Quote Originally Posted by Neal View Post
Even the super terrestrial snakes will still climb. If you give any snake something to climb they will. While it's odd to you, they will climb in the wild. If your setup is ideal then I wouldn't worry. I have a desert horned viper, and they are from Egypt. I have a statue in his enclosure and I see him climbing a lot. He doesn't stay up there, but he does go up there to bask closer to the heat. I give him a 92 degree hotspot, but when he climbs, where he goes it's normally 100-102.

Now to address a few possible issues which I want to make sure isn't the case.

You heat the bottom of the tank. Do you heat the entire bottom? If so you're not allowing him to thermoregulate.

When you're checking the temps with the gun, are you aiming at the glass? Because if so you're going the wrong reading. A lot of people don't realize with temp guns you're not supposed to shoot glass or any type of reflective surface.

I just wanted to cover this in case one of those two may be your issue.
I have the UTH covering about 1/3 of the bottom. When I set it up, I did adjust the thermostat based on the temperature of the glass (with a temp gun) directly on top of the UTH. I also use the temp gun for the surface of the substrate, as well as an accurite for ambients. I'm concerned however, especially since he is a burrowing snake, how do I determine the accurate temp of the glass on top of the UTH if the temp gun won't read it accurately?