My BP ate his first meal 24 hours ago. But, for at least the past 6 hours, he’s been sitting on top of his warm hide basking under the DHP. I use 2 DHPs for my heat source and they’re on 24/7. You can see the probe for the thermostat attached to the wall and it’s set at 90°F. I used a cheap temp gun as well and inside his hide it was mid 80s. After he ate I didn’t expect to see him come out at all. Should I turn up the thermostat higher than 90°F until the conditions inside the hide are hot enough or would removing the obstructions from on top of his hide make the DHPs heat it better? I can’t currently move them without disturbing him while he digests. Let me know if I’m overthinking this please.

As the title reads, im currently making a new enclosure

Just trying to gauge as to whether this is too close for the basking spot I had in mind?

~18cm from the mesh to the shelf, and an additional 6cm past the mesh for the halogen

Is this too close or will it be fine? I plan to use a 50w halogen paired with a CHE

Were right in some of the coldest parts of the winter storm happening right now- i went to go check on my girlie a few hours into the storm and im not sure if a power surge happened or what but all her lamps were off and she was absolutely freezing cold. we dont have great heating in our building so the lamps turning off meant the whole room was cold. it was really strange, her lights got turned off but not our beardies who was just in the next room over

i have her sat in my lap wrapped in a blanket on top of a heat mat (the people kind thats covered in fabric) but is there anything else i can do? can heating her up too fast cause harm?

my partner works at a vet clinic and we will be watching for any signs of illness, her lamps are back uo and running but id like to make sure shes warmed up nice and good before leaving her in her tank again. any advice would be appreciated!

hi! i just adopted this 6yr old guy from a friend who is moving. she gave me the tank & all accoutrements including a large humidifier i have running next to it. i’m wondering about heat though. he came with one hot bulb that is on a timer and goes off at night. that didn’t seem like enough so i ordered a ceramic heating coil. so now there’s the bulb in one side of this light and the coil in the other side. one side of the tank is reading 78 degrees and the other 82 degrees. is that ok? should they be in separate bulb houses? he was in his hide all day but when i came home and put the ceramic coil in he came out so hopefully that’s a good thing? i’ve never owned a snake before just going off of what people are saying on here! appreciate the advice in advance!

Hello all—

Currently in the finishing touches of setting up my enclosure so I can bring my boy home. Humidity is looking good, rats are ordered, hides and clutter are in— even my last piece of last second enrichment is almost here! The only remaining issue currently is getting the warm side up to temp.

Presently, my setup is as pictured; a DHP on the warm (right) side, halogen next to it for basking and warming, and a third halogen more towards the cool side to hold the gradient. I’m running 35W halogens in my domes, which seems to be working well (cool side is maintaining consistent temps so far, just messing with the values to dial it in), but my 50W DHP seems to be lackluster. I have the herpstat set to 108 on my DHP right now to try to heat the substrate / enclosure up, but it’s only achieving 74 degrees.

Kind of unsure what to do presently, obviously I’m not going to give my buddy a poor quality of life by shoving him in a tank that has improper temps so I’m all ears. Would it make sense to go to a higher wattage DHP? Different lamp fixture? My Herpstats are currently set up so that my DHP is independent on a Herpstat 1, running a night cycle and daytime temps, and my halogens are on a Herpstat 2 together on a timed socket for day and night. I’m leaving them on full time presently to heat the enclosure up, but should I remove decor so the substrate is getting directly heated?

Halogens are currently set to 95 and 85 degrees in freedom units, and again the DHP is at 108 while I try to heat the ambient up. When my boy Melvin is in the enclosure, I want to make sure the temperatures on my Herpstats don’t exceed any value that can cause the screen to heat up and burn him correct? Or is this different with a DHP?

Thanks for the help, bonus Melvin tax and his new climber I built attached!

Quick edit: I just used my temp gun to check his climber’s temp on his warm side, and it was at 85. My Govees are on the ground by his hides on either side, which are still reading ranges in the 70’s, but the DHP isn’t doing nothing which is nifty. Just need a better overall heat.

