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Question about UTH's

Wylie said:
It's plugged into a power strip which is indeed on and there are two other things plugged into it as well that are on. The warm side where the UTH is located reads 76.6 degrees on the temp and the cool side is currently at 71.5 degrees. Plus I even have my full spectrum UV light on and I would think there should be more than a 5 degree difference. Only thing I can think of is to try putting my temp probe over the center of the UTH and getting a reading there then I guess if it's a lot higher than everything is okay?
Click to expand...

Just trying to help troubleshoot... not trying to insult... eliminating the easiest to fix things first (like making sure it's in a live plug, above)...

Did you peel the backing off the UTH and stick it to the bottom outside of the tank, or is it just laying underneath there?

Definitely put the probe over the center. The edges of mine don't warm up much. Ideally, you'd put the probe over the hottest spot, so that your snake can't burn itself if it finds it. It's too bad those things don't heat evenly, but that's what we have to work with.
 
If that is what you have, don't be shocked to see your baby up along the back edge. There's a little ledge that a young snake can get into and they'll cruise up there looking for that escape route. Once htey get a bit fatter...er... larger, they can't fit in there any more, but get in the habit of peaking up there before opening it up, just in case.
 
MerlinsPop said:
That looks just like one of my cages and there are two knock outs in the back. About 4 inches in from each back corner. New, they're solid, but there are two tabs about a quarter inch wide (a little less, really, and not exactly square) that you can get scissor tip on to cut, then bend it up and down and the back snaps off. when I get home, I'll take a quick picture of what I mean.
Click to expand...

Cool, thanks.

I'll get this figured out yet. I'm just pretty frustrated right now about these darn temps. I'd like it to be warmer in there for my snake, I know they're not as active when it's cooler or at least he doesn't seem to be. When I had the temp up yesterday for a while (because I used hubby's heating pad as a substitute until he came home with the new UTH), he started getting pretty active, unless it was just a fluke, he just felt like being active at that time? I don't know, but that's my assumption, is that they tend to be more active when it's warmer and just generally happier? I'd like for it to be 82 degrees on the warm side and about 72-75 on the cool side.
 
Wow, you're too fast for me, lol!

MerlinsPop said:
Just trying to help troubleshoot... not trying to insult... eliminating the easiest to fix things first (like making sure it's in a live plug, above)...

Did you peel the backing off the UTH and stick it to the bottom outside of the tank, or is it just laying underneath there?
Click to expand...

Yep, peeled the backing off and it is sticking under the tank.

MerlinsPop said:
Was it one of these? http://www.zilla-rules.com/products/critter-cages.htm If you download the image, it'll show where the knock outs are (if that's what you have).
Click to expand...

Yes, exactly!

MerlinsPop said:
If that is what you have, don't be shocked to see your baby up along the back edge. There's a little ledge that a young snake can get into and they'll cruise up there looking for that escape route. Once htey get a bit fatter...er... larger, they can't fit in there any more, but get in the habit of peaking up there before opening it up, just in case.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the tip!
 
My big boa won't leave his in place. I basically just let it lay on the cage floor and have only left enough wire to keep it on the hot side despite where he may move it. The aspen and the hide trick seemed to work at first, but if I stick it in the hide he won't let it alone until he has moved the hide off of it. I tried to tape it against the back wall and ended up pulling (carefully after a soak) electrical tape off of a snake. He hates the thing. If you find a good solution, let me know!
 
hartsock said:
My big boa won't leave his in place. I basically just let it lay on the cage floor and have only left enough wire to keep it on the hot side despite where he may move it. The aspen and the hide trick seemed to work at first, but if I stick it in the hide he won't let it alone until he has moved the hide off of it. I tried to tape it against the back wall and ended up pulling (carefully after a soak) electrical tape off of a snake. He hates the thing. If you find a good solution, let me know!
Click to expand...

You could use the fishtank silicone trick, too. put a blob of silicone where you want the probe to go, with something the same size of the probe that you can remove/dissolve sticking out the side. Then, after the the silicone sets, remove/dissolve the plug and insert the probe. For the plug, try some hard dry clay that if you get wet can wash it our. Hmmm... carve a plug shape out of a couple sugar cubes and dissolve them away later.
 
