New Caye Caulker Dwarf Boa and would like general information

[CloudtheBoa]

Wow, that sounds like a scary day! I hope everyone pulled through.

I run redundant thermostats. I am in bad shape if both fail open, but that's not very likely.

Good to know herpstat sells ones that offer more protection.

I agree, and sorry I missed it, that you need two hides. One in each heat zone (hot/cool).

I run an RHP and UTH mainly for redundancy (I am a nervous nelly). The incremental cost was very low to add the UTH, so I did (both run off the same thermostat). It's a preference thing, but not necessary.

I'll admit that I thought RHP's were more for air temp and "shine down/sun like" heat (not in that order though). I never thought about it adding belly heat. It makes sense though, when you think about it . Well, I stand corrected and I am glad I learned something new today. I have seen many people successfully keep happy and healthy snakes in enclosures with just an RHP, but it never really clicked.

Thank you, as always, CloudtheBoa.

It was just Howl (my adult male ghost), and he was able to escape the heat without any injury by sitting on top of his hide. Needless to say I threw it out, wasn’t a fun thing to wake up to. XD I’ve switched everyone off of Hydrofarms now, not wiling to risk it.

Snakes don’t really “need” belly heat, they absorb top-down IR hear much more efficiently than they do belly-only heat from a UTH or heat tape, especially if the air temp is too low. You can see this in wild snakes in cold habitats: they can sit right on top of snow and still stay warm by soaking up the sun’s rays. I think this is why I’ve noticed delayed digestion periods in my boas on heat tape vs with ambient heat, they take on average 3-4 extra days for any bulge to dissipate, though my bulges generally aren’t noticeable except in person where you can see how that area is swollen with gas. I do keep the room temp nice and warm, but there’s only so much heat tape can do.

But, with how popular racks are, I can see why that belief has spread. You can’t really use RHPs in racks very easily.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk