Confused!!!

[Spiritserpents]

oh yeah that reminds me! If I set the UTH to 85 degrees, but have about 2 inches of substrate over it, won't that cause the hot spot to be a bit lower than 85? Because the substrate will block out some of the heat?

You want the 85 degree temp to be the temperature that is the closest the snake can get to the heat source.

2 inches of substrate is way too much when using a UTH. If you crank the heat up to get your 85 degrees on the top layer of substrate the actual bottom of the cage will be too hot and when the snake burrows it can burn itself.

'Tis not. I give all my adults at least 3 inches so they can burrow as they want. The bottom of the cage where the UTH is is 85 degrees and they go down there after feeding. They *adore* lots of substrate to burrow in, and an inch is not enough to do that with an adult that is 500 grams or more.

For a baby I will use about an inch because, as you said, they are quite slender and it's MUCH easier to find them.