Corn snake enclosure

[N94CD]

Hi, I'm new here but I need some help so I didn't make an introduction first.

I have a snow corn snake named Francis as of now, I just got him/her i think it's a boy one day ago from petco. Surprisingly, it was in great health, energetic, and the lady who worked there took good care of them. Well here's what i need to know. I got a 10 gallon terrarium, a water dish, and 2 hides that look like rocks one has a climbing thing, aspen bedding, a light with a 75 watt basking bulb for the day and a 75 watt blue bulb for the night called moonlight, and a heating pad. The temp is at 80 from the light, probably 85 from the pad, the reason why i'm using both is because my snake usually is under the rocks and it's hard to heat the tank for some reason. The heating pad i'm using is a repti therm U.t.h heating pad and I'm not sure if it's good or not because you can't adjust it. My problems are: it is always on the warm side, it dosen't seem to soak in the water, and that's it. I'm going to be adding a branch from outside soon that i have to sanitize because the one at petsmart would probably fall and kill my snake. So tell me if I'm doing ok and how to solve my problems. My first time feeding her will be the Monday coming up like June 8 I think.
Thanks.

 

[Lennycorn]

Hi, I'm new here but I need some help so I didn't make an introduction first.

I have a snow corn snake named Francis as of now, I just got him/her i think it's a boy one day ago from petco. Surprisingly, it was in great health, energetic, and the lady who worked there took good care of them. Well here's what i need to know. I got a 10 gallon terrarium, a water dish, and 2 hides that look like rocks one has a climbing thing, aspen bedding, a light with a 75 watt basking bulb for the day and a 75 watt blue bulb for the night called moonlight, and a heating pad. The temp is at 80 from the light, probably 85 from the pad, the reason why i'm using both is because my snake usually is under the rocks and it's hard to heat the tank for some reason. The heating pad i'm using is a repti therm U.t.h heating pad and I'm not sure if it's good or not because you can't adjust it. My problems are: it is always on the warm side, it dosen't seem to soak in the water, and that's it. I'm going to be adding a branch from outside soon that i have to sanitize because the one at petsmart would probably fall and kill my snake. So tell me if I'm doing ok and how to solve my problems. My first time feeding her will be the Monday coming up like June 8 I think.
Thanks.

Hello and welcome to the forum
As for your setup you can return the basking bulb and fixture because corn don't need it. Trade up for a digital thermometer with a probe and and thermostat to regulate you heating pad. The heating pad should be place on the underside of the tank and then you place the probe to the thermometer above that. The thermostat will have a probe too. place that in the same location and plug the heating pad into the thermostat. that will solve your problem. You are seeking a warm side and a cool side in you tank. Warm side should be 80-85 degrees. (you might turn off heat during summer) and a cool side of 70-75. You are trying achieve that range. And you humidity 0f about 40-50%.

The branch you and bake at a low temperature or wash it with water and bleach. Let it dry out and have NO odor to it when you place it in the viv.

 

[N94CD]

I checked the petsmart and petco around me and all they had were a digital thermometer and no one had a thermostat. Any ideas where I can get one?

 

[wax32]

Great thermostat: http://www.reptilebasics.com/Helix-Controls-DBS1000-Proportional-Thermostat-Grounded-p-16151.html

Sounds expensive, but in the long run it will save you MASSIVE headaches. It can be used to power multiple UTH's once you get more snakes. Reptile basics is a great place to get all sorts of supplies from.

 

[bitsy]

My problems are: it is always on the warm side

As long as you have hides on both the warm and cool sides, then the snake will choose where it needs to be.

it dosen't seem to soak in the water, and that's it.

They shouldn't soak in the water as a regular activity. Mine have occasionally done it when ambient temperatures got too hot (not a frequent issue here in the UK!) or when they've had a bad or difficult shed.

I agree that you need a thermostat. Places that sell UTHs but not stats, really grind my gears. You don't need to "heat the tank", just the floor where the snake is - heating the air above him is a waste of time and energy. I agree that the light isn't necessary and that you should concentrate on getting the heat pad right. One of these will get well over 100 degrees without a stat, so check your temps at floor level (where the snake is) immediately above the mat.

 

[Floof]

I agree with everything said so far.. So I'm going to skip on reiterating that. I just want to voice my experiences with both of your primary heating elements...

My bearded dragon's basking bulb is a 75 watt with the direct beam... He's currently in a 20L. The underside of his basking rock (crappy digital thermometer won't work otherwise) WILL get to be 110-120*F during the day, about 14 inches under the light.

As for the heat pad, I use the ZooMed heating pads, appropriately sized, for all but two of my snake tanks. When I got my bloodred, lavender, and sand boa, I let the heat pads heat up all the way, then tested the temps before putting them on the thermostat (all before adding the snakes, of course). Two (1-5 gal size) were/are on plastic Faunariums, and the third (30-40 gal size) was/is on glass. All three got to around 140*F. After that, I refuse to use any heat pad without a thermostat...

I assume you're measuring with an analog gauge or a stick-on... Which would explain why your temps are so odd for what you're using; analogs are often as much as 20 degrees off, and stick-ons only measure the temperature of the glass.

Toss the heat lamp, get a thermostat, and ALWAYS have a digital thermometer on top of that heat pad.