Burn

[piedlover79]

I'm sure you got one of those pads from the pet store that says it's self regulating so I can understand the mistake. I'm glad you took notice and asked for help on this.

[oculus_ignigena]

Yes well I have a friend that says a thermostat is unneccessary and he's never had a problem. That's why I never got one. Since he's a person I know in real life and his bp is in great shape I listen to him. If I listened to everything online I'd probably still be struggling with aspen bedding.

The heat pad, as peidlover79 said (thank you), isn't supposed to get hot enough to burn anything as long as there is substrate, and every time i've touched it, it hasn't been too hot. This time there just happened to be not enough substrate on it. The hide was dug too deep

And lastly, my snake almost never hangs out on the hot side. I noticed she had been lately and attributed it to shedding but I didn't expect it would be hot enough to burn her. I will get a thermostat now obviously, because the temps in my room just vary way too much for the tank temps to be consistent. This wouldn't have been a problem in winter.

In real life, her skin is a bit pink and the scales a bit wrinkly, like a sunburn, like I said. Those brown specs are from the substrate. It looks worse in the pic than in real life. Her behaviour has pretty much gone back to normal pre-shed behaviour.

So if everyone is done patronising me, chastising me, and insulting my aptitude for my career, some constructive advice would be much appreciated, thank you.

I turned off the big uth, I will line the tank with paper towel.

1. Does anyone know what else I can put on it?
2. Has anyone tried bag balm for these guys?
3. How long does it usually take to heal?
4. Is there anything USEFUL I should know that hasn't been made painfully clear, like for instance RECCOMMENDATIONS FOR A T-STAT LIKE I ASKED FOR IN THE FIRST PLACE

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[oculus_ignigena]

Another thing I'd like to know: should I feed her while it's healing?

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[PitOnTheProwl]

1. Does anyone know what else I can put on it?
2. Has anyone tried bag balm for these guys?
3. How long does it usually take to heal?
4. Is there anything USEFUL I should know that hasn't been made painfully clear, like for instance RECCOMMENDATIONS FOR A T-STAT LIKE I ASKED FOR IN THE FIRST PLACE

I cannot find our tub of bag balm so I don't know if it is petrol base or not, if it is you don't want to use it.
A lot of it depends on how deep the burn is.
Remember two things:
1 Just because it works in one house doesn't mean it will work in another. (Your friend might like gambling with his animals, that's on him and this is on you)
2 Many of us here don't just take time out of our day to rip you a new one because we like to. We have seen and been there too many times. Many people forget we take all these animals in to our care because WE wanted them, not because they wanted us to.

Keep everything extra clean and see what it starts to look like in a shed or two.
The damage is already done and it might get a little worse before it starts to heal up.
Also your room temperature has nothin to do with an unregulated mat running too hot (that's what they do) and you are warm blooded so what feel comfortable to you can be scalding hot to a cold blooded reptile.

If she will eat yes but smaller meal. Do you feed live or frozen?

[Yodawagon]

Buy a herpstat intro plus. 109 shipped. Or check out a vivarium electronics.

[EL-Ziggy]

As far as dependable thermostats you can go with the economically priced Hydrofarms, or the higher end Herpstats or Vivarium Electronics.

http://www.amazon.com/MTPRTC-ETL-Cer...arm+thermostat

http://www.amazon.com/Herpstat-2/dp/...438.1459106239

[M.P.C]

Your snake probably avoids the hot side because its to hot, like others have said just because its not hot to your warm blooded temp of 90+ dosnt means its not to hot for the cold blooded snake as proven by the burn, just because there is substrate that dosnt prevent them from burrowing down to the heat source.

No one is ripping on you or patronizing you, we are giving you solid info based on our years upon years of collective knowledge taking care of these creatures and keeping them healthy...just because something that shouldnt be done works for someone thats not a guarantee it will work for you, an example being people keeping multiple snakes housed together with no issue yet its known to be a horrible practice and bad things can and have happened because of this practice same thing goes with heat pads some people use them without thermostats problem free for months or even years but it only takes that one time the snake decides it dosnt feel like moving or they want to dig down into the substrate for something bad to happen

[Coluber42]

If you are just using the thermostat to control the heat pad, the cheaper ones *should* be fine. They will allow a much larger temperature swing than the more expensive Herpstat, but they'll work for giving your snake some heat to lie on without letting it get too hot. The one caution about the cheaper ones is that if they fail, the heater goes all the way on rather than all the way off. So you might want to use a lamp dimmer in addition, just so you know for sure that full blast isn't actually full blast. But anyway, Hydrofarm thermostats are sold for starting seedlings. There's a ZooMed one that I think is similar. The expensive ones are Herpstat and Vivarium Electronics, which come in various versions depending on how many devices you want to control with it.

The thickness of the substrate above the heat mat is potentially sort of a complicated subject; thick substrate acts as an insulator, so that the surface of the glass underneath could get really very hot even with the substrate surface not that hot. But then if the snake digs down just a little further, it can theoretically encounter a temperature much higher than you would have thought. Lots of heat mats recommend no more than half an inch of substrate over the heat mat, for exactly this reason.

One last suggestion is that you prop the entire tank up on blocks so that there is air flow underneath. You'll lose more heat from the heat mat that way, so it's less efficient in that sense, but it will reduce the amount of possible heat buildup.

Another complicating factor is that the snake's body itself can have the same kind of insulating effect, meaning that the temperature isn't too high when you just check the surface by itself, but when the snake curls up on it, heat can build up. A thermostat will prevent that from happening.
You can also use a dimmer, if you can get it dialed in. This insulating effect is a little hard to test, but you can check it by using a thermometer with a probe (like those indoor/outdoor household digital thermometers) and put the probe over the hot spot. Then check what the temperature does when the snake is actually sitting on top of the probe and turn down the dimmer until it stays stable at the desired temperature while the snake is there. When the snake leaves the temp will drop, but that's OK.

I use aspen in my BP's tank, but over the hot spot there are a couple layers of paper towels instead. The water bowl and the hide hold them in place, and there's a little aspen around the edges. That lets me set the heat mat to really low power using a dimmer, so there's no possibility of it ever getting that hot enough to burn. I might have to reassess that particular setup when he gets big and strong enough to rearrange his furniture, but it's working fine for now. It's also handy for cleanup, since he likes to do his business in his warm hide, and it's easier to see the mess.

[PitOnTheProwl]

Hydrofarm thermostats are sold for starting seedlings.

I see this and its entertaining.
All thermostats are made to control a heating or cooling device, they do not know what their client is.

[Scottywelsh]

I use Microclimate B1 dimmer stats that have always worked great for me. The best at holding steady temps In My Opinion !
For me as well an IR temp gun is a must. It really helps locate hot spots if there are any and make sure where the hot hide is the floor temp is consistent

Iv had no experience with burns but it would be a vet visit for me just in case.

When I first plugged a heat mat in the temp only got to about 40°c but when something was on top of it it was quite a bit higher. Again an IR gun was handy and since I got it I use it all the time to check things