The first image below is of a burned ball python. The second is of a burned juvenile Burmese python. These are NOT uncommon occurrences.





As the photos above graphically illustrate, snakes will not necessarily move away when the temperature their owners provide is so high that it burns them. The problem isn’t only with hot rocks, but with any product which gets hot enough to burn living tissue. I believe that includes most heating products currently marketed for keeping herps warm. Some might say they’re inherently dangerous, but I believe all of them need not be injurious if we use them with caution.



In my own setup for instance, I wouldn’t want to use a UTH [under tank heater] that didn’t get hot enough to heat up the floor inside of a plastic cage when placed underneath it. But that means that the surface temperature of this UTH might reach 130 degrees F at full power. So I need to make sure that I measure the temperature inside the cage and use some sort of method for keeping the temperature safe there. That could mean hooking the UTH up to a proportional thermostat, an on-off thermostat, or a dimmer switch; or something as simple as elevating the cage a couple of inches above the UTH, thus leaving an air space to dissipate some heat.



In short, although I don’t like hot rocks, I’m not so certain that they are any worse than other heating products with unregulated output. I suspect just as many burns are now occurring with those stick-on style heaters which people attach to the bottom of glass aquaria. If the thing you are using for supplemental heat requires your python to lie on it, then it is up to you to make sure that the temperature measured at the point of contact doesn’t exceed 95 degrees or so.



Two answers so I won’t get these questions – No, those were not my snakes; and no, I do not know the ultimate outcome for the patients. Photos are courtesy of Stephen L. Barten, DVM, Vernon Hills Animal Hospital, Mundelein, IL.



-Joan

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