Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I just purchased a baby Florida Kingsnake and have an unexpected problem. He is being housed in a 10gallon aqaurium and I can't seem to get a good temp differenrce of more than 3 or 4 degrees between the cool and warm side. Right now I am using an overhead light bulb for heat that is placed on the far corner. Should I consider undertank heating or is this gradient good enough. Any suggestion would help.

I'm no expert but when I used a 10 gallon I used the under the tank heater. The UTH's come in different sizes. I think I also tried to light but didn't see much difference in the temps either. It's just hard to get a temp gradiant in a small tank. Is your thermometer at ground level, one on both sides, also? That is where the snake dwells. My milk did fine for a few months then I had to move him to a 20 gallon long.
Another problem I've read with just using a light is if that is the only heat sorce then you have a hard time giving the snake a natural day/night. I would try the UTH with the light (on same side) on a timer so he can have a dark period like being in nature. :0) Also give the baby time to adjust to his/her new home.

Thanks for the response. I am going to try the UTH as soon as I get a chance. As for the other things you mentioned I do give him a day/night cycle in that I simply turn the lightbulb off at night. The room temp is in the low 70's and I have been told that is fine for night. As for my thermometer I keep one in the far corner of the warm side and one in the far corner of the cooler side both are about 1 to 1 1/2 inches off the cage floor. Also as for the baby he seems to be getting used to it, this was his second day in the aquarium and this afternoon he finally decided to come out from hiding for a little while.

You can try a human heating pad. Be sure to put some sort of spacer under the tank to raise it up a couple cm's. You want some air to circulate beneath it if you have any sort of heating source there.

The benefits of a human heating pad are that it's inexpensive comapared to the specialized reptile UTH's.....You don't have to permanently adhere it to the tank.....you can move it around to adjust how much of the floor is heated.

Be sure to get one that has adjustable temps (lo, med, hi) and does NOT have an auto-shutoff feature.

Hope this might help some,
Judy
-----
1.0 red cape gopher (Caesar)