Just got my first corn snake and just have a question about how he's acting

ok whatever

Karl_Mcknight said:

The "Ambient Temp" of the air inside the tank is not too critical. your snake does not fly through the air nor does he stick to the sides. He probably lays or crawls along the bottom like most snakes do. That's where you measure the temps - where he actually is.

If you have 85 degrees on the warm side and about 70 to 75 on the cool side on the bottom then that's perfect - forget this "ambient crap." The extra heat and the overhead lights and heaters and so forth will only dry out the air and cause more problems later on.

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Karl, maybe you don't mean to come across like a jerk but when you talk down to people, well, you do! Throw a smilie in there if it's your attempt at humor so the OP knows

As for the "ambient crap" (AMBIENT ADJECTIVE 1.of or relating to the immediate surroundings of something) It is ALWAYS about ambient temps. The most important is surrounding the snake where it is. You are right that ambient temps anywhere off the surface is not important. Maybe you meant to say that general air temps "room temp" are not important. Getting the right ambient temp next to the snakes skin is wherever he/she is which tends to be in the warm hide. You are measuring ambient temps with all probe thermometers unlike a temp gun which measures the temp of the actual object.
I'm always correcting the usage of the term "requires belly heat". I think "bottom heat efficiency" or something like that would be a more accurate term as corn snakes do not need to heat their bellies directly in order to digest. A corn snake will seek out belly heat but in relationship to health and digestion it is unnecessary.
The notion that UTH's don't dry out the air is off base. They just don't do it as quickly as an overhead heat source. I think to many people are rigid in how a corn snake habitat should be setup making no allowance to certain situations. Sometimes in certain setups an added heat source is necessary and even though a OTH is least desirable sometimes it is what works.

OP, Karl is right that if you have 68-70 on the surface of the cool side and 82-85 inside the warm side hide without the CHE then your good. If your room temp is so low as to lower those two temp reading then go ahead and continue with the CHE

Have fun snaking :cheers:

daddio207 said:

OP, Karl is right that if you have 68-70 on the surface of the cool side and 82-85 inside the warm side hide without the CHE then your good.

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By on the surface do you mean like if I shine my infrared thermometer on the bedding? Or just what my thermometer probe at the bottom of the tank is reading?

The little guy seems alright, I'm gonna try to trust what everyone's been telling me and just accept that he'll act weird until he gets settled in. He spent a lot of time today burrowed under the aspen exploring. Now he seems settled down in his cool hide for the night, where he stayed last night.

I haven't seen him enter his warm hide at all(though he has kind of hidden on the warm side before). Could this mean it's too warm? I have the thermostat on the heat pad set to 85 degrees(though sometimes it'll go as high as 87 cause the thermostat doesn't turn off the heat pad quick enough) and the probe is on the glass at the bottom of the tank.

I would lay a thermometer probe inside the warm side hide and lay one on top of the bedding on the cool side and see what those ambient temps are. As Karl said that is where the snake is and that's the ambient temps that are important. I only used an infrared gun to spot check temps in the past but (through experimentation) I realized that I was not getting the temp readings that I wanted which is air temp just above the bedding or in the hide. The gun gives you the temp of the object itself. In captivity we try to provide the optimum environment possible to give the reptile the best chance of survival but of course reptiles are subject to quite a variation in temps in the wild and will survive the little variances that happen in captivity.
You wouldn't say that your snake is acting weird but in fact is acting normal

Alright, I'll have to go get another probe thermometer. So I just fed him today and then left for work, when I came back he was still in his cool hide. Since I heard they prefer warm hides when digesting I'm slightly worried the temps may not be right. But who knows, maybe he spent most of the day on the warm side when I was gone.

So if the probe thermometer on top of the bedding doesn't read 85 degrees, I should increase the temperature on the heat pad? Even if that means it might go up to 90 degrees sometimes?

You mean in the hot side hide? 82 to 85 is ok.

Okay. So since I posted this I've noticed him moving around a lot more. I see him moving between the warm and cool side every once in a while and he spends more time out in the open. I've also handled him for a little while today and let others hold him as well. I still haven't seen him touch his water bowl, but he may just be doing that when I'm not looking.

Over all he seems a lot more comfortable. He still hasn't gone in his warm hide, but spends a lot of time on the warm side in the leaves.