Newbie moments

[Craiga 01453]

Like Craig, I’ve been keeping since before Google or internet forums. I bought my first boa in 1991, and had him until he passed last year at age 26. As for newbie mistakes, back then I used unregulated heat lamps and then CHEs. No-one I knew or heard of was using thermostats for something like that back then. ‘Regulating’ was tinkering with the wattage until you were using a bulb that didn’t get your hot end over the desired limit - measured by plain old mercury thermometers stuck to the tank or cage wall. Luckily the store I used was not a fan of heat rocks, even though they carried them.

Very true! Thermostats were unheard of back then. I had to experiment with different wattage bulbs, moved them further and closer to the tank, laid them on the screens, used blankets wrapped around the sides of tanks, etc...to get decent temps.