Heating options

[Reed12321]

Hey All ~
I'm brand new to the world of ball pythons.. although this dream was 40 years in the making!! I have my new girl, Willow, all settled into her new home for about a month now. She's doing great and eating well. But I've been doing some research and have found that her tank is not warm enough. Right now I have a 29 gallon tank with a small UTH and a day/night light at the top. Got a thermometer with a probe and it's way too chilly... 74 on the cool side and only 78 on the "warm" side. Guess this is why she's spending so much time in her hide?? I've been researching but I'm overwhelmed with the options... ceramic heat lamps, UTH mats, strips, day bulbs, night bulbs, basking lamps... Can someone help a newbie with ideas of what I should use??? Thanks!

It's great to see that your snake has been eating. Ideally, when a snake is happy and healthy, they hide all day. Something that snakes do however, is thermoregulate. It seems though that your tank doesnt get warm enough for the snake to ever venture over to the cold side. It sounds like you may want to up the wattage on your nighttime bulb.

Something else that helps keep heat AND humidity in, is covering the screen with aluminum foil. I have my tanks covered with aluminum foil and have a strategic hole cut out for ventilation and for the lamp to actually shine light through. I have it literally taped to the screen ON THE OUTSIDE so that it doesnt move. This helped my humidity and heat issues IMMENSELY. I was having the same conditions as you did prior to doing this, and now I have my big tank with a 100 watt bulb on a timer or else it gets too hot and dry in there. The aluminum foil insulates and reflects heat back into the tank.

With your UTH (your heat pad), are you using a thermostat or rheostat?