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Thermostat

Shorty6

Shorty6

New member
I have a 10 gallon viv with aspen bedding. I have a small UTH and a Heating lamp for my viv.

I've heard everyone talking about thermostats recently. I don't have one, but do I really need one? My snake is living in our other corns viv (he outgrew it) and he did perfectly fine without a thermostat. We gave him a hide over the UTH and alot more on the cooler side. He just liked staying under the one with the UTH. And believe me, he is not a shy snake, so if he wanted to move he could.

Mind you I am a starving college student and I literally have $8.24 in my bank account. Also, where I live and go to school, it snows and is quite cold. It was about 3F here two days ago.
 
I don't have one, but do I really need one?
Click to expand...

Do you really need one, that depends, what is the temperature of the glass on the inside of the viv right above the UTH?

An unregulated UTH can hit 110 degrees plus, way too hot for a corn snake.

Regards,
Steve
 
Ok, I'll check that as soon as possible. Would it help to also include that my UTH is only 4 Watts?
 
Oh ok. Well as soon as I get home I will defintly check the temp. I'm shooting for 84-86 correct?

Why did our other corn have no problem with heating then?
 
UTH's are sorta finky they are not held to the tightest standards so some get hotter then others. One option that can help is putting a ceramic tile over the UTH to help insulate slightly.
 
It's the same exact UTH. We moved our other snake (Sanka) into a bigger tank because he's getting big. So I took over the old 10 gallon tank. We didn't swtich UTH or anything.
 
You know, the old snake did fine and the new snake probably will too. Some times the UTH will over heat for no reason. But you'll probably do fine. I guess you just need to be aware that you are taking a gamble. Then decide for yourself if it's worth the risk.

There are a lot of people out there with no thermostats. I bet most of them never have a problem. Most of the reptiles sold by pet stores don't make it to their first birthday. Go figure.
 
The bottom line is that the need for a Thermostat is very debatable, but in any case is good to have.If nothing else, it is good to have to ensure that the heat pad does not get hotter than it should. There are a lot of thermostats out there that are inexpensive and get the job done- I know the ZooMed 500R is only about $20. So question shouldn't really be 'Why?,' but instead 'Why not?' :)
 
That is also $20 that I simply do not have. When I had Ziggy out to feed him today, I moved all the bedding aside and left my hand on the glass for about 3 minutes. It was barely even warm. I know our body temp. is about 97, so its hard to tell, but put that bedding on top of it and you can barley tell its on.
 
Well, if you're saying it's not hot to you because it doesn't feel hot, please keep in mind that YOU are 98 degrees. 85* can feel downright cool to us, but is what they need.
 
Okay... just checking. There's been folks that say "I can keep my hand on the mat for a good 30 seconds before it feels too hot to me." You can bet the poor snake is just roasting in that situation.

You have a digital thermoter, so that's good. Put the probe right on the glass and see what that reading is. Move it around to a few places because UTHs also don't heat evenly.
 
I live in Chicago and it's like in the 60's(INside the house[20's outside]) so it never gets too hot. Maybe in the summer I'll get one.
 
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