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Need heating help please!

B

buckeye fanz

New member
Okay, maybe I just don't get it, but I have read through past posts and still don't understand this whole heating thing. We currently have a heat lamp (no uth) on the viv and use it during the day, turning it off in the evening. During the summer/fall, our house stayed about 70-75 degrees, the temp on the warm side stayed around 80-85. Now that winter is here, the house stays around 68-70 degrees. I am concerned about turning the heat lamp off at night as the viv temp got down around 62 degrees night before last. ( I left it on last night because it was only 25 degrees outside and I was worried, it is off now and maybe 70 degrees in the viv, but I didn't want to stress him out by leaving it on) I live in NE Ohio, so temps are going to be dropping even more very soon!

Should I buy a uth? Do they come in different watts? Should I buy a bigger or smaller one? (29 gallon tank) Any other options?

Sorry for my ignorance, I just want to do the best thing for my baby.

Thanks
 
With the temperatures in your house falling so low at night it sounds as if you will be needing to buy an UTH. They come in different sizes, and I would recommend measuring the base of your aquarium and buying one that will cover about 1/3 of the base area. You don't want to have to leave your light on during the night because the snake will suffer less stress if it has a proper day/night light cycle, rather than continuous light.
At night you would have just the UTH on, and during the day you could have both on, or just the UTH, or just the light depending on what combination worked best to get the right temps. A point to remember is that digestion becomes more of a problem below 72 F, and so you should aim for no lower than this as your cold side.
When I used to use both an UTH and a lamp I had them on the same side of the cage to create more of a thermal gradient.
There is another thread in this forum right now
" I'm confused... " by Joejr14 that you might also read for further views.
 
The other thing that you could do is get a bulb that can be left on both during the day and the night...This can either be a ceramic heat bulb (no light is emmited) or an infrared lamp (red light). I use the red lights and they are awesome. you can leave them on all day and night and not mess up the photo-cycle of the snakes.
 
I have the same lighting as Pcar. I use the red lights night and day. I was switching between day bulb and night bulb but that was a Pain in the butt. I have a 20 gallon long and a 29 gallon tank. My house stays between 65-68. I use a dual light which can hold two bulbs. On the 20 gal long I found 100 watt bulb keeps the temps between 78 - 84. With the 29 gallon, because its taller I have found that two 60 watt bulbs keep the tank between 79 - 83. If your house is cooler you might have to go with a higher wattage. If you find it gets too hot, you can raise the light a little higher.

With the bulbs I found that if you leave them on all the time they keep the temps steadier. If that makes sense. lol!



Jean
 
also, if you really want to switch between white and night, you can get light timers...not too expensive...and use them to set up two different lights. I have this for my lizards. I just turn on a basking light during the day and then off again at night. I don't even have to think about it anymore.
 
Buckeye-

I come from the thought that corns dont need an extra heat supply unless you're living on the north pole, or unless your house gets to be insanely cold.

I'd say that most people keep their house between 70-80 during the summer, and 60-70 in the winter. The 70-80 during the summer is fine, I dont think there is any debating that. I dont believe that you need to have a thermal gradient in the cage, and I also dont think that 85 degrees in one end of the cage is necessary.

However, if your tank is getting down to 62 at night your snake might have some problems with digestion, so it probably wouldn't hurt to get a UTH that's about 1/4-1/3 of the size of the tank. If your snake is that cold, it'll burrow under the bedding and warm himself up by getting into contact with the uth, just make sure it's not at some crazy temperature--you dont want to burn him. I suppose you could also get a night light for the tank, which you obviously leave on at night. I think most are black or blue, and there are red ones. There's also the idea of a ceramic heating bulb, etc etc.

During the day I just leave my blinds semi open and even when it's colder outside (60's) the 10 gallon I've got gets up to about 80 degrees. If a snake gets too warm, he'll chill out in his water dish which is usually at least about 10 degrees cooler. Just make sure you have a hide box on both sides of the tank if you're going to use a heat gradient.

While I live in Florida, I've used no alternative heating source for my corns that I got last year and with feeding them once a week they're both over 24" in just over a year. They've had no adverse health affects and have never turned down a meal. Take that for what it's worth though, and if you're concerned it's always better to err on the side of caution.
 
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