Heating the tank?

[ATL BP]

I am a first time ball python owner. I know i should have done more research before i took on the responsibility but i went to repticon for the first time and fell in love.

I purchased a young felmale albino on Sunday January 8th and bought a 10 gallon tank. I put about a half an inch to an inch of coconut husk down as the subsrate, a hide, a water bowl and two plastic poles for her to climb on. I put a screen lid locked on with a 75 watt infrared light sitting on top and tinfoil around the light to cover the screen. I also have a UTH with a thermostat taped to it and a digital thermometer with the probe placed slighty buried above the UTH. I have another thermometer on the cool side and a humidity reader.

The problem is i dont want to keep the infrared light on 24/7 because i read that they can still see the light. But my UTH doesn't seem to keep the temperature in the tank warm enough without the light. I may just be paranoid because she had no problem eating her first meal and seems to hide in the day and wonder at night. I just really want make sure i do things right and keep the snake healthy.
Any beginner tips or things i need to know, im all ears.

[Regius_049]

UTHs are not great at keeping ambient temperatures up in the setup you describe. You will need to heat the room or use a bulb as you are doing. However, you can change out your infared light for a ceramic heat emitter. They give off equal or better heat and produce no light. They are like $10 at almost any pet store.

[ATL BP]

UTHs are not great at keeping ambient temperatures up in the setup you describe. You will need to heat the room or use a bulb as you are doing. However, you can change out your infared light for a ceramic heat emitter. They give off equal or better heat and produce no light. They are like $10 at almost any pet store.

Another problem is that the infrared bulb seems to be drying out my tank. Will a ceramic bulb be better with keeping the tank humid?
Thanks for the quick reply.

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