heat regulation help?

[juli.christine]

Okay, so I have a big enclosure (about 4' by 3' and 6' high). The warmer side has a heating pad underneath and a heating bulb (about two and a half feet up so he can't accidentally touch it) and it's still only about 81 to 85 degrees inside the hide. The cooler side hide is only about 71 degrees. He switches back and forth pretty regularly. Should I get a heat source for the cooler side? Is there a way to do better than a heating pad and a bulb for the warm side? I've seen different temperature ratings on different care sheets and I'm a little confused. Thanks!

[dr del]

Okay, so I have a big enclosure (about 4' by 3' and 6' high). The warmer side has a heating pad underneath and a heating bulb (about two and a half feet up so he can't accidentally touch it) and it's still only about 81 to 85 degrees inside the hide. The cooler side hide is only about 71 degrees. He switches back and forth pretty regularly. Should I get a heat source for the cooler side? Is there a way to do better than a heating pad and a bulb for the warm side? I've seen different temperature ratings on different care sheets and I'm a little confused. Thanks!

Hi,

Am I reading that right? 4 foot by 3 foot by six foot !!!!high? That is going to be the worst nightmare you ever encountered trying to keep temps and humidity right.

Just having something up high isn't a good enough protection to prevent burns either to be honest - I would try and find some way to safely guard it if your determined to stick with that enclosure. For the life of me I can't think why you'd want to do that to yourself though.

Have a look round the site for peoples experiences on what they had to do with large fishtanks to make it work and contrast it with what it takes for a good tub setup.

But yes I would try and find some way of getting the cool end temps up. I afraid I can't remember what size is your bp just now?


dr del

[Sparky1]

Well that is one REALLY BIG enclosure, first suggestion would be a much smaller enclosure. And yes i to find lots of different temp ranges in different care sheets, but they are all close to the same. Lower 90's warm side and Lower to mid 80's cool side. But on the heating end, you need to ad some heat to the cool side in some form or another, but you also need to get the warm side warmer. I like underbelly heat a lil better personally since you dont have as many issues with humidity like with a heat lamp.

[juli.christine]

Yeah, it really is that big. I originally was going to get a burmese, but ended up having too much going on in my life right now to feel like that was wise. I eventually want more bps but taking it a little at a time to get everything right. Mine right now (Zatara) is about 4 1/2 feet, about two years. (I adopted him, so I'm not sure exactly how old).

I haven't had any problems at all keeping the humidity right (except for when I was gone. Next time my sisters will keep a closer eye on it). I have a humidifier in there and I just check the levels and adjust as needed. It works great.

Since he spends just about all of his time in one hide or the other, what exact temps inside the hides should I be shooting for? I've seen a lot of variation on this, even on these boards.

'Preciate the help!

[Sparky1]

Since i can not speak for everyone, i can only tell you my temps which are based on the info i recieved from the guy who breeds most of the snakes i have. I try for 92-93 warm side and 82-83 cool side, i also do not do night drops and i also make sure my ambient air temp stays in the 80's. So far this works great for me.

[Argentra]

Same here. 92-93 warm hide, 82-83 cool hide and ambient of 78-80 (78 because it's Colorado and winter).

I would really suggest getting a shorter cage, like only 1 foot tall. Or if you can, try dividing that huge monster (which sounds more like iguana paradise than a good home for any non-arboreal snake) of a cage into multiple 4x3x1 enclosures. I don't know how it's built, so sadly cannot make suggestions, but if you could give us some pix of it, that would help.

[juli.christine]

Okay, well I made a few changes and now everything's steady at warm side 92, cooler side 85, ambient 81. Humidity is still steady. So for now I think I'm okay; we'll see if it struggles to stay that way and maybe I'll give in about the enclosure, but for now I really like my big one. Thanks for all the help!

Here are pics of his home. My friend and I built it.

Hmm, okay, time for one more dumb question. Why can't I post pictures that are on my computer? All I can do is post http based images?

[Elvyra's Keeper]

I have a 50 gallon tank (and no insulation in my house) so it's pretty cold in here. I put foil on the top, and black painted foil on the back and sides. I also put foil on the bottom. Try using a higher wattage light too, or a CHE. If you use a light, get a red, green, or blue one so you can leave it on day and night.

There is a caresheet that you should look at.

[dr del]

Hmm, okay, time for one more dumb question. Why can't I post pictures that are on my computer? All I can do is post http based images?

Hi,

Because if they were based on your computer every time someone looked at it the site would need to get into your computer to show them it.

You just need to upload them to either your gallery here or some image hosting site such as imageshack first.

Remember gallery space on here is limited though so it's a really good idea to resize the images before uploading so you can fit more in - actual pictures in threads have to be 800 pixels or less wide anyway so that's not much of a burden really.


dr del