Heat mat

Im am being put of my heat lamp and i was reading a corn snake book yesterday and it sayed in wooden vivariums you can put a heat mat on the back of the inside of it.
But i am worried that if i put it on the back then nigel will get burned or do they not get very hot?

If that doesnt work out then ill just buy a heat bulb guard :grin01:

I'm not sure what you mean by "on the back of the inside," but heat matts get hot regardless of where you put them. That's why you plug them in to a thermostat.

Now, most people suggest you use an under tank heater, because the belly warmth helps the snake with digestion, so if you're putting it on the side or something it might defeat the purpose.

I use both an UTH and a heating lamp, to provide the belly warmth, basking warmth, and the proper temperature gradient. (As my house is too cold, and I needed to heat up the cold side of the tank... :grin01: )

If your going to put the uth on the inside of the vivarium just be VERY careful...you will definitely need a thermostat (a good one) to make sure the heat mat doesn't go to high..since it will be right there instead of under glass...what you could do is buy some plexi glass and have it cut to the measurements of the bottom of your tank..stick the UTH inside of the tank and then put the plexi glass on top of it..this way your snake won't be right on the heating device or be in danger of burrowing into it and it becoming stressed from the heat or getting hurt..Just an idea...:0)

If you are going to put a heat mat inside a wooden viv, the only one to use, IMHO, is the T-Rex Cobra Heat mat. Even without a thermostat, it doesn't get over 100 (+/- 3) degrees F - a nice safety factor in the event something on your termostat gets screwed up. I use them in some of my Sterlite containers for wild-caught snakes I keep for any length of time. You can place them in the viv and just cover them with dry substrate. I would at least use a dimmer with them since 100 degrees is a little warm.

mine says dont use them on wooden vivs at all lol.

I have a question about heating pads. If you use one on the side will it burn the snake when it goes to climb up the side of the tank (we all know snakes love to do that LOL)

You can put heat mats inside wooden vivariums, on the base. I use wooden vivariums and all of mine have heat mats inside, I've never had a problem. Just make sure they are a) regulated on a thermostat, and b) are covered so the snake can't lie directly on them. As well as a thick layer of Aspen, I place ceramic tiles over my heat mats to keep the snakes off them. Personally I feel that base-mounted mats are better than side-mounted, as I believe that belly heat is more beneficial during digestion.

I also use UTHs underneath wooden vivs and they're fine as long as a) the weight of the viv doesn't rest on them and b) there's a small air gap between the UTH and the viv.

Used with a stat, the UTH never gets hot enough to damage the base of the viv. With the stat sensor inside the viv, on the floor directly above the UTH, the heat inside the viv is fine.

I have a question about heating pads. If you use one on the side will it burn the snake when it goes to climb up the side of the tank

Click to expand...

Not if you use a thermostat to control the temperature of the pad. Any kind of unregulated heat source can potentially get hot enough to burn a snake.

Just to add to the confusion..I have a wooden Viv and I used flexwatt mortise it in the floor and covered it with Plexiglas and you should regulated any heating divice no matter what.

http://www.cornsnakes.com/forums/showthread.php?t=49658