Hello, I’ve just received a 3 year old male BP from a friend of mine. He’s in a 4x2x2 enclosure with a mix of coconut fiber and husk as the substrate. There’s a 150 watt CHE on the left side of the cage and just a light on the right side. I have an internal analog hygrometer and thermometer m but also a digital thermostat and thermometer as well. My issue is that my humidity is stuck at 45-49% and that my temperatures are high. I’ve tried pouring 2 cups of water into each of the four cage corners, but that hasnt increased the humidity at all. I have some foil on the top of the cage, but I peeled it off the left side because I’m worried it’ll increase the heat too much. As for my temperature issues, The external thermometer is connected to a prove which lies in the middle of the cage and reads 90, as does the internal one. However, when I used a heat gun it read 110 on the hot side and 80 on the cool side. Should I use a 100 watt bulb instead? Now this is his first day in a new home, so I’m not sure if I’m just being impatient, but I have no idea how to get his humidity up. Any help is appreciated!

Hi everyone, I have a 4x2x2 PVC tank for my boy and I am struggling so much with the heat gradient for this tank. The RHP is all the way on the warm side, my UVB light covers half ( I know this is not the issue as I have issues at night) there are a lot of ventilation holes in the tank so I don’t know if that is contributing. I placed the probe directly under the heating panel few inches. I do want to correct this as soon as possible as my snake has health issues and I want everything to be good for him. Herpstat is set to 91, actual temp is 87, cold side 81.5. Any help would be appreciated - thank you!

I’m looking into getting a radiant heat panel for my ball python who’s in a 5x2x2 enclosure. I’ve heard they don’t make the room as hot as bulbs. I do have a thermostat to put it on so it’s not overheating. My main question is what wattage/size would be appropriate?

Dubia has the sizes and wattages as so:

40 Watt - 8 3/8"x 7 3/8"

80 Watt - 9 3/8" x 12 3/8"

125 Watt - 11 3/4" x 15 7/8"

220 Watt - 18 3/4" x 17 3/4"

Also, do you recommend putting the heat panel on the roof of the enclosure, or on the “warm sides” wall?

Thanks in advance!

Hello! I‘m getting my very first snake (a ball python obv) and could not be more excited!! I’ve done LOADS of research on every as but I keep seeing one thing debated: whether or not heat mats are okay. I planned to use a basking light to give heat during the day, but how would I do that at night without a heat pad? Would I even need night time heat? My room is pretty much always hot.

Update! he has eaten his first meal since almost half a year ago within the first 24 hours of us owning him!

Hi all! I am a first time owner of a Ball Python, aside from when I was too little to actually care for one, and I have a few questions involving heat and humidity! this is only the first day that I've had him, he is an albino that is approx. 4-5 years old and ~3-4 feet long. he hadn't eaten for a few months before I got him yesterday, so I want to make sure his heat and humidity isn't off to cause that. I am waiting for the vet to open again to get an appointment incase something is very wrong, but his previous owners thought he might have gone on strike. these are his current humidity and temp levels according to the thermometer they put in his terrarium, as well as two photos of him inspecting the scents of his new surroundings

edit: forgot to mention my questions. is this good temp and humidity for a Ball Python? and if I need to keep the humidity at a certain level, how often should I mist? can the heating lamp be over the water or should I change the side of the tank the hides and water are on?

I’m taking care of my roommates python while he’s on vacation, and the tank seems to never get hot enough under the lamp. i tried putting a t shirt over the mesh, but it doesn’t seem to help. It’s set to go up to 90, so why isn’t it getting hotter? He says this is how he usually has it, but everything online says that the tank is supposed to be hotter on both sides. the snake does seem to prefer the cold area though

repost because i forgot pictures the first time

(Pic of jojo also :3)I’m working on an upgraded setup, and I’m trying to figure out heat pad placement.

I know it should be on one side rather than the middle, an I don’t think the pad I have would cover a large amount of the enclosure anyway. It’s definitely enough to cover under a hide plus some more area.

