Under the tank heaters...show me your set up please

[AnnaK231]

About a week ago our snake burnt his underbelly on his heating pad. The pad majorly malfunctioned (also our fault because we had no regulator). I said never again will we use one. Now I'm curious though after seeing post after post about them. So, how do you have yours set up? Directly touching the tank? On the "feet" (definitely would like to see pics because I've never seen those)? Wrapped in foil tape? They work nicely when they want to, I'm just nervous I suppose. The extra heat would be nice for him to coil up on.


Snakey is in a 55 gallon tank (for now), covered in styrofoam on 3 sides, top is aluminum foiled (I want to change to plexiglass), we have a white light and a red light in a shared dome and we use newspaper for bedding. I'm looking into getting sphagnum moss and bamboo. He normally has a swimming pool with a water heater but since he's covered in goop 2x a day I just have two shallow water dishes for him.

[tbowman]

Sorry to hear your snake was burned. You need to invest in a thermostat to regulate the UTH. It's 100% essential, but it seems that it's something nobody at a pet store ever mentions. They need to be regulated to avoid incidents like the one you recently experienced.

[PitOnTheProwl]

About a week ago our snake burnt his underbelly on his heating pad. The pad majorly malfunctioned (also our fault because we had no regulator). I said never again will we use one. Now I'm curious though after seeing post after post about them. So, how do you have yours set up? Directly touching the tank? On the "feet" (definitely would like to see pics because I've never seen those)? Wrapped in foil tape? They work nicely when they want to, I'm just nervous I suppose. The extra heat would be nice for him to coil up on.

SMH................ You cannot blame the pad and claim malfunction the you never installed it properly.




Now my question is: How are you caring for the belly burn and how bad is it?

[Eric Alan]

...prevents snakes and burrowing reptiles from pushing substrate aside and resting on top of the glass directly above the heater, resulting in possible burns! Using newspaper, paper towels, or any similarly light product in place of a substrate is not appropriate with this kind of heater, and such use will void any and all guarantees and release Zoo Med from any liability for damage to product, property, or animals.

As others have said, your heat pad did not malfunction. It worked exactly as intended. You need to take the proper precautions to use these heaters appropriately for ball pythons.

[AnnaK231]

Tbowman yes no one told us that, not even the breeder we got him from.

PitOnTheProwl, See we never had a problem with it in the 2.5 years we had it. I pulled it off the tank immediately when I noticed his burns and the dang thing had melted in the middle. That's what they are supposed to do?
Yikes.
Thank you for your drawing. Would the thermostat probe sit between the sticky part of the pad and the tank or do you wrap them in foil tape like I've seen suggested?

He's been to the vet, gets SSD cream put on 2x a day along with a numbing spray and a shot of antibiotics every three days until his next appointment. He's doing well, the burns are healing up nicely and he should shed again in the next couple of days.



Eric, We used a substrate made for snake up until he got burnt, he's on paper towels and newspaper NOW and I might keep him that way (without a heat pad) or go back to the substrate and heat pad with a regulator.

[tbowman]

There are no issues with using a UTH with paper towel / newspaper substrate. But as I said earlier, it has to be attached to a thermostat. That way even if the UTH were to malfunction, the thermostat would cut the power and prevent the snake from being burned. And I think the odds of both a thermostat and UTH failing simultaneously are pretty low.

[PitOnTheProwl]

That's what they are supposed to do?

Actually when unregulated................... yeah they usually will.



This is what you have to look forward to. Got her from some fool that was running unregulated, said she was het pastel, and thought is was a shed coming on.
This was a couple years after I got her, wish I would have taken a couple pics when I got her.

[tbowman]

Just a thought, I don't think these UTHs are designed specifically for BPs, but reptiles in general. Some animals require higher temperatures than BPs, so it makes sense to me that the manufacturer would make them to get to a temperature that could be harmful to BP if unregulated, to accommodate the species that need it hotter.

[Eric Alan]

See we never had a problem with it in the 2.5 years we had it.

Famous last words...

Would the thermostat probe sit between the sticky part of the pad and the tank or do you wrap them in foil tape like I've seen suggested?

Between the sticky part and the tank - don't wrap the probe with foil.

...he's on paper towels and newspaper NOW and I might keep him that way (without a heat pad) or go back to the substrate and heat pad with a regulator.

A thermostat ("regulator") is critical regardless of what substrate you choose. Quite simply, normally functioning heat pads are too hot for ball pythons. BPs are not desert animals are are sensitive to high temperatures. I'm terribly sorry you learned that the hard way and am glad to hear you're working on taking the proper precautions going forward.

[AnnaK231]

PitOnTheProwl that really sucks. Oh that poor girl! I'm glad you got her and got her healed up. I hope you lectured the person you got her from. I don't know how people can mistake burns and blisters for a shed. I'm really glad he's healing this fast, I'm ashamed to say the vet said he hasn't seen worse (he's actually seen the same thing a few times) Snakey is almost looking like that on his upper parts, I'm still working on his tail. Thankfully he's pretty even tempered. Did you have any issues with her and scale rot? Or would the SSD and antibiotics keep that at bay? He's not sitting in an overly damp tank or anything, I just don't want something else to happen.

Tbowman, if we decide to go with the UTH route it will definitely have a thermostat to regulate. Even if we go back to the substrate route or stay with newspaper.

Thanks Eric, my husband and I are going to build him an enclosure eventually since he's going to be with us for a long time and if we use a heat pad we will absolutely put a thermostat with it.