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Its been awhile

S

smale492

New member
So it has been awhile since I have had a corn snake, and i have a few questions based on heating. I am living in Illinois and Wisconsin so keep that in mind considering our winters get quite cold =D. I have always used a Uth and a light for my snakes in the past, but I ran into a dilemma. Are both necessary or is a uth sufficient enough to warm the tank. Keep in mind I may have to get lamp anyway incase my house/ apartment gets too cold. What would you suggest, I have a 20 gallon long btw. Also any recommendations for uths' because I am gonna have to replace my old one.

Thanks in advance.
 
I am not sure what the temps will be in the house yet. I am moving in next year. Probs will be 65 and up during winter or maybe a bit more who know its up to my roomies. I will be using a 20 gallon long tank to start with.
 
As small size 6x8 in UTH is fine for that size.

While low to mid 70s is recommended as a room temp many of us in northern climes can't keep our whole houses that warm all the time. My house hangs around 70 on the coldest days and I have seen my bedroom where I keep my snakes dip to 67 at night. As long as your warm hide is 85 your snake will find its comfort zone (ref: from the SMR care sheet on cornsnakes.net).

I personally won't let the room temp go below 65. If it goes below that on a regular basis, you might get a second UTH and control it with thermostat or rheostat to be around 75.

We had a little furnace problem on the coldest day of the year so far when I couldn't heat my house above 60. It was 6 hours before the heating guy arrived and fixed it. I placed 40 hour shipping heat packs, wrapped loosely in newspaper, under the cool sides of the vivs. It brought them up to 70-75 on the surface. Luckily the warm side UTHs had no problem holding temp even down to 60 in the house. Believe me, I monitored my snakes and viv temps carefully. I keep these shipping packs on hand just for emergencies like this.

Another tactic is to get a small supplemental electric heater just for your snake room to heat it up a few extra degrees. I recommend one with a thermostat and other safety features like tip over protection. It pays to pay a little more for a safer heater. You could also use ceramic heat emitters, but since heat rises it can be difficult to control the heat in the viv. You can also get radiant heat panels, which are quite pricey; but if you just need a few extra degrees a safety featured supplemental room heater might actually be a better choice to my mind. All heating devices have one or another safety issue either as a fire or burn hazard, so research and choose what works best for you. I do recommend a working smoke detector for any room in which any heating device is used.
 
DollysMom said:
As small size 6x8 in UTH is fine for that size.

While low to mid 70s is recommended as a room temp many of us in northern climes can't keep our whole houses that warm all the time. My house hangs around 70 on the coldest days and I have seen my bedroom where I keep my snakes dip to 67 at night. As long as your warm hide is 85 your snake will find its comfort zone (ref: from the SMR care sheet on cornsnakes.net).

I personally won't let the room temp go below 65. If it goes below that on a regular basis, you might get a second UTH and control it with thermostat or rheostat to be around 75.

We had a little furnace problem on the coldest day of the year so far when I couldn't heat my house above 60. It was 6 hours before the heating guy arrived and fixed it. I placed 40 hour shipping heat packs, wrapped loosely in newspaper, under the cool sides of the vivs. It brought them up to 70-75 on the surface. Luckily the warm side UTHs had no problem holding temp even down to 60 in the house. Believe me, I monitored my snakes and viv temps carefully. I keep these shipping packs on hand just for emergencies like this.

Another tactic is to get a small supplemental electric heater just for your snake room to heat it up a few extra degrees. I recommend one with a thermostat and other safety features like tip over protection. It pays to pay a little more for a safer heater. You could also use ceramic heat emitters, but since heat rises it can be difficult to control the heat in the viv. You can also get radiant heat panels, which are quite pricey; but if you just need a few extra degrees a safety featured supplemental room heater might actually be a better choice to my mind. All heating devices have one or another safety issue either as a fire or burn hazard, so research and choose what works best for you. I do recommend a working smoke detector for any room in which any heating device is used.
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Yeah we shall see how the temp here goes. I know a guy here who has 2 snakes and he seems to be doing well with a uth and lamp. I think he only uses a lamp for his hognose and they seem to be doing just fine up here. Thanks for the advice.
 
smale492 said:
Yeah we shall see how the temp here goes. I know a guy here who has 2 snakes and he seems to be doing well with a uth and lamp. I think he only uses a lamp for his hognose and they seem to be doing just fine up here. Thanks for the advice.
Click to expand...

Best wishes. The downside of a regular lamp is that it's drying and can only be used for daytime heating without screwing up your snakes day/night cycle. But frankly, any heating decreases the relative humidity without a humidifier. During this current cold snap my house humidity is down to 24% with the furnace humidifier. I keep the vivs at 40 to 50% with damp towels covering 3/4 of the viv (I use a spray bottle to mist the towels) and/or a room humidifier as needed. I also provide humid hides.
 
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