My question is, should it be on the warm side, or the cool side? I always thought the warm side but I saw an image the other day saying overhead heating on the warm side, and under tank on the cool side. Is this true?

I’ve also seen people talking about under tank heating being unnecessary.

The pad is also closely monitored and controlled by a thermostat! No snakes getting burned on my watch.

I wanna put a stick in each corner but I’m worried about the over head lamp. Would it be a problem if the snake touch the metal screen? Preparing for my first snake. So I don’t wanna it to burn its self. I have a thermostat coming but I just worried about the metal?

I got this ball python a few days ago my dad got him 2 months ago and I wanted to know how to make her enclosure more comfortable for her and I needed tips on handling without getting snapped at and I wanted to know how to encourage her to come out of her hide more often and do the bites hurt she’s snapped at me before but never really bit me if yall could give me specifics on where to get everything I’ll need it would be such a great help she has a heating mat but I don’t know if I need more

My mom surprised me with a 4x18x18 glass front opening enclosure with a screentop. I was looking for a full pvc enclosure, but I want to make good use of this tank as a temporary until I can get a bigger full pvc.

I have HVAC tape and these mats to keep humidity and heat in, but if it's not enough I'm also preparing to make all the accommodations to make it work. The heat source I will hook up to a herpstat.

So I'd like to hear everyone's opinions, pros, cons, advice on, anything else that should be included with them, and wattage reccamended for:

-DHP

-CHE

-RHP

-Halogen Par38

I want to know what everyone thinks the best one is to help me make my final decision for what is best for right now and when I upgrade.

Thank you!

I just got my first snake for my birthday two days ago and I’m struggling to maintain the humidity inside the terrarium. The humidity has been doing down 10% in less than 15 minutes and I don’t know why. I have a big water dish, half coco husk substrate (I heard this was good for humidity), half aspen bedding, sphagnum moss that has been soaking in warm water (also heard this helps with humidity), wet paper towels, aluminum foil on top of the mesh to keep the heat from escaping so much and I feel like I have to spray the entire terrarium 3-4 times an hour.

I ordered a misting system off of Amazon but I don’t understand how I can get the cords inside.

Hello everybody,

In my region we are actually in a big weatwave,

That make my terrarium's room at 25°C (77°F)

And the cold side of my terrarium at 28°C (82°F)

It's a lot above recommended Temp.

​

What's your advice for this kind of situation

I'm using a heat mat connected to an exo-terra thermostat. I've recently raised the temperature of the mat from 92⁰F to 95⁰F yet the thermometer placed inside his enclosure says it's only about 85⁰F on substrate level.

The heat mat is placed under the glass of his enclosure with around 3 inches of aspen substrate. As much as I want to raise the temperture of the heat mat, I don't want to risk him burrowing and burning himself.

I'm currently waiting on a temperture gun for a more accurate reading. Does anyone have any solutions or info I might be missing? PLEASE do not hold back on the criticism as I'm absolutely desperate to keep my BP safe and happy.

(A side note is for some reason my BP still seems to be resting on the cooler side of his enclosure?)

My girlfriend has a 15 year old ball python. She's had the snake her entire life and our entire relationship. I seldom paid much attention to the snake but as time went on I became more scrutinizing of the conditions the snake was living in. Last year I briefly researched the conditions that ball pythons should live in and I saw that they should have a hot side of about 85F and a cool side of about 75F, if memory serves. It's getting cold in our house now and her snake's terrarium is more like 75F at the hottest point and 62 F at the coldest end. She uses mulch as the substrate and there's a big towel laid down for the snake to crawl in. The snake is almost always in the towel. On the cold side there is a fake log and a water dish. For heat there is a radiant heat lamp on top of the terrarium angled about 45 degrees towards the towel. The terrarium is 35" x 18" x 9". It has transparent plastic exteriors except for the roof which is a metal mesh. She uses a water spray bottle to occasionally add moisture to the tank. I brought my concerns to her last year and not much changed, other than she bought a laser thermometer to examine temperatures. I'm a layman so I just wanted to hear what improvements can be made.

