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Lighting/heating?

B

bebopthesnake

New member
Hey everyone! I've had my cornsnake, Bebop, for about seven months now. She's in a 55-gal tank with aspen substrate (I take her out and put her in another container for feeding) and plenty of hides. I recently got a temperature probe and found out that the crummy little temp gauges I was given with her didn't do must justice to the true temps in her tank. Now I'm trying to figure out how to best heat everything.

Currently, I have a ZooMed mini combo deep dome fixture with a UVB bulb and blue/purple nighttime bulb. I also ordered a small ceramic heat emitter to try out (75w) but it didn't work as I intended. There is a small 6x8 8w heating pad under her tank that I have a small cubby secured over that she can slither into without burning herself on the glass below.

Right now, the cold side of her tank averages about 69 degrees, which I understand is juuuust slightly too low for her. The warmest part of her tank, which is above the cubby and below the UVB, gets to about 79 degrees. However, I rarely see her in the warm spot and she instead hangs out in her middle hide that often only reaches about 72 degrees.

Is this normal, or do I need to try harder to give her a better gradient? The amount of time she spends in the cold and medium temps concerns me, but I can't tell if that's a husbandry thing I should keep trying to fix or her just being a weird snake. She poops and eats like a dream and is healthy, so I don't know what's going on there. Thanks for any help!
 
Scroll down in the forum until you find Nanci's SnickerSnakes and look for the Sticky
Care of Cornsnakes. There's good info on heating.
 
The "cool" side is the comfortable side, they'll spend a lot of their time in that section. They use the warm side to help with digestion, or when they're sick, or maybe they just want the heat for whatever reason.

69° is fine as long as the warm spot is the correct temp. You'll want it to be around 85°. Get the temps at the correct levels, and the snake will take care of its comfort.
 
I agree. My Corns are set up in rack systems with belly heat in the back set at 85. It is very seldom that any of them are seen in the back, except right after eating. The front of their containers is 78-80 and they are all seen in front 99% of the time. My hatchlings are set up in racks with the belly heat set at 84 and they are seldom at the back. They usually coil up right in the middle between the heat and cooler spots.
 
My guy enjoys a big Exo-Terra with two warm spots: a UTH warmed hide, and a large comfy ledge under a radiant heat panel. Both heaters are t-stat controlled to maintain 85F temp, as measured by temp gun. We keep a cold house in the winter, and the ambient temps the enclosure are cool; colder than the care sheets specify. Nevertheless, except for two days after feeding, I almost never see him in either warm spot during the winter.
 
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