Hi, I posted this in the Housing and Enclosures subforum, just thought I'd post it here too.
As most of us know, snakes bask to warm up. When they get too hot, they move underground or into a dark crevice. The problem comes when hobbyists use a ventral heating system, which I use for my snakes.
When a fossorial species finishes "basking" and burrows into the mulch, or whatever substrate you use, it gets hotter instead of cooler. To combat this problem, I push most of the substrate towards the cool end of the tank, leaving very little on the basking spot. This gives the snakes a wider range of temperatures with which to thermoregulate.
For forest milk snakes such as hondurensis and triangulum, that just about sums it up. But for desert dwellers like annulata, nelsoni, sinaloana and campbelli, theres more. Not only can they bask directly, they also soak up heat from rocks that they hide under. So putting a piece of bark or cork over part of the heating pad is a good idea.
Most of you in the main Milksnake forum probably already know this, just thought I'd post it for those who are new to Lampropeltis.
Pinstripe
Doug L