Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Ok I think I am nearing the completion of my setup. Here is the heating so far....75 watt infared bulb in the shroud, an 11"x11" cobra heat pad in the middle of the cage, and below the heat lamp I have a Zoo Med heat pad for a 35 gallon terrarium(not sure the exact measurments) All of those are running on a big apple thermostat which seems to be pretty accurate and user friendly so far. I also have my two P.O.S. desert ray radient heat panels (11"x11" on the right side of my vision, those are running full time without a thermostat. All of the above leads to the following temps....On the far left side, 93.5, in the middle, 81.2, and on the far right, 71.3 I know the right side is still was too low and despite the two heat panels on full time I cant get it any higher. Any idea on what to do to raise that part? I know if i buy another heat pad it will get too hot. I cant boost the watts on the heat bulb because the lamp has a 75 watt max. Im out of ideas....

I think those temps will work; yes, the cool side is perhaps a little too cool but your snake will pick out its desired thermoregulatory microhabitat. Just make sure you provide several dark hide areas in each section; particularly on the warmer zones. You may find that once your heaters have been running for a while that your cool end temps will rise a bit (particularly once the animal is in the cage which in itself will generate energy which equates to heat).

Thats another question I have....about the hide spots...I know alot of people who dont use any hidespots and their animals turn out great. I have always used hide spots but it was alwaays kind of a pain to never see her when cleaning her cage and stuff. So I put her in the vision for the first time, and took out all the hidespots. She looked very confused and didnt know what to do, and roamed the cage for about an hour until I finally put the hidespots back in. She immediatley ran for one and snuggled right in. Would anything bad happen if i took out her hidespots and just let her get used to it without them? I know people dont use hidespots for their 10-18' burms. Oh yea and by the way right now she is 37-40" long.

Cito, I would continue to use the hides atleast until the snake gets accostumed to its new enclosure. I honastly never used hides but they also never acted stressed out or grew accostumed to them either. Once your snake reaches larger sizes then more than likely they will be relaxed enough in the enclosure that it will not rely so heavily on the hides and they can be removed. But until then I would suggest to you to leave them in so your snake doesn't endure any unecesarry stress. Todd

I personally never use hide boxes for any of my burms, regardless of age, but I don't think there's any reason not to use them either. I think it comes down to the individual snake as some like to hide and others never hide at all. I have a number of burmese that have a tendency to push, wrinkle and shape their fresh newspapers into a hide/paper hut of sorts and then get under them. I call these individuals "house builders", lol. I got tired of them messing up their papers right after I would change them so about a year ago I began taking a few extra seconds during cleaning and simply making them a newspaper house out of a few sheets of newspaper. I'd ball a few sheets up and then lay some wrinkled up sheets over the large paper balls. They would immediately use this and they no longer messed up my neat and tidy cages. It doesn't bother me that these few individuals feel the need to hide to feel safe. I just accept it and let them hide. I expect that they will likely continue to hide like this into their older years.

Whatever you do make sure you get your cold end above 78 degrees. I feel that like Rob said it will probably raise over time, but if you need to, move one of your heaters closer to that end until it balances out. You don't want your burm ending up in 71 degree temps and going to sleep in it. That is way too cold for a burm.

>>Thats another question I have....about the hide spots...I know alot of people who dont use any hidespots and their animals turn out great. I have always used hide spots but it was alwaays kind of a pain to never see her when cleaning her cage and stuff. So I put her in the vision for the first time, and took out all the hidespots. She looked very confused and didnt know what to do, and roamed the cage for about an hour until I finally put the hidespots back in. She immediatley ran for one and snuggled right in. Would anything bad happen if i took out her hidespots and just let her get used to it without them? I know people dont use hidespots for their 10-18' burms. Oh yea and by the way right now she is 37-40" long.
-----
"If I had 365 enemies it would only take a year out of my life to settle all scores. Heck, much less if some live in the same states as others" Mia Myselfani

"All deeds be they good or bad shall be repaid one hundred fold." Yers Troolie

So for moving the heat pad to the right side here is my plan...I'm going to keep the 75 watt bulb and zoo med heat pad on the thermostat on the left side set for 93.5 Then im going to move the cobra heat pad from the middle, all the way to the right and have that on full time. This should give me the following temps...Left:93.5,Middle:82-83, Right:95. Is it ok to have to hot spots and just one cool spot in the middle?

I wouldn't do that. I cringe every time I hear about set-ups that have hot ends that high to begin with. 95 degrees is just a few degrees under a temperature that would be fatal for a snake. I think when people refer to a "hot spot" like this that all too often it is mistaken for what ambient temps on that entire end are supposed to be. I don't think it is. I think it is just supposed to litterally be that "spot" that the light shines on and so forth. Just whatever you do be very very careful with your temperatures. The guilt we feel when we overheat a pet snake to death stays with us for a lifetime.

Just try to err on the side of safety and make your ambient hot end no more than 90, while maybe trying to achieve a "hot spot" with a heat lamp that doesn't exceed 95, and try to get your cool end 78 or above. This should suffice and be safe and I feel that there is a lot of leeway in temps as long as they don't excceed these extremes.

Rob, can you elaborate on this or articulate this a little better?

>>So for moving the heat pad to the right side here is my plan...I'm going to keep the 75 watt bulb and zoo med heat pad on the thermostat on the left side set for 93.5 Then im going to move the cobra heat pad from the middle, all the way to the right and have that on full time. This should give me the following temps...Left:93.5,Middle:82-83, Right:95. Is it ok to have to hot spots and just one cool spot in the middle?
-----
"If I had 365 enemies it would only take a year out of my life to settle all scores. Heck, much less if some live in the same states as others" Mia Myselfani

"All deeds be they good or bad shall be repaid one hundred fold." Yers Troolie