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Temp Housing

E

Edelbrock

New member
I now own a hatchling corn but my old equipment from my last two got thrown out in my last move. I bought a small 5 gallon to house it in, two overlapping thick rocks for shade and cooling, water and an overhead 25 watt daytime sunlight lamp.

My two questions are this:

1. The aquarium is solid with the cover except for a few air holes at the top and the lamp is mounted under the lid. I wont have a temp gauge on the habitat for atleast another couple days. I'll be upgrading to a heater mat with two temp gauges once I have the money. Is that a big problem? I've been checking relative heat since im used to what temps I gave my last corns.

2. How often should I keep the sunlamp on. I'm semi-worried about a greenhouse effect in the habitat.
 
um....... the temp is pretty important. It is also better to have it right out side the tank so the snake can not burn itself. For the sake of the snake buy a thermometer, even if it only cost a few bucks it might save the snakes life and well if you cant afford that then you shouldn't really have a cornsnake
 
Keep in mind that its just a hatchling, it cant even reach the top of the aquarium and by next week I'll have the pad and dual temps. Im going out to get a wall gauge tonight.
 
Don't kid yourself. I had a hatchling escape from a 10 gallon tank because I didn't think he'd be strong enough to move the heavy jug I'd put on top of the lid. Snakes can be very creative in their escape attempts. This is my hatchling Cal King trying to escape by climbing his thermometer probe wire:

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Actually, Becky is right about that. You'd be surprised at what those suckers can climb. They can really lift themselves pretty high, and if there's even one piece of cage furniture, they will manage to get up there. I'd really watch the lamp. If it's not excessively cold, you could probably go a day or two without any heat and they'll do fine. Just wait to feed.
 
Update:

I had a digital temp gauge that I placed inside the cage on the substrate, the viv gets to 75F at night and 80F in the light. As for the cage and the lamp, it has a clear cover on the right side and I fashioned a capsule to block the lamp from the left side. Theres noway for the snake to get even near it to burn itself. Also the lid isn't movable at all to whoever implied that I wasn't thinking it gets out. My adult corns took off a lockable lid. I know how good they are at escaping.

I'm not stressing out on the gradient temp scale too much. I'll look into under the tank pads in the next weeks but I honestly don't think its a problem right now.
 
BeckyG said:
Don't kid yourself. I had a hatchling escape from a 10 gallon tank because I didn't think he'd be strong enough to move the heavy jug I'd put on top of the lid. Snakes can be very creative in their escape attempts. This is my hatchling Cal King trying to escape by climbing his thermometer probe wire:

Copyof100_0409.jpg
Click to expand...
hehe thats a cool pic..i use 1 2.5lb on each side for my snakes...i'm pretty sure they'll have a hard time moving those :)
 
Thank you. That one has 6 clamps on his lid and I still worry about him getting out.
 
Second update :)

I just realized how much like a pompus ass I sounded. Apologies to anyone offended but I redid the habitat with an undertank pad, two thermostats, one ambient and one hot side. Right now its 74.2 and 81.8 respectively. Any more info would help about what to do. Also I moved it into a 5 gallon tank to fit the pad. Picture included. Thanks :p
 

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Why did it die? Was it not eating, how long had you had it? Just because it's a hatchling doesn't mean it should up and die.......
 
Well the guy who I got them for gave me the "runt of the litter". He knew he was smaller but it wasn't because he was a runt. He was malnurished very sluggish. I knew something was wrong the second I put him in his habitat. At first I thought it was something I was doing wrong and started freaking out which pushed me to join this board and ask other people if my habitat was ok. The second I found out he wasn't eating I was trying to get alternatives for him to eat, but before I could start, he died.

Also I have a question about what I can do to block my snake from the bottom of the cage. With the under the tank pad, the bottom of the cage itself reaches excess of 90 degrees, but the substrate temp is 82-85 on the warm side. What can I put under the aspen that he wont burry under and potentially kill himself.

For him right now he burries himself in the aspen under his water bowl on the cool side. Is it because if he burried in the warm side he knows he'd cook up?
 
Treasure's UTH is the same way.. and after 9 months he has yet to burrow under on top of the UTH... same with Hunter. They both burrow under in the middle and cool sides, but stay on top of the aspen on the hot side. I found a thermomiter that will turn off the UTH if the sensor reaches 90 (thats what I have it set to turn off at) but I found it dropped the substrate temp on the warm side to 79, so I stopped using it, I think the snakes are just smart enough not to roast themselves... at least... mine are =P
 
I taped a layer of paper towel over the uth because mine did burrow. It worked out fine. They also make a cage carpet to put over it too if you want to buy it. Too bad about your baby. Hopefully it was just something genetic and not something that can be passed on to your other one.
 
He was half the size of all the others, same age. I'm just upset with the guy that he tried to pass off a sick snake as a "runt". Cause me alot of heart ache knowing it was dying and I couldn't do anything about it.
 
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