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How to get the right temp.. Please help

F

Femur

New member
Hi, I'm new here and I just two days ago purchased two baby corns. I currently have them i a critter keeper with aspen bedding, a full water dish, and an overhead heat lamp for warmth. They burrow under the aspen, and rarely come up.

Alternatively, I have a ten gallon tank setup with an undertank heater attached. However, the heater feels far too hot to be safe, I do now want them to burrow and burn. I have no temp gun, and a stick on thermometer placed on the glass gives no reading. What is the best way to control the temperature so i can get them into this better setting??

Thanks in advance.
 
What I use an adjustable heating pad for people it gives me a wide range of temperatures. For my heatlamp I use a custom light dimmer that my father made for me. I don't know if they have them anywhere but you might try looking for one at a store like home depot or something the may have one if not I'll try to find a website that has what I'm talking about. Here found one online http://www.amazon.com/Lutron-Tabletop-Manual-Dimmers-install/dp/B0000DI241
there is also a different one on the bottom of that page hope this helps you out. Thats to regulate the heat if you want to measure it you should by an outdoor thermometer like this which is probably the cheapest since it isn't electronic http://www.amazon.com/Student-Therm...UTF8&s=office-products&qid=1191910643&sr=8-27
I use a different type of really expensive kind which uses lasers and other waves but I got it for free lol.
You can find those things other places than online so just start looking.
 
Okay..here are some pieces of advice I really hope you take head to :0(

1. Please house your snakes in different tanks..Snakes really shouldn't be housed together if they don't have to be..It can become very stressful for the snakes and can lead to eatting problems, aggression, un-needed stress..and possibly even cannibalism...

2. For the Under Tank heater..you will want to buy a thermostat (go to reptilesupply.com) they have a very affordable Repti-Therm thermostat that is great for under tank heaters..also you will need a thermometer with a probe..place the probe under the aspen on top of the glass where the heater is, this way you can always see what the temp is at the bottom of the aspen where you snake is likely to go..The thermostat will also come with a probe to control the heater, place the probe in the same spot as the thermometer

3. Try to avoid over head lighting..the UV rays from it have been rumored to actually be dangerous to corns..there are rumors of the lights making a corn snake go blind after a period of time..this is just a rumor I heard but I would rather be safe then sorry..the uv rays no matter what aren't that good for the snake..true they do need some form of rays but daylight from your window or light from your lamp should do just fine..plus snakes looveee belly heat..they don't really need over head heat..at least not corn snakes..

I hope this has helped you..please understand I am not trying to come off as a know it all or as a b***h...I'm just trying to spread the lessons I have learned from on this board to help prevent you from having future problems..good luck with your new little buddies and keep us updated :0)
 
No, thankyou very much I appreciate the help it doesn't come off harshly. I've only kept lizards before, so I may have dove in to this a little unsure, but I've been looking forward to having snakes.

The lamp above them is heat, not U/V, so there is no concerns there, it's only temporary until tomorrow when i get the things you mentioned I need.

The only reason i was housing them together is as a member of my states herpetological society, I know the state herpetologist, and he advised me taht since they were purchased together and are opposite genders, they could easily live together their whole life so long as they are fed separately.

But thankyou very much! They're little guys, Greenspot X Sunksit Hybrids.
 
serafino said:
What I use an adjustable heating pad for people it gives me a wide range of temperatures. QUOTE]

These are designed for people, not for the applications we are using them for. They're designed to be on for short periods of time only. They are very capable of overheating and can cause a fire.

Do yourself and your house a favor, scrap it and get a UTH.:)
Click to expand...
 
Femur said:
The only reason i was housing them together is as a member of my states herpetological society, I know the state herpetologist, and he advised me taht since they were purchased together and are opposite genders, they could easily live together their whole life so long as they are fed separately.
Click to expand...

Please don't take this as meant harshly, either... :headbang: :headbang: :headbang:

Several complications from co-habitating snakes are:

Unplanned pregnancy at too young an age. Or at the right age.

Not being able to tell which snake regurgitated, etc.

Stress. Snakes are not social creatures. They don't want friends. The reason you see them in the same place in the wild is because they are competing for the optimal hiding place. So either a snake is forced to share, or it doesn't get to go to the place it really wants/needs to be.

There is no reason to cohabitate that benefits the snakes; there is only convenience for the owner.

You will hear plenty of anecdotal evidence that people keep their snakes together with no problem. As Janine says, there's never a problem with cohabitation until there's a problem.

Nanci
 
You haven't really given me enough info here. What size is the heat mat? The chances are, although the heat mat feels hot to touch, the lamp on the critter keeper is probably too warm. You can buy a really cheap thermometre anywhere, and this is vital. Even better, you can get a thermostat and attach it to your untertank heater. I would advise you to use the undertank heater as corns prefer belly heat, and most of them shouldn't actually burn the corn (if its a glass tank you could put the UTH under the glass, covering about 1/3 of the tank) Use a thermometre to monitor the temps so the hot end is about 87F and the cool end about 70F. A thermostat would be more ideal though. Hope this helps.
 
That was weird, when I posted that there were no other replies coming up... and then they were all there... I was a bit late on that one obviously haha
 
Wow..I entirely missed the part that mentioned they are using a person heater..please also buy a Under Tank Heater that is meant for reptiles..You can find one almost anywhere..Petsmart, Petco, or even Reptilesupply.com..They all state what kind of tank their meant for on the front of the UTH package so make sure you buy the right size.
 
I am using an official UTH, I was never using a human heat pad. Thankyou for the help everyone. I have a rheostat now, altho I may still have to place some of the 'reptile carpet' stuff over the UTH, as it's still very hot and I don't want them to burn, and I have a thermometer with probe now as well. I will seperate them ASAP.
 
With a good rheostat it should not be too hot. Is it a ZooMed rheostat? If so that's the problem, they don't dial down low enough. I'd return it if its a zoomed rheostat and go to walmart and get a lamp dimmer for about $9, or read the thread here on how to make your own for about $7.
 
Femur said:
No, thankyou very much I appreciate the help it doesn't come off harshly. I've only kept lizards before, so I may have dove in to this a little unsure, but I've been looking forward to having snakes.

The lamp above them is heat, not U/V, so there is no concerns there, it's only temporary until tomorrow when i get the things you mentioned I need.

The only reason i was housing them together is as a member of my states herpetological society, I know the state herpetologist, and he advised me taht since they were purchased together and are opposite genders, they could easily live together their whole life so long as they are fed separately.

But thankyou very much! They're little guys, Greenspot X Sunksit Hybrids.
Click to expand...

Well Nanci already mentioned this, but let me make it clear (go ahead call me negative, a b***h whatever) keeping opposite sex snakes together is bad advice unless you plan on breeding and since as you say they are little that shouldn't happen until 2009 at the earliest. Also could you explain Greenspot x Sunkist Hybrid.
 
I have already tested out my heating pad for extended periods of time it is fine I have also added two dimmer switches to it to be able to very finely adjust the heat and to make sure it doesn't overheat. Even though I have tested it I generaly trust things built for use with human compared to animals. Sad fact if a pad for a snake overheats chances are you won't sue the company if it overheats on a person they get sued. The items for people usually are safer and have gone through much more testing. Thanks for the concern though :)
 
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