Pat the baby biak green tree python

[Sauzo]

Well with a full size CHE, yes it might give a burn but with the Nano stuff, it doesnt get hot enough, unless you touch it. Like i said, the 25 watt one topped out low 80s...iirc it was around 82F and that was running 100%.

Heat tape is different in that most burns occur off glass tank floors. And some of those heat tapes like the Zoo Med ones can hit 145F. I would question if that kind of heat could even reach a snake through the air in time to burn it before the snake moved. If it was a ramping heat, the snake would move off it long before it got hot enough to burn. If it was an instant 145F and you threw the snake under it, i bet the snake would move like lightning off it lol.

Now heat that it can come into contact with, i could see it burn which is what we mostly see with belly burns. If you look in the wild, I'm sure in some hot places like Australia, rocks there can get hot enough to fry and egg yet snakes and lizards survive there. I'm guessing they just avoid that kind of heat. In a cage with a glass bottom and unregulated heat tape plus an inch or more of substrate, the snake burrows down to get more heat and more or less instantly hits that 145F hot glass which gives it the burn. This all hypothetical though as i havent actually seen it happen or ever had to deal with a burn to any snakes ever.

I've talked to a few guys on the GTP boards and they do the same set up. Most use flexwatt though taped to a cage side and use the t-stat probe to monitor the ambient. The biggest thing i was told was to not use a belly heat unless it only covers 1/4 of the cage floor since if the GTP grounds, it would be stuck sitting on the heat tape and could overheat. But like i said, the CHE i am using is one that doesnt reach that high of air temps and again, it covers a 4 inch surface.

And i disagree, i dont see my set up causing any harm to the snake as like i said, the heating im using is a small caliber set up, not something like an 8 inch dome with a 100 watt CHE on a 18x18x18 cage. And yes if we changed something like a big CHE or big dome, then i could see possibly a burn but before that, i would expect to see the snake ground itself and not perch at all.

Heck i even have my hi temp shutoff set to 95F so if the probe reaches 95F+, it will shut the whole system down. I mean really i probably dont even need any heating. A few of the breeders i talked to said they dont even use an external heat source. They just keep them in an ambient room that varies from 77-82F from night to day and their GTPs grow and breed fine. I only give Pat the mini CHE because he seems to like the heat after eating.

But hey, we all have our views and thought and i appreciate your concerns about the probe.

Oh and one other thing concerning air temps, if you ever had monitors before, they love to sit under 120-130F heat lamps which dont burn them. The air temp would more overheat and dehydrate unless you are talking something crazy like 150F+ on flesh.