I think that everyone who has replied to this thread cannot stress enough how important having a thermostat is. my first snake is was an impulse buy from PetSmart (terrible idea and the people didn't know anything about what the snakes needed). I was never told about a thermostat until I joined this forum, i didn't know that UTH could get to 120 degrees or any of that. The day i read about thermostats I researched them and bought a herpstat 2. I then went to get a IR thermometer and when i took the temps it was about 110 degrees (no wonder why he was always on the cool side which was at 89 degrees). I was horrified and felt like the worst owner, so until i got my thermostat I unplugged all of his heating and cranked up the temperature in that room, I was so lucky that my snake didn't sustain any brain damage or burns. To this day that thermostat has been the best purchase i have made in order to care for all of my snakes. Moral of the story is we all have made mistakes with our animals and its a learning process, but everyone who replied to you is trying to save you from potentially hurting your snake and making the same mistake that myself and many others have made.
And when it comes to getting a red heat light, that is a must. your UTH only creates surface temperature for that spot, it does not heat the ambient air. so while you may have a hot spot the rest of the tank may very well be cold. So you can either take all this great advice that so many experienced members have given you or continue to ignore it and run the risk of Marshall getting hurt at some point.
