Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I started keeping corns last fall. Unfortunately I'm forced to keep them in my basement. I live in NY and the temps in my basement were 55-60 throughout the winter. I use a uth AND a ceramic heat emitter 24/7 to keep the temps in a safe range all winter. Saturday morning I went down to check on the snakes and the thermometer in the warm end read 97.7 with the probe laying on the aspen (the weather here in NY was warm on Saturday). I immediately unplugged the uth. The temp then dropped to 93. I then moved the probe so it was about a 1/2 inch above the aspen to check the air temp and it dropped to 83. What's more important the air temp or the substrate temp? Now that the weather will only be getting warmer, I'm concerned about the temps. Like I said I've only been keeping corns through the late fall and winter. Thanks for any info...

John

You want the temps at ground level since that is where the snakes are. You really dont need to use a ceramic heater and uth, thats overkill. Id just stick with the uth on one side of the cage to let the snake choose where it feels more comfortable. If you can put the uth on a thermostat, even better. And, once it gets warm all the time, you may not even need the uth. good luck.

ep
-----
Occupants not paying rent:
1.1. balls
1.1 corns
1 everglades rat
1 w. hognose
1 bearded dragon
2.1 cats