Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Greetings all, I'm back again with another novice question for you fine folk.

I've had my Ike (California king) for about a year and a half ago now, and he has finally outgrown his current tank. I bought him a nice new one recently, and I'm setting everything up for his "moving day". Lol.

Because this tank is a good bit bigger, I had to buy a new UTH heating pad for it (Zoo-med brand, of course). I plugged it in last night and let it run so it could warm up before I moved him, but when I came back to check it a few hours later, I noticed that the bedding above the pad is fine, but the glass where the pad is stuck is very hot. And like most snakes, Ike likes to bury himself, so common sense tells me that if I can't touch it for long, then chances are its too hot for him as well. I never had that problem with the smaller pad on the old tank, but I also had that one stuck to the side whereas the new one is on the bottom.

So I have two questions. Is a thermostat/rheostat a necessary investment to remedy this problem? I'm on a bit of a budget, so if there is another way, that might be better. My second question pertains to the actual move. Is it recommended to keep something from the old tank to put in the new tank? Would something familiar make it less stressful on him, or does it make no difference? Any other tips or need-to-knows about switching tanks are appreciated as well. Thanks guys!

As long as the hot spot is on one end and there is a cool side the snake will not sit on it and burn itself. They are not like iguanas in that aspect which should rely on the sun or above heat source to fully warm up the whole body and not just one section. iguanas will burn themselves on a hot rock or heat pad. Not colubrids..

What snakes do in the wild is search for the perfect temps and humidity. They like it as cold as 55F to conserve and a hot spot of over 100f. If you can offer the gradient by keeping the cage in a cold room and the unit it is big enough so that the heat does not warm up the other side.Is pefect. But hardly what we find is the situation in keeping tehse at home. So adjustments are neccessary.-

In your case i would do two things. i am sure your room is not 55F. so the above suggestion is not really practical for most snake rooms. So get a temp gun and see what the cold side is and the hot side. Does the snake have a way to get down to room temp on the cold side? If not.. then that means you need to get a rhoestat for the heat pad and turn it down some. You don't want it heating the whole cage unit so that the sanke can'y get away and conserve energy on the cold side inbetween meals..

What mine do is they sit on the cold side until i feed them. Then they move over to the warm side to pick the perfect temp for digestion. this sometimes involves them moving a bit back and forth so they can adjust the temps required for the different parst of the digetstion process (yes they varies and change temsp during the disgestion process to). Then when they are done they move back to the cold side to conserve calories until their next meal. Snakes do this because they are geared for survival. So no worries on one sitting on a 120F heat pad and cooking itself. Because they won't!

Just offfer a good temp range from one end to the other. The greater the temp range the healtheir it is for the snake.

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In the interest of fire safety I would suggest you use a thermostat or rheostat to control the pad. These pads will get so hot they melt unless regulated by such devices. You can get a rheostat(dimmer switch) cheaply at Walmart, Lowes and such.
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Bob
Pyromaniac AKA Greatballzofire
Keeping cats allows man to cohabitate with tigers. Keeping reptiles allows man to cohabitate with dinosaurs.

In the interest of fire safety I would suggest you use a thermostat or rheostat to control the pad

yes i forgot about that!

Depending on the make or brand of heat pad. Some can ignight.

Zoo med is a good brand. But i have had others that will cause a ignight and cause a fire.
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"2. How many eggs could a 20 inch king even make, if even possible? Remember, they have lungs, a stomach, etc,

Billy (DISCERN)

Yes its a great idea to move all its cage props to the next cage. I found doing that really limits the amount or frequency of stress events.

You can space the cage so that the bottom glass is not touching the heating pad.

All pads are different, some are indeed way hotter then others, same brand and style. With that type of heating element, its not good to have them on the glass, they can and will crack the glass. Good luck

If you find yourself in the market for an under tank heater again I highly recommend the ultratherm under tank heaters. They aren't sticky but can easily be attached with aluminum tape which makes them easy to remove and reuse and they seem to be better quality than the others. I used zoomed for several years on aquariums without thermostats/rheostats and never had any problems, but I always worried, just like you are now.