Reptile & Amphibian Forums

hi all, I have a heat mat under a glass tank with a Astroturf layer inside the tank, I have a hide place that covers half the heat mat area. when my ball is in the hide place it stays on the side that is not directly over the heat pad, does this mean that the heat pad is too hot?? when I put my hand on the area it doesn't seem so but ?? The heat pad is a Zoo - Med for a 10-20 gallon tank.

Do you have a rheostat on it? I have that same heater in the same set up (glass, astroturf) and when I first put the heat pad on and measured the temp ON the astroturf it was reading about 115 degrees! It gets WAY too hot,,,,you should pick up a rheostat at Home Depot (or a petco but they cost about $15 there)and turn it down. Then keep it set for when it reads about 90 or so.

Sheri

No I dont, thats a good idea, do they show the temp. being submitted?

I have a thermometer that sticks to the inside of the glass in the back outside of the basking area and about four inches above the heat mat area that continues to read 76 degreas. Does that say anything ?

don't take this the wrong way, because I did exactly what you are doing now.

But, the only way that temp will be of any use is if the snake floated.

go to wal-mart and get an indoor outdoor digi thermometer. Put the probe UNDER the substrate OVER the UTH. Get a lamp dimmer, hook the UTH up to it, and turn down the UTH. A lamp dimmer is like 9 bucks, and I use them for all my snakes.
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1.1 Ball Python, 0.1 motley amel corn, 1.0 western hognose

thankx

I use a zoo-med heatpad for one of my snakes, hooked up to a corresponding zoo-med rheostat, similar to a lamp dimmer switch.)You really should get the zoomed thermostat (rheostat, actually) to control the exact temp of the mat. Without it, these mats are definately way too hot and might burn your snake.
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And humans are supposed to be the world's most intelligent, civilized, and refined species, eh? Have you ever been in a crowded discount store?