Reptile & Amphibian Forums

i have a rack cb70 and the bottom shelf is the coolest the rest are norm temps. the coold side was 66 last night as it was really cold outside and my temps where i keep my rack is 60 degress the other tubs are in the 90's on the hot side now i know 66 is not good but is really bad where my snake can get sick?? thanks in advance for any help!

Leave it empty or raise the rack higher off the ground or insulate the sides or add a second heat tape or get a space heater to keep ambient temp higher.
Travis
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LAIR OF DRAGONS

I insulated the entire rack sides back and top. I have
Carpet on the floor but lifting it off the floor is
A great idea which I will try. Thanks for the comment!

Raising the rack off the ground is a good idea, and not something that occurred to me, but if you live in earthquake country like we do, you don't want to raise the center of gravity too high, or it might get tipsy. Another option is to use a Herpstat II, or something like it with two plugs and two sensors (or just get two seperate t/stats), which allows you to run the bottom shelves at incrementally higher temps than the upper shelves. I have no subfloor in my snake shed, which creates a pretty dramatic vertical gradient even during our relatively mild winters, so splitting the temperature control between the upper eight and the bottom two has worked pretty well for me. Good luck...Dave

You can't use the first few feet of heat cable to "heat" anything. I keep reading about people who's bottom tubs are too cold and others saying it's because too close to the floor. I wonder if people have not accounted for the cold lead and have heat cord under the bottom bin that isn't heated. I have a few different lengths/watts of Zoo Med heat cable. One says it has 2 feet of cold lead, the other says it has 6.5 feet of cold lead. If you still have your box and instructions look to see how many feet of cold lead you have then be sure you have at least that much free cord hanging out. Or you can wait till the thermostat kicks the heat cable on and try to feel for where the heated part ends to be sure you have all hot cable under the bottom bin and none of the cold lead. Unfortunately they don't mark on the heat cable where the cold lead ends... wish they did. If you can increase your room temp so that your cold sides are warmer that would help too. And like the other poster said, if it just can't be resolved, don't use that bin for housing, use it to hold snakes temporarily while you are cleaning their tubs or something.

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Slytherin Serpents

Have you been hugged by your snake today?

Ball Pythons
1.1 Het Caramels (Edward & Bella)
0.1 Normal 66% ph Caramel (Rosalie)
1.1 Caramels (Crookshanks & Bellatrix)
1.0 Honey Bee (Aragog)
0.1 Hypo Pastel (Nagini)
0.1 Spider 66% ph Hypo(Nymphadora)
1.0 Mojave (Lucius)
1.1 Pastel Lessers (Jacob & Narcissa)
0.1 Pinstripe (Arwen)
1.0 Pewter (Salazar)
0.1 Bumble Bee (Alice)
1.0 Bell Pastel (Jasper)
0.1 African Dinker (Esme)
0.1 Het Pied
0.1 Hypo Cinny (Myrtle)
1.0 Cinny het Hypo poss het Albino
1.1 Pastel Dinkers (Snape & Xiomara)
0.2 Ghana Dinker Babies
0.0.3 CH Dinker Babies

Corns
1.1 Normals het Amel, Anery, Charcoal, Diffused, Hypo (Romeo & Juliet)
1.0 Blizzard het Diffused (Tumnus)
1.0 Blizzard poss het Anery, Hypo, Diffused (Cotton)
0.1 Anery Lavender het Amel (Lucy)
0.1 Plasma poss het Hypo (Victoria)
1.0 Plasma poss het Albino
1.0 Hypo Plasma
1.1 Amel Motleys (Harry & Ginny)
0.1 Lavender Motley poss het diffused
1.0 Lavender Pinstripe Motley het Amel
0.1 Fire poss het Anery, Charcoal, Hypo (LeeLoo)
0.1 Normal het Albino, Lavender, Anery, Charcoal, poss het Diffused
1.0 Albino het Lavender, Anery, Charcoal, poss het Diffused
1.1 Sunkissed poss het Plasma (Arthur & Molly)
0.1 Dilute Blue Motley (Myrtle)
1.0 Pastel Motley (Nick)
0.1 Diffused Caramel
1.0 Blizzard 66% poss het Diffused
1.0 Pewter het Albino
0.1 Fire het Charcoal

Thayeri Kings
0.1 Leonis phase (Sidney)
1.0 Milk Snake phase

Milks
1.1 Tangerine Albino Hondurans
0.1 Hypo Tangerine Albino Honduran

I'm using heat tape. But I do think that the problem
Is that the bottom is not fully taped! Today my temps were better.
Thank you for your post.

My heat cables all have a blue stripe where the heated part begins.

Oh, I see it now. The blue is really hard to see on the brown cable. I didn't even see it before. Thanks!!!

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-----
Slytherin Serpents

Have you been hugged by your snake today?

Ball Pythons
1.1 Het Caramels (Edward & Bella)
0.1 Normal 66% ph Caramel (Rosalie)
1.1 Caramels (Crookshanks & Bellatrix)
1.0 Honey Bee (Aragog)
0.1 Hypo Pastel (Nagini)
0.1 Spider 66% ph Hypo(Nymphadora)
1.0 Mojave (Lucius)
1.1 Pastel Lessers (Jacob & Narcissa)
0.1 Pinstripe (Arwen)
1.0 Pewter (Salazar)
0.1 Bumble Bee (Alice)
1.0 Bell Pastel (Jasper)
0.1 African Dinker (Esme)
0.1 Het Pied
0.1 Hypo Cinny (Myrtle)
1.0 Cinny het Hypo poss het Albino
1.1 Pastel Dinkers (Snape & Xiomara)
0.2 Ghana Dinker Babies
0.0.3 CH Dinker Babies

Corns
1.1 Normals het Amel, Anery, Charcoal, Diffused, Hypo (Romeo & Juliet)
1.0 Blizzard het Diffused (Tumnus)
1.0 Blizzard poss het Anery, Hypo, Diffused (Cotton)
0.1 Anery Lavender het Amel (Lucy)
0.1 Plasma poss het Hypo (Victoria)
1.0 Plasma poss het Albino
1.0 Hypo Plasma
1.1 Amel Motleys (Harry & Ginny)
0.1 Lavender Motley poss het diffused
1.0 Lavender Pinstripe Motley het Amel
0.1 Fire poss het Anery, Charcoal, Hypo (LeeLoo)
0.1 Normal het Albino, Lavender, Anery, Charcoal, poss het Diffused
1.0 Albino het Lavender, Anery, Charcoal, poss het Diffused
1.1 Sunkissed poss het Plasma (Arthur & Molly)
0.1 Dilute Blue Motley (Myrtle)
1.0 Pastel Motley (Nick)
0.1 Diffused Caramel
1.0 Blizzard 66% poss het Diffused
1.0 Pewter het Albino
0.1 Fire het Charcoal

Thayeri Kings
0.1 Leonis phase (Sidney)
1.0 Milk Snake phase

Milks
1.1 Tangerine Albino Hondurans
0.1 Hypo Tangerine Albino Honduran