Hey everyone,

I recently made a post about my cage set up for my new ball python, Casper. Through many helpful comments, I found that there were many things about my DIY set-up that needed work. But I have a question about temperature.

I'll try to be as clear as possible about what's going on in my cage currently.

I have a large heat pad under one side of my cage. It is directly under Casper's hiding area.

I also have a thermostat that the heat pad plugs into to regulate the heat pad's temperature. The probe is directly on the heat pad, under the cage. I have the thermostat set to 95 degrees.

So basically, Casper has an area where he can get 95-degree belly heat all throughout the day.

I also have a thermoMETER inside of the cage to measure the overall temperature. The heat pad doesn't seem to affect the overall temperature of the cage. My thermometer reads 75 degrees almost all day long with few exceptions.

My question is this: Does the overall cage temperature need to be higher? My original thinking was that, as long as the ball python has an area where it can get belly heat of about 95 degrees, then the overall cage temperature doesn't matter. What do y'all think? I emailed BHB reptiles about this issue and I got the reply that I was doing the right thing. But I know Brian keeps his snake rooms at higher temperatures than I have in my house.

- John