed off within a few days. I just don't want to take the chance of this happening again because he is too stupid to self regulate and it is very likely that I will be in the hospital again. I've had 1 of my BPs for almost 2 years and another for over a year and never had a problem til I got him. I really don't like him because I swear he is stupid (he puts his head under to drink and almost drowns and thinks he has to be on the glass to stay warm) My house itself is never under 80 degrees. I love my snakes and take the very best care of them. None of the other snakes I own or have owned have ever gotten a burn, had mites, or a RI. I used to own a Colombian boa about 6 years ago and had him up until 2 1/2 years ago when I got very sick and was in the hospital for 2 months and then came home and could no longer care for him (he was 8+ ft and I am only 5' and when "healthy" 90 lbs coming out of the hospital my weight was down to 65-70 and I was weaker than a newborn). (I am a T-10 paraplegic due to the fact that I was ran over when I was 4 years old by a full sized van; therefore, I have a lot of health issues and do end up in the hospital sometimes and that is what happened when I had a "sitter" for my BPs) I am not trying to sound hateful or anything just giving you the facts that he is just plain stupid and I don't want him to get burned again because I end up in the hospital for weeks on end and not here to make sure that he moves every few hours. So I just wanted to create a room that was safe for him and something easier for a "sitter" or for my husband to check on if I'm in the hospital for an extended stay. I shouldn't have to give up a hobby or my babies because I have health issues but my snakes shouldn't have to suffer because I'm not here sometimes. So I just wanted a set up that works for me and my problems.