Heating pad problems

[WhompingWillow]

Thank you but is that really all I can do? I'd really prefer not to buy even more heating stuff when a heat pad should be enough. Plenty of other people have no problems with this and I don't see a reason why it's so difficult for me specifically to get the right temperature. Is it going to be like this for every cage and heating pad? I'd be fine with getting a new thermostat if that would make it better, I'm honestly tired of this because it's caused so many problems and nobody seems to know of an actual way to fix it.

Out of curiosity, what are your ambient (air) temps? A hot spot is important, yes, but so is having a temperature gradient from warm side to cool so that your snake can thermoregulate. Depending on how your enclosure and your room temperatures, a heat pad really may not be enough. You want about 80 degrees on the cool end. And how are you measuring your temps? Apologies if I missed you mentioning that earlier.

As others have said, a range of acceptable hot spot temps is fine. 88-90 is ideal, but 87 - 91/92 won't do any harm. You simply aren't going to "fix" or get a constant hot spot temp with an on/off thermostat (ie, Jumpstart).

The most popular proportional thermostats are probably Herpstats (manufactured by Spyder Robotics) and Vivarium Electronics (made by Reptile Basics). These works by maintaining a constant set temperature.

Different cage types are easier to maintain. You can make pretty much anything work, but it takes some experimenting. As an example, a lot of people dislike glass tanks because of the difficulty maintaining heat and humidity. Ball pythons can definitely thrive in glass enclosures, but you may need to work at it more. Other popular options are tubs, either standalone tubs that are modified or tubs in a rack system. PVC cages are also popular (Animal Plastics, Reptile Basics, Herptastic, Boaphile, etc.) and a lot of people use Radiant Heat Panels as the sole heating element for those (from ProProducts or Reptile Basics).

A final note: It sounds like you are a new keeper. We've all been there. I get being frustrated when it seems like things aren't working how they should be. But your original question was asking why your hot spot has temperature swings. Multiple people explained why in this thread. You've gotten a lot of advice on possible ways to address this and also reassurances that a range in hotspot temps is okay as long as not too hot or too cold.