Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I got my first ball python about a month ago. He's in an Exo-terra tank, 24"x18"x24". I'm using a heat pad beneath the substrate and a 100 watt, full spectrum incandescent light. With the recent weather changes, the temp in my tank went down almost over night. I need to get it up about 8-9 degrees F, is there anything easy I can do?

Yup, insulate the glass. All that heat=wattage is going right out the glass sides and what screen isn't covered by the lamp on top.

Cheap styrene foam insulation on the outside of the glass sides and back will help alot. So will covering any exposed screen on top (not directly under the heat lamp) with pegboard or aluminum foil or whatever makes sense that won't melt being near a lamp.

Doing the above will likley mean you need LESS wattage in the bulb to heat the cage. Be careful that you measure the temps after you do the insulating. Use a thermostat for the lamp!
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Mark

I totally agree with marhg on this. I've messed around a lot with different setups and found that screen tops are a big no no. They let heat and humidity escape very quickly, especially since heat tends to rise out of the enclosure.

Cover as much of the top as you can, this will give you much better results. Insulating the glass will also help but may not be necessary. I can say that I get a basking temp of over 130 with a 45 watt halogen in a 4 x 2 x 2 cage.

You will need to tinker with the wattage and distance to the basking spot to get the temps you want. It's almost impossible to say exactly what distance and wattage to use w/o being there and testing the temps.

I've put insulation styrofome around the tank, and that has helped some, but I still want to bring the temps up about 8 degrees or so. I live in an old house, and the ambient temp now is in the 60s. Another difficulty is that the tank is 2ft tall with a ball python, so the light is pretty far away from the substrate. I have an exo terra UTH, but it doesn't get very warm (I've also read other places that their UTH's aren't very hot) so I may have to get another one. Anything else I can do other than higer wattage bulbs? I'm using 100 watt now, and I would think that would be enough, but my daytime basking temp is still only about 80-82. Anybody with any ideas, help. Thanks!

2ft tall is darn tall to expect overhead heat to reach a terrestrial snake (a snake that won't climb up to bask.)

So, you need to heat from below. UTH and a thermostat.
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Mark

I would look at a small plastic cage, much better to hold the proper temps in. Herpcages.com has some 24" x 12" x12" cages that are VERY cheap. If your BP is a male that would likely be big enough for his whole life.

Glass doesn't insulate well, overhead lights are useless, and your cage is too tall. Those are the 3 problems that you need to overcome.

Get a cage designed for a snake like a BP and use belly heat hooked up to a good thermostat. Otherwise you will likely have some sort of problems.
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