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I have some questions I hope some one can answer for me. I have an Albino Banded Cali King Juvenile about 30 inches long. We keep her in a 20 long aquarium. I'm using cypress subtrate with a tank liner under it. Here are my questions. I have an under tank heater on one side on this side I have put a thermometer with a probe right on the liner and put the cypress on top of it and layed another thermometer down on the top of the cypress. The thermometer on top reads 85 degress but in order to keep it there I have the heater turned almost all the way up and the temp under the cypress reads 119 degrees. I known they like to burrow so is it safe like this? I worry that she will burrow under and lay on the liner right over top of the heat pad. Also it is cold in the room the air temp is around 65 degrees so in order to keep the cooler side around 75 degrees should I use a small UTH on that side with a thermstat or just use a bulb. I have tried a bulb but a 40 watt just doesn't quite keep the floor at 75 and I was leary of using a higher watt bulb for fear of drying it out to much. SAny help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you

Your situation is very common, especially when using a glass tanks with an all-screen top. Your issue boils down to this: likely, the cage and room humidity is low, making the heat-holding capacity of the air very poor. This means you need high temps on the heat pad to transfer through the substrate, and then the temperature dissipates quickly on the surface.

You could always just cool the kingsnake for the Winter. In the wild during this time of year, the snakes do not have access most of the time (or all of the time depending on region) to 80 deg basking places. Most of the time during Winter, the temperature of the Earth subsurface where the kings stay is probably in the 55-60 deg F range (I've measured burrow temps where I live in Cal king areas. I don't know if kings were there, but I assume that they are subject to similar temps much of the Winter time. Warm Winter days may allow for near surface basking, but burrow temps even on warm days are still very cool. They warm up considerably in Spring.)

Anyway, back to the topic. If you raise the humidity a little in the cage and insulate the walls a little, you will not see as large a temp differential between heat pad and top of substrate. So, a wood lid with one 4x6" or whatever (just not large) ventilation screen on one side will help. Then, place a large water bowl in the cage, and a heat pad under one edge of the water bowl. Adjust as needed.

In addition, place styrene foam insulation on the back outside wall of the tank and sides if you want. That helps insulate so you need less wattage to heat the tank.

My 10 gal tank lids are made of PVC. I will post pics once our camera arrives around Christmas time. I do mount a light socket on the ceiling of one end of the lid. The lid is in 2 pieces. One piece with the light socket stays fastened to the cage rim. Only the other piece is removable for access. I use a 15 watt bulb and a small heat pad- that is it. With the setup mentioned, a 15-watt bulb will heat the cage air on one side of the cage quite nicely w/o drying the air too much. Your cage is larger and so a little more wattage may be in order. Use a dimmer!

Another idea is to use a sweaterbox cage in Winter, since ventilation in those is very low. It is easier to maintain humidity and heat as a result.

The hot temps on the bottom are nothing to worry about. In fact I think your set up sounds pretty good. I have seen kings basking on days where air temps were about 85 but the rock that they were on was 115. So for the rare times when your snake wants to be that warm he can borough down there.

Like the above post said insulating your tank on three sides and or putting on a more substantial cover will give you higher and more stable air temps.

A snake that can choose anywhere from 65 to 100 degrees is probobly happier than most captives! Just my .02 but I wouldn't put the heat pad on the cool side. Most of my cals spend 90% at or below 70 degrees if given the choice. Sometimes in the summer I can't get it that low and then they start soaking in their water.

Gorgeous spotted!
Todd Hughes

I have a hood on top of the screen top. It's one of those hoods with a 24" flourescent bulb and a regular bulb on each end. It covers most of the top. Maybe I'll try insulating the sides and back to start and see how that goes. Then if I have to I'll cover some of the top. Thank you for all the help. I really appreaciate it.