New cage thermostat

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HI,

I am preparing a new cage for my BP; it will be a wood cagewith two front glasse. The size will be 47 x 23 x 20 high. It will be heated with a 50 watt heating cable covered by plexiglass and a 100 watt ceramic lamp. I will have the thermostat probe over the plexiglas set on 88/89.
My question is: should I have another thermostat wit its probe a couple of inches above the substrate (aspen) in the hot end set on 85 or so, connected with the ceramic lamp?

Thanks.

[xdeus]

No, it isn't necessary. As long as the ceramic lamp is protected so your snake can't come in contact with it, he should be just fine. The cage is big enough so that the snake can move around to a comfortable temperature, especially if you provide a number of different hides in various temp zones. If the area does seem too warm, you can hook up a rheostat (lamp dimmer) to the ceramic lamp in order to reduce the temps. The environment should stay stable enough with the heat rope and thermostat so that the rheostat wouldn't have to be adjusted.

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Thanks for your reply; I will try (of course without the snake) without anything and in case I will get the rheostat. As next week I will attend a reptile show, I wanted to take advantage of it to buy another thermostat at a cheaper prize, if I had to, but now I think I will invest part of those money in a good thermometer/igrometer