MerlinsPop said:
That looks just like one of my cages and there are two knock outs in the back. About 4 inches in from each back corner. New, they're solid, but there are two tabs about a quarter inch wide (a little less, really, and not exactly square) that you can get scissor tip on to cut, then bend it up and down and the back snaps off. when I get home, I'll take a quick picture of what I mean.
Click to expand...

Got it. The probe is now suctioned to the glass bottom with the tip just over the heating pad (altho not dead center). At least now I can secure the top. When I picked up the log hide that my snake was in it felt nice and warm on the bottom so yeah, it's probably fine, we'll see what happens overnight tonight, it there's a difference in temp or not. So far with the probe just touching the glass where the heating pad is, it is a bit warmer, it's reading 80 degrees now. The cool side of the tank is warmer too though.
 
On an unrelated note, so far my little guy seems pretty calm and mild mannered, I picked up the log he was in and he barely moved and he just stayed in it while we redid his tank. Hubby said he was quite active this morning when he got up. :D
 
MerlinsPop said:
Are there any knock-outs along the perimeter of the tank? Mine had several that I used. If not, you could use a hacksaw to form a slit that lets the wire feed through without making an escape route.

Tape on the inside of a snakes tank is usually a bad idea. If a bit peels back and then your snake sticks to it, you'll have a PO'd (or hurt) snake to deal with. What you could do is put a dab of fish tank silicone where you want to hold down the wire, then after it sets up take a razor blade and make a slit that the wire will pinch into. You'd have to find somewhere else to put the snake while the silicone dries, though.
Click to expand...

I have had this unfortunate experience with one of my corns. My partner was taping bits of fake foliage around the viv. To my horror when i checked on him, he was stuck fast to the tape. I spent the next hour almost in tears trying to ease Zamba from the tape. No damage done, but a lesson learnt the hard way. Dont use tape.
 
Hubby said he was quite active this morning when he got up.
Click to expand...

Corn snakes are crepuscular, meaning they are most active for a couple of hours or so around dusk and dawn, as this would be their natural time to hunt for prey in the wild.

It's also quite normal for a new snake to be a bit more secretive, until they get a bit more confident that you're not going to hurt them.

Good luck with the little one!

Best wishes,
 
Susielea said:
Corn snakes are crepuscular, meaning they are most active for a couple of hours or so around dusk and dawn, as this would be their natural time to hunt for prey in the wild.

It's also quite normal for a new snake to be a bit more secretive, until they get a bit more confident that you're not going to hurt them.

Good luck with the little one!

Best wishes,
Click to expand...

Thanks. He's doing great, he doesn't seem timid at all, he was active this morning around dawn and then again after we turned off his UV light. I really enjoyed watching him explore his tank tonight. He seems very comfortable in his new home and I just got him yesterday.

Back on the subject of the UTH's. Do these things go thru cycles or something? Cause when I came home about 2 hours ago (10:45 PM my time) it was up to 87 degrees on the warm side (75 on the cold) but now it's back down to 81 degrees and still 75 on the cool side. What the heck? I'm baffled. :confused:
 
Wylie said:
Back on the subject of the UTH's. Do these things go thru cycles or something? Cause when I came home about 2 hours ago (10:45 PM my time) it was up to 87 degrees on the warm side (75 on the cold) but now it's back down to 81 degrees and still 75 on the cool side. What the heck? I'm baffled. :confused:
Click to expand...

Ours jumped all over the place until I put a thermostat on it, and even then it was still being kind of crazy, a 5-8 degree swing. I went in the viv and resettled the probes exactly on the glass and right next to each other (one probe for the thermometer, one for the thermostat) and now it's staying within a degree of 85.

Hope that helps. :)
 
jessicalb said:
Ours jumped all over the place until I put a thermostat on it, and even then it was still being kind of crazy, a 5-8 degree swing. I went in the viv and resettled the probes exactly on the glass and right next to each other (one probe for the thermometer, one for the thermostat) and now it's staying within a degree of 85.

