• Hello!

    Either you have not registered on this site yet, or you are registered but have not logged in. In either case, you will not be able to use the full functionality of this site until you have registered, and then logged in after your registration has been approved.

    Registration is FREE, so please register so you can participate instead of remaining a lurker....

    Please be certain that the location field is correctly filled out when you register. All registrations that appear to be bogus will be rejected. Which means that if your location field does NOT match the actual location of your registration IP address, then your registration will be rejected.

    Sorry about the strictness of this requirement, but it is necessary to block spammers and scammers at the door as much as possible.

UT heater with newspaper?

P

Pudge Toad

New member
Is it safe to use a UT heater with newspaper bedding? It seems to get so hot without changing the air temperature, so I've been using a heat lamp. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
 
The air temperature doesn't matter. You want the surface of the substrate (or more accurately, the surface of the glass/plastic beneath it) to be warm. The same principal applies to lamps--the surface temp is what matters--but lamps have the added detraction of heating the air above them so much that it can be quite drying, hence the typical recommendation of a UTH.

Are you using a thermostat? If not, get one asap. Unregulated UTH can reach dangerously high temperatures. My largest ones (ZooMed) hit 140°F, quite deadly to corn snakes.
 
if you're using a thermostat it should not feel hot. Your body temp is about 98 degrees, perhaps 95 or 96 at your fingers. You want the temp of the substrate to be about 84 or 85 degrees. Therefore if you touch it, it should feel cool or just luke warm. If you're not using a thermostat, some of those pads can heat up to about 135 degrees (or more). Newspaper needs about 360 degees to combust, so I doubt you'll start a fire with a heat pad, but you can and will kill a snake with those hot temps.

Just for your info, many years ago with my first Boa Constrictor, I used newspaper for my substrate and I did "Not" have a thermostat. My heat pad stayed at 137 degrees all the time. I had to make the newspaper about 3/4 of an inch thick to get the temp down to the 91 degree target I had in mind. But I did that for many many years with no fire and no problems.
 
Thank you all so much, the guides make it sound like the uth is supposed to heat the whole cage up, what type of thermometer do you check the substrate temp with? Thank you again.
 
I use one of those hand held "Point and Shoot" infrared thermometers. You can get them at just about any hardware store, even Walmart sometimes. I got mine at Home Depot.
 
Sorry, One more question, the winters in my area are cold and make the house temperature cold as well (59-70 depending on the day), should I use and additional heat source to keep the air temperature at least room temperature or higher?
 
I have the same situation where I live. I actually use 2 different heat pads under the cage hooked up to 2 different thermostats. The warm side is set at 92 degrees which makes the pad itself 92 degrees. But by the time the heat transfers through my glass bottom and then the carpet inside, I end up with a temp of 84 to 86 inside his hiding place which is perfect. On the opposite end of the cage I have another heat pad hooked up. It is set to 79 degrees. Once again, by the time the heat actually comes into the cage the temp inside the cool hide is 72 to 74 degrees. (I actually unplug this thermostat during the summer when I'm running AC in the house. I keep the AC Set to 74, so that's my normal room temp. But in the winter when I have to use the heater, I keep my heat set to 68. That's not too cold, but I like my corn snake to be active and so my goal is to keep the temp around 73 or above. This secondary heat pad is only used in the winter months.

I also have a light (Normal Room Light - 60 watt bulb) high above the cage on a timer. 12 hours on and 12 hours off to simulate day/night. A light bub does produce a lot of heat and can burn a snake if it's to close. But I keep it far enough away that there is no heat from the bulb entering the cage.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top