Reptile & Amphibian Forums

The temperatue in the enclosure(20 gaalon long) for my BP hovers around 90 to 95 degrees with a 75 watt light bulb. Is that an acceptable reading to maintain for my BP?
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That is ONLY acceptable if you are talking about the basking site in a small area of the cage. If the entire cage is 90 plus degrees you will have a dead snake in a short period of time. Just make sure you have a thermal gradient that ranges from 78 deg F on the cool side and 90-92 deg F on the warm side; then you'll be in good shape.

Rob Carmichael, Curator
The Wildlife Discovery Center
Lake Forest, IL

If I am currently using a 20 gallon long tank to house my BP, what is a good idea to moderate the temperature? One side s/b 75 degrees and the other side 90 degrees. How is it done?
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Forget the light bulb heat.It kills humidity anyways.

The way to go is to get a reptile heat pad and a thermostat to control it.Place the probe for the thermostat under the tank with the pad.Then just check the hot spot and the cool end,92 to 78.You dont even need thermometers(which are inaccurate for all intents and purposes here),just get one of those $25 temp guns,they are priceless really.

Thermostats range from $28 to $100
Thermal reptile pads $15 to $100

Good luck
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3.12 Ball Pythons
0.1 Mutant Thayeri

Thank You!
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a small dish lamp with a 30watt spot light type bulb, sitting on the top screen on one side works fine here. i have the same size cage.

I hear you!!!
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It is an acceptable high for the 'hot' end of the tank, you should also have a cooler area within the cage where the temps drop about 15-20 degrees from the high. I prefer to not use light bulbs for heating. They heat up the air and make it difficult to create a temperature gradient. (areas within the enclosure that are warmer and areas that are cooler) They also dry out the air too much making it difficult to maintain proper humidity levels. I prefer to use heating pads underneath the cages. Place the pad under one third of the cage and adjust the temps so that it is around 90 degrees directly over the heating pad, the temps will naturally drop away from the heating pad and will be at their lowest when furthest away from the heating pad. I prefer to use a digital indoor/outdoor thermometer to check my temps. While the temperature guns with the laser pointers are nice for spot checking areas within the cage, it is impossible to see if the temps are changing throughout the day. I use a digital thermometer with a remote probe that has a high/low memory function. The memory function can tell you what the highest and lowest temps were around the site of the probe from the last time that you cleared the memory. If the temps are spiking too high or dropping too low you then know that you might have a problem that needs fixing.

Mr Helpful

>>The temperatue in the enclosure(20 gaalon long) for my BP hovers around 90 to 95 degrees with a 75 watt light bulb. Is that an acceptable reading to maintain for my BP?
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Appreciate the info!
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