Hope that helps. :)
Click to expand...

Sure does, thanks! Yeah, the warm side temps are all over the place, it's up to 86.7 degrees now and about an hour and a half ago it was only 76 degrees, that's messed up!

So tell me more about these thermostats, how does it work, as in do you plug the UTH into it or what? And how much do they typically cost?
 
Oh, and is it bad for the snake if the temps fluctuate that much in such short periods of time? Cause if not, I may not worry about getting a thermostat and just deal with the temp fluctuations. I know obviously in the wild the temps will fluctuate but they don't normally fluctuate that much in such a short period of time unless there's a strong cold front coming thru or something.
 
Wylie said:
Thanks. He's doing great, he doesn't seem timid at all, he was active this morning around dawn and then again after we turned off his UV light. I really enjoyed watching him explore his tank tonight. He seems very comfortable in his new home and I just got him yesterday.

Back on the subject of the UTH's. Do these things go thru cycles or something? Cause when I came home about 2 hours ago (10:45 PM my time) it was up to 87 degrees on the warm side (75 on the cold) but now it's back down to 81 degrees and still 75 on the cool side. What the heck? I'm baffled. :confused:
Click to expand...

hmmm, i was under the understanding that cornsnakes do not need UV light? if they do in fact need UV, i had better get on it!
 
katia said:
hmmm, i was under the understanding that cornsnakes do not need UV light? if they do in fact need UV, i had better get on it!
Click to expand...

They don't, it's optional, didn't mean to imply that it was an absolute must have. I just chose to have one is all, chose to simulate sunshine for him. What I read (from Don Soderberg's website) was, "All snakes will benefit from fluorescent UV light, but it is not necessary for corns. Corn snakes are considered to be nocturnal and for thousands of years have not required direct sunlight to survive." I just wanted to give my corn some sunshine is all.
 
Wylie said:
Sure does, thanks! Yeah, the warm side temps are all over the place, it's up to 86.7 degrees now and about an hour and a half ago it was only 76 degrees, that's messed up!

So tell me more about these thermostats, how does it work, as in do you plug the UTH into it or what? And how much do they typically cost?
Click to expand...

The thermostat has a lead like the thermometer. You plug your UTH into the thermostat, then place the leads in the center of your UTH, or the hottest spot if you know it. Keep them right next to the glass and right together, and pile some substrate on top, maybe a hide on top of that. Unless your snake likes messing with them, they should stay put (based on what I have read here and my whole week of experience).

Basically, the thermostat is taking the temperature and turns the UTH on and off to keep it close to the temp it thinks you want.

Then you follow the instructions on your thermostat. On mine, you set it about to the middle, give it a couple hours to settle, and then watch temps to see what the range is. If the temps are high, you turn the thermostat down a bit, if they are low, up a bit, then give it a couple hours and repeat. I fiddled with it until it settled down right around 85.

Our thermostat was 40 dollars at the pet store. It's a Zoo Med 500R, I believe. I've heard you can get them online cheaper, but I didn't look because when we got all this stuff we had to have it ready pretty fast, no time to wait for shipping.

I don't know about big temp changes being good or bad, I just assume they'd be bad if they were very frequent.

Good luck!
 
Thanks, I've been doing a little research on thermostats and I've decided I will get one, I just don't know what one yet, which brand. I've read a lot on the negative side about the Zoo Meds, mostly on forums from members who have used them. Some mentioned a Johnson or a Ranco being a better thermostat but you pay a bit more. I haven't even been able to find any Johnson or Ranco heat mat thermostats online. But the Zoo Meds are easy to find, they come up all over the place on a google search. That figures.
 
i think i've asked this before in a different thread, but no answer. what are the two different kinds of thermostats called? proportional...i think?

one type turns the UTH off if it gets too hot, and on if it gets too cool, and the other will actually regulate the temperature of the UTH without turning it on or off, so it is a more consistent temperature. is this right? does anyone have a link to a thermostat that just regulates it instead of switching on and off? that would be great.
 
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