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Alternative Heat Sources

L

leichefasstan

New member
I'm new to the whole world of snake care and hope to have a snake soon. One problem that I've thought about though is maintaing the proper tempurature. Heat lamps are rather bright for when it's dark, does anybody know any alternatives that are not so bright? (Would something like heating bad work? This may be a dumb question so thanks for the help.
 
There are no dumb questions! It's great that you want to do the best you can for your snake.

I just love the sticky FAQ of basic care posted here:
http://www.cornsnakes.com/forums/showthread.php?t=28341

If you scroll down a bit, you'll see the bit about under tank heaters (UTH) that are preferred for snakes due to the need for belly heat for digestion.

If you put "UTH" in the search function, you'll also find lost of good info. Post away and ask your questions. There are so many awesome snake keepers here. I'm sure one or more can answer any questions you might have. Best of luck, and welcome to CS.com! :wavey:
 
i use a heat rope with a reostat (lamp dimmer) works great. you can also get ceramic heaters that screw into any basking lamp. in the winter time i use the ceramic heaters and cover half of the lid with aluminum foil to keep the humidity and heat in. hope this helped. good luck and welcome to the amazing world of snakes!!!
 
It's very easy to regulate temperature when you use an Under Tank Heater with a 'dimmer' of some sort. The easiest (and best for your peace of mind) have the temperatures on the dial which you can adjust for the seasons or time of day, but you can also buy them without the temperatures on which is a little cheaper but you will need another accurate way of measuring the temperature.

A tip would be to decide how you're going to attach/feed through the probe beforehand :)
 
Since I'm going to be using a wood vivarium, can I use a UTH inside, or should I search for a Inside the Tank Heater (ITH)?
 
Thanks for all the help. Right now I'm intrested in looking into Under Tank Heaters, so I'm hoping that will work out nicely. What does Tracee mean attaching/feeding through a probe? From what I've read it seemed that I needed to buy some pinkies for a young snake and if they don't want to eat them try cutting the head of a pinkie a bit so it bleeds. Should I not hand feed?
 
No no, s/he's talking about "feeding" the probe into the viv before you stick the heating pad to the tank. ie, get the probe and the wire and everything where you want it before the final step of removing the adhesive covering and sticking the heater in place on the glass. :)
 
I'm so sorry I did not realise that could be so badly miscronstrued! Thank you LBoz (and I am a 'she') :)

Hi leichefasstan, the part that takes the temperature must be on the inside of the vivarium - where you snake is - so depending on where your UTH is going to be (and it should be placed to one side), you may need to drill a hole in the side of the vivarium to get the positioning just right. For me, this wasn't a quick job ;)
 
Wow, I was completely off. Thanks for the clarification though. I'm just trying to get everything right, so I don't make a mistake and possibly harm my future snake.
 
What about my post? Can I use the UTH inside a wood viv or do I need a special "inside the tank" heater? Wouldn't the sticky part, which happens to be the part that heats up the most, be facing down, heating up the viv wood instead of the bedding?
 
jpccusa said:
What about my post? Can I use the UTH inside a wood viv or do I need a special "inside the tank" heater? Wouldn't the sticky part, which happens to be the part that heats up the most, be facing down, heating up the viv wood instead of the bedding?
Click to expand...

you can get a heat rope and heat lamps. my wooden enclosure has a partial screen top with a strip light and a basking lamp (durring the winter). the heat rope is pluged into a lamp dimmer (like 5$ at home depot) and the heat rope is fed through the screen top and placed under the substrait. i would recomend geting a thermometer with a probe that you can put at the edge of the substrait. change the dimmer to fine tune the temp. hope this helps. good luck
 
jpccusa said:
What about my post? Can I use the UTH inside a wood viv or do I need a special "inside the tank" heater? Wouldn't the sticky part, which happens to be the part that heats up the most, be facing down, heating up the viv wood instead of the bedding?
Click to expand...
Sticking the UTH to a ceramic tile and then putting it in the viv should also work quite well.
 
Sticking the UTH to a ceramic tile and then putting it in the viv should also work quite well.
Click to expand...

I see! So after sticking the UTH to the ceramic tile, I should place it on the viv with the tile facing up (UTH under it), right?

Does it matter that in the ZooMed website they tell you this UTH is supposed to be used on glass only?
 
it will work fine. i would take some sand paper and rough up the glossy side of the ceramic tile so it sticks better. dont know how well the pad will stick to the surface. ceramic is an insulator and i think it would distribute the heat verry well. big time props to Bram, before this winter im gonna trade up my heat ropes for ceramic tiles with heat pads.
 
If it sticks to glass it should stick well enough to a fresh tile. I can't take credit for the idea though; I've seen it suggested a few times on here. :)
 
I use a cobra heat mat in my melamine viv. It works great, combined with the thermostat it doesn't get to hot, and it doesn't need to be stuck to anything as it is designed to be placed inside wooden terrariums.
 
sbourget said:
I use a cobra heat mat in my melamine viv. It works great, combined with the thermostat it doesn't get to hot, and it doesn't need to be stuck to anything as it is designed to be placed inside wooden terrariums.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the suggestion. Is there a great difference in price from the UTH to this Cobra one?
 
Thanks for all the responses and I apologize for hijacking the thread! :sidestep:
 
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