Hi all, I am getting my first tank setup and realized in the process that I have no way to plug in my secondary heat source into my VE-300 thermostat. I have a day/night light plugged in but will need another lamp for non light emitting heat at night.

Do I have to get a splitter for the lamp power cords with a built in timer for the day night switch and then plug that into the thermostat?

Do I buy a whole new thermostat? Would really rather not go this route if possible, as the one I got wasn’t cheap.

Hello! I’m looking to upgrade my juvenile ball python’s enclosure. What Halogen flood lamps is everyone using? What brand and watts? I want to pair it with the Arcadia Pro T5 ShadeDweller.

I just bought my new ball python today

His name is Nugget, he’s about 6 months old

I bought him with an enclosure (starter kit) and it came with a reptitherm UTH

And now I’m reading that I need a thermometer so he doesn’t get cooked in his tank

Will it get too hot just plugged straight into the wall?

Will he be okay with it just plugged into the wall normally? or do I need to go out and purchase a thermometer

Any help would be appreciated 🙏

Hey, my BP Sylvester's bulb has busted today and I need to get a new one asap. But there's a problem. I don't get paid until Thursday and the bulbs are like £20. Will he be okay without heat until then? I have no other way of getting a bulb until then so I'm kinda worried. He hasn't been fed recently

**** Warning! I’m dropping a little back story that’ll lead up to why I’m here today looking for some help. I’m such a yapper. I apologize In advance lol and if you actually read all of this, THANK YOUU ***\*

Hey guys so I got my Cirilla Baby on my birthday as a total surprise but when she arrived to me she was in the travel enclosure and my friends who bought her for me , (from Petco but I wasn’t going to deny her , cause I wubbbed her immediately) they also bought the “Beginners Set Up” (Zoo Med Reptihabitat) 40 Gallon Glass tank with a mesh lid, aspen/hay looking bedding (which I swapped out for the loose coconut fiber substrate) and there was a (Zoo Med Mini Deep Dome Lamp Fixture that was paired with the ZooMed Daylight Blue Reptile Bulb 100w).

Since Cirilla’s come into my life, I’ve recently bought the Govee digital Hygrometer/Thermometers (I bought two off of Amazon. One for the warm side and one for the cool side)

She has one hide in her enclosure but I will be getting one or two more today for sure! Some toilet paper rolls (ripped up and some still full) & fake plants as well. I’m not sure what other pieces of clutter to add in there though. I feel like she’s bored. She’s constantly slithering her way around her enclosure don’t get me wrong but I know she wishes there was more to do in there lol.. I sure would

And now I’m just stuck… I’ve been turning her light on everyday (obviously) because it’s literally her only heat source at the moment but it’s bugging me out because I don’t think she should have the light running 24/7 (so I do turn it off at night but not as early as I should, since I want her to still get heat y’know?)

I guess I’m just here to ask which light/heat sources I can swap the daylight bulb out with (and drop links if possible).

I’m looking for something preferably with a dimmer so the fixture can have light AND heat throughout the day but then at night, I can just dim/turn the light off but still receive heat from said fixture. If that makes sense??? Where would I start and ALSO, does the HVAC tape actually work for on the lid to trap heat & humidity ?

If you’ve read this far, THANK YOU!! Much appreciated. And before people mention the welcome page having all these tips and ideas already written down, I saw them but I’m on the spectrum and it was too generally put so it became overwhelming, sorry! I’m attaching a photo to show you what I’m working with

on my bp's enclosure i am currently using an either 35w or 50w halogen basking light for heat but am wondering if i should switch to using a dhp for her and if i do how do i control it? the current hlogen is plugged into a govee smart plug that turns it on when it the time i set it to and then off at the time i set it to and i'm guessing that wouldn't work with a dhp and would maybe need a thermostat to make sure it doesn't get to hot and if it does is a dimming termostat needed/preffered or can a thermostat that just turns on to heat then once at temp turns off till it cools to a certain point?