Big viv for small snake?

My baby corn loved her 40 gallon viv. It was really hard to find her sometimes, but she had tunnels all through her Aspen bedding that went from hide to hide, vines all over the place so she could take the sky route... a lot like yours. Well done!

Hey guys, last Sunday I moved her into the viv. I still have to put more stuff in there, but at the moment I think it's ok. The main problem I'm facing right now is that I cannot find a thermostat for controlling the heat mat. Apparently, in Romania, every pet shop sells heating accesories (like mats, rocks, bulbs etc) but nothing to actually control the temperature. At this very moment, I use a couple of layers of cardboard and paper with a shoe box lid on top, to keep the "floor" slightly raised from the area of the viv where the mat is, but it is not enough. The temperature sometimes gets as high as 35C (95F). I found a single type of thermostat named Dual Thermostab TS-500. I know nothing about it, I couldn't find any reviews and, considering romanian wages, it is a bit expensive (about 75-80$). I tried to find one on ebay (UK), but the shipping taxes are as much as the product itself, so for a 24 pounds thermostat I'd pay 20 more for shipping and I'd have to wait 2 to 3 weeks to receive the item.

Here are some pics of the viv (a couple of hours before I moved her there):

Well, I heard a lot of people use the Hydrofarm Jumpstart, which can be found on Amazon. But it seems like it's rather difficult to get US-based Amazon sellers to ship internationally so I'm not sure you would be able to get it in Romania.

Otherwise, I've heard some people like to use rheostats/lamp dimmers instead of thermostats, which you can presumably get at hardware stores for relatively cheap. The difference, I think, is that instead of turning the heat mat on and off like a thermostat, rheostats are adjustable resistors, which means they alter the amount of electricity reaching the heat mat and thus, make it less powerful. The downside is that you have to tweak it a lot to get it where you want it and you have to monitor your cage temperatures more closely since the rheostat won't change the power of the heat mat if the ambient temperature of your house changes like a thermostat would.

Disclaimer: I am completely new to this whole pet snake thing and I do not even own a snake yet so this is all based on what I've read here and elsewhere. Thus, if a more experienced snake owner would like to chime in, the floor is yours!

Hei kaityk, yes, I can found different thermostat models on websites like Amazon or eBay, but IF they ship to Romania, the shipping taxes are more expensive than the product. Especially if the seller is from US.

I found some dimmers that are very easy to use (pic below) and I will buy one of these and a digital thermometer with a probe and I will manually adjust the dimmer so that the temperature will be okay.

Thank you for offering me an alternative solution! It really helped me!