Snake won't use heating pad!

[owstopit]

Hi! I've had my corn snake for about a year now, and he has two hiderocks. One is on the colder side of the tank and the other is over his undertank heater. He's almost always found under the heated rock and even when my house gets cold, he's always warm to the touch and seems to be doing fine. However I just moved him to a bigger tank about a month ago and since I did, I never find him near his heater. I've tried moving his hiderock around a bit but nothing seems to help. I'm worried about him because sometimes it's cold in my house and when I go to play with him he's not near the heater and he's cold. Any suggestions?

Thanks,
-Neal

[Nanci]

Do you have the heater controlled by a thermostat or rheostat?

What is the temp, under the hide, on the glass, in the center of the UTH?

Even if the snake is say, 80F, he's going to feel cool to the touch because your skin temp is about 91F.

[wstphal]

Nanci knows her stuff, so I have to agree with her. But if the temperature on the UTH is correct, you may just have a weirdo like my Humphrey. S/he rarely hangs out on the warm side despite 2 identical hides and temperature on the glass on the warm side closely monitored to be 82-85F. Even when the temp on the cool side is 68F, that's where Humphrey is!

[JamieK10]

Do you only have one hide in the tank now?

I'm new to this stuff, but I believe I read on this site that a snake's desire to hide is sometimes greater than his/her to be at the right temperature.

I know you said you tried moving the hide around, but perhaps try going back to having two seperate hides again?

[oldsnow]

maybe try getting another hide to go in the middle of your tank if you are that worried. Then introduce him to that hide the next time you go to put him up from "playing". My little one was like that and when I put her back in the tank after feeding I placed her next to the middle hide and she hasn't come out in days as far as I have seen, other than the poop I found this morning.

I'm fairly new but, from what I can tell, snakes wont commit suicide by freezing themselves. If they need to warm up they will (someone correct me if I'm wrong). And he might just be coming out and warming up at night while you are asleep. After-all, they do prefer hiding and being by themselves most of the time.