Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Ok well my heat pad covers 1/3 of the 55 gallon tank. It is under the tank. The substrate and the glass seperate the pad from my snake. A hide covers the whole area in which the pad covers, so basically if he wants to bask he goes into his hide. The spot is not hot too the touch and is only warm and I could not see how it could harm him, but several thermometers tell me that it is about 100 degrees in there yet he spends a lot of time there and it does not seem to hot. Is this too hot? Should I lower it some how? If so how can I do this. It really does not seem to bother him, and it has been like this for 6 weeks since I got him.
Thanks in advance
Rob

ps: my snake is a 3' burm.

I'll take a stab at this, first of all do you have your heatmat on a thermostat? If not, get a helix or something similiar and use it with your heat mat as it will help control things. Second, I would ditch the thermometers and get a good temp gun, you can get them for around $25 these days and they are well worth it. Thermometers can be off by quite a bit and will give you faulty readings. What is the ambient temp in your room, if the snake is spending that much time on the heat then it could be too cold for him elsewhere in the enclosure (glass tanks dont hold heat well at all). Lastly, what are you using for substrate? Straight newspaper offers little insulation from the heat, shavings and the like will provide more of a buffer between the heat and the snake. Also I would put a hide on the cool side of the tank as well to give him a choice of resting on the cool side OR the warm side. He might be using the one with the heat because its the only one there.
Hope this helps you out.

Cheers
Lat

Thanks. but he is very used to me and I do not think he goes there for securtiy. I think he likes the warmth because he stay in there a lot and does not mind it. He is also On the cool side and on top of the hide a lot so he does move around a lot. The ambient temp is around 83 so there all good. I still am not sure wether to lower it or not because I think he likes it.

Ps: Where can i get a cheap temp gun?
Rob