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First Snake viv set up

C

CottonMalts

New member
I don't currently have a snake yet. I bought a terrarium and I just ordered a rheostat and a ceramic heat emitter. I worry that an under tank heater could short out or get crazy hot and hurt a snake. Thats the last thing I want to have happen. I have a friend that is a veteran herp owner and he told me that a uth mat is not neccessary. I would like to just get the temperature correct before I bring a snake home. I don't want to have to worry that the glass on the bottom is going to hurt the snake. I know that he/she will need a warm and cool side of the terrarium/viv. The room that I have the set up in can get chilly at night and during the winter. Do i need to put some kind of heat source on the cool side and how do you regulate humidity on a terrarium with a screen top? Thanks in advance for all your help.
 
CottonMalts said:
I don't currently have a snake yet. I bought a terrarium and I just ordered a rheostat and a ceramic heat emitter. I worry that an under tank heater could short out or get crazy hot and hurt a snake. Thats the last thing I want to have happen. I have a friend that is a veteran herp owner and he told me that a uth mat is not neccessary. I would like to just get the temperature correct before I bring a snake home. I don't want to have to worry that the glass on the bottom is going to hurt the snake. I know that he/she will need a warm and cool side of the terrarium/viv. The room that I have the set up in can get chilly at night and during the winter. Do i need to put some kind of heat source on the cool side and how do you regulate humidity on a terrarium with a screen top? Thanks in advance for all your help.
Click to expand...

Most everyone at this site uses an Under tank Heat pad. With proper regulation from a Thermostat, they are completely safe. Most of us also use Thermostats rather than rheostats. If a rheostat or thermostat fails, your overhead ceramic heat source will get "Crazy Hot" too. Having said that, I have used under tank heat pads with both rheostats and thermostats on 5 different snakes over a period of 41 years, and I've never had any malfunctions or problems.

As far as the coolness of the room, you should do whatever is necessary to keep 1 side of the cage around 70 to 77 degrees, and the other side 82 to 88 degrees. If you can do this with 1 heat source fine, if you need 2 or 3, fine. (I use 2 heat pads right now for that very reason. But 1 of them, the cool side, only kicks on if the temp drops below 73.)

Humidity for corn snakes is usually not a problem unless you live in a desert type area. Most corn snakes do fine with humidity between 30% and 60%, but these numbers will fluctuate along with the weather. You will find when the Humidity is Up outside, it usually will be inside too. If you have really low humidity, during shedding cycles you might want to create a "Humid Hide" that the snake can crawl in if it wants too. You can also mist the cage lightly with a Mister, but keep in mind, too much moisture leads to mold, fungus, and scale rot. It's usually best to let nature take its course. Also keep in mind, "Heat" reduces humidity so the more you fool with the Heating, the lower your humidity will probably be.

It's a matter of walking a fine line, a balancing act. Get your tank set up, monitor the heat and the humidity for a week or two and make sure everything is ok before introducing the snake.
 
Thank you so much for the info. I have an under tank pad I guess I am just unsure of how to monitor the temperature in the glass where the snake may burrow and make contact with the glass. I was planning on getting the heat and humidity correct before getting the snake. I want to make sure it's right so I don't harm or stress out the snake.

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you monitor the temp with a thermometer. You monitor Humidity with a hygrometer.

You can purchase both at the same place you buy the tank and heat sources or you can buy online as well.

I use one of those hand held infrared "Point and Shoot" thermometers.
 
yes you can, but even on the lowest setting the heat pad will get too hot. A thermostat would be better.

I discovered with rheostats that even on the lowest setting the pad will get to about 95 degrees. Once the heat travels through the glass, you're still looking at about 93 to 94 degrees on the bottom of the tank. This is hotter than you want with a corn snake. It might be ok for a Boa or a Python, but not a corn.

When I used rheostats, I would place about 1 inch thick of folded newspaper on the tank bottom, and then place my substrate on top of that. The thickness of the newspaper disperses the heat nicely.

You will have to experiment with rheostat settings and newspaper thickness to get the temp right, but once you figure it out, it will be easy. (I did this for many years with a Boa and had no problems at all. I also did this with my corn snake at first, but I did switch over to a thermostat about 8 months ago.)
 
My reptile vet insists ceramic heat emitters are the safest possible heat source and that any substrate other than flat paper would result in horrific impactions at some point down the road, but he also had never heard of Sani-chip or flexwatt. 9_9 Fortunately I find his medical advice far more trustworthy. Seems I have to employ selective hearing with both my vets...the other insists my cat should be on dry Science Diet (*gag*) over Wellness Core wet food, but otherwise she's great. The Hill's reps just have their claws in Banfield vets pretty deep.

You'll here a lot of conflicting advice throughout the hobby about what type of heat is better, substrate, food, pretty much everything. Take everything with a grain of salt. There is a cheap thermostat frequently used by many keepers available on Amazon. Also here is the temp gun I use.
 
Thank you so much... I am going to order the temp gun... I am still trying to decide on the under tank heater... I have a ceramic heat emitter on the way. Thanks again for different opinion.. I appreciate it.

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Karl has pointed out the problem with rheostat use. However, the other problem with rheostat use is that you can't actually control temps. The rheostat functions on providing a set amount of electricity to the device it is plugged into. In doing such, your temps can and will fluctuate. What is perfect 1 day can be too hot the next, all dependent upon your household temp.

That is why a thermostat is preferred. The 2 are very much similar, but where the 2 differ is that a thermostat also utilizes a probe to send a signal of on or off for a set temperature. The rheostat is always on. An even better means to being energy efficient would be to use a proportional thermostat. Proportional thermostats are always on too, but once the probe has reached temp, the unit is designed to regulate that temp through providing a percentage of electricity to maintain the temp. This is much more efficient than a standard thermostat that simply turns on at 100% power to reach temp, then turns off, on at 100%, then off... My incubator thermostat is a proportional thermostat. So long as I don't go into my incubator for long periods, it pretty much stays between 0-10% energy use to keep the set temp.

Going off of energy efficiency, the UTH is also the way to go. The wattage draw of a UTH is going to be much lower than that of a ceramic heat emitter. CHE's are sold like light bulbs at 60, 100, and 150 watt depending on size needed for a given cage. In contrast, a UTH might only, depending on your cage, will probably only be 8 or 16 watts.
 
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