Too hot?

Ive been using a red heat light only for heating for my snake. I have two temp gauges. One digital in the substrate on the hot side, and another on the glass 1/4 down from the top of the tank. My digital is giving me the reading of 83-85 and the one on the glass is reading 100-110. Im just worried that the ambient temp might be too much. The problem I have is, if I lower the ambient temp then the substrate temp is going to drop dramatically because Im only using a light. How does these temps look?

PS: Spare me on the UTH, Im going to get one sometime

Actually while Im on the topic. When I do get the UTH, what kind of lighting would you all recommend? Or none at all? Id like something to view the cage at night.

Putting On The Asbestos Undies

Cuddles said:

Ive been using a red heat light only for heating for my snake. I have two temp gauges. One digital in the substrate on the hot side, and another on the glass 1/4 down from the top of the tank. My digital is giving me the reading of 83-85 and the one on the glass is reading 100-110. Im just worried that the ambient temp might be too much. The problem I have is, if I lower the ambient temp then the substrate temp is going to drop dramatically because Im only using a light. How does these temps look?

PS: Spare me on the UTH, Im going to get one sometime

Actually while Im on the topic. When I do get the UTH, what kind of lighting would you all recommend? Or none at all? Id like something to view the cage at night.

Click to expand...

Yes, your temperatures are too hot. Please lower that temperature before you end up with baked corn snake. Obviously your snake has found some place in the viv to hide from the high temps.

And I doubt the Forum is gonna spare you on the UTH. What's the delay? A UTH costs about the same as three video rentals, three packs of cigarettes, or a couple of six packs. I would put temperature control right up at the top of the most important requirements in keeping corn snakes.

For that matter, you don't just need a UTH. You NEED a thermostat or a rheostat to control your heating equipment.

The digital one in the substrate (where the Corn is) at the hot end is the one to watch. 83-85 degrees is fine - it could go up a couple of degrees. If the temp at substrate level down the cool end is 70-75 degrees, then that's good.

Unless you have climbing equipment or shelves that the Corns can get to, the other probe (1/4 inch down from the top of the tank) is about a foot nearer to the heat source than the snake will get, depending on how high the tank is. As long as that red light is well-guarded, you should be fine.

As for lighting, Corns don't actually need any artifical light. Others will be along shortly to advise on the best sort of light as a compromise i.e. that will allow you to get a good view without disturbing the Corns. The forum search facility should throw up some interesting conversations on lighting. Just steer clear of UV.

Edit: Sorry - misread "quarter of the way down from the top" for quarter of an inch down from the top". I still think that as long as the snake doesn't have a place where it can rest in that high temp and the heat source is guarded, then the ground temp is OK. A stat is a must.

Cool thanks for posting that bitsy. I thought thats how it was supposed to be anyways. My light is outside the top of the vivarium, as well as on a 1/2"
high speaker grill. I almost shot myself in the foot when I read those posts about how I was going to fry my snake.