This may sound stupid, but I am getting my son a corn snake for Christmas. We have a waterdragon, so I am familiar with light and heat, but this is a bit different. Right now, the snake is small and will be in a 10 gal aquarium in my sons room on his wood dresser. I am trying to do the easiest and safest (non fire hazard) for light and heat. His room does not get much light during the day. Our house stays between 69(winter and 75 (summer). I have a zoo med repti temp thermostat that can range from high to low. What is the best thing to do? The pet store said a daylight heat bulb (60 watts) and nothing at night. I spoke to the guy at zoo med and he said a regular light going on and off all day would irritate the snake and a heat pad attached to the back of the aquarium or red bulb would be best and avoid burns. I also have a flourescent light which I don't think I need. What would be best? I don't want to worry about a big fire hazard, but I don't want to be running around all day switching bulbs out and turning things on and off. Can someone give me a simple solution? Thanks
I would definitely use an UTH (Under Tank Heating) pad. Put the pad at one end of the enclosure and have that side of the enclosure at about 83 degrees. Make sure you're using a digital thermometer with a probe and put the probe directly on the substrate. You can get these at Walmart for about $10.00. Don't relay on the round, dial type thermometers as they can be extremely inaccurate. What are you going to use as the substrate? Newspaper works well and so does aspen. I've got a combination in my tank. I have newspaper and then in each hide I put some aspen in there. I think it helps them feel more secure. You'll want a hide in both ends of the tank, one for the warm side and one for the cool side. I think the easiest hide to use is a flower pot base with a chunk out of the side turned upside down. It's realy easy to make these. Take the base in one hand so that the bottom of the base is facing upward and with a hammer give it a good whack on the lip and knock a chunk out. After that take a emery board or something like a file and make sure you get any real sharp edges dulled down. Make sure the hides are just big enough for the snakes to get into or make sure there's plenty of aspen in the hides. Snakes like to feel something on all surfaces as it makes them feel more secure. You know, kind of like you being tucked in for bed. You don't need the flourescent as long as the room has some sort of light source like a window or something. You do want somewhat of a night and day cycle. That's what I've done with my milksnake I've had for about a week and everything I've read indicates this is a good way to go. I'm sure others have more experience with kings, etc than I do so hopefully someone will either back me up or suggest something equal or better. If you mean that sounds stupid, for what it's worth, I wish someone would get me a cornsnake for Christmas. Your son will probably be thrilled. BTW, when you set this up it might take a while to get the temperatures balanced out so keep an eye on them and make sure you've gotten them to stay relatively consistent within about a degree of the optimum temps. 81-83 on warm side at the substrate and about 70-78 on the cool side. Watch your snake and see if it's staying on the cool side constantly lower the warm side and if it's staying on the warm side consitently up the temps a bit. This behavior might not show up for a while as your snake needs to become aclimated to his new home. Have fun. I know you and your son will love this new hobby.
Thanks for the help! I bought some kind of repti bark substrate for the bottom. I actually have it all on layaway b/c I wanted to purchase from this particular pet store. The guy from zoo med scared me when he said that the snake could get burned by the pad on the bottom, but I had never heard of sticking it on the back. There are too many options. I feel like I am thinking/worrying too much. I just feel that when you get a pet, you should take the best care of it possible.
LOL, with a little experience it gets easier but it really is good to be very careful make sure everything is right. After all these guys don't have a choice as to where to live, right? It is true that the pad can burn your snakes belly but if you use a thermostat and don't use too much substrate you should be okay. Personally, that's one reason I use the newspaper because the pad itself does not have to get as hot to heat the enclsure. I've never put the pad on the side of the tank so maybe it works well too, I'm not really sure. All I know is I've had a couple of pythons for just over a year with UTH's and they seem to be thriving.
The guy from Zoomed sounds like a moron. Putting the heat pad on the back of the cage wont do anything for your snake. Something to consider too, if your putting this snake on his dresser for now, the normal Reptile heat pads even with the thermostat will kinda burn the finish on the dresser (learned the hard way) plus the heat will bubble up the finnish, unless its an expensive dresser that is solid hardwood a heat pad will make the wood bubble up. While not as attractive you could use a human heat pad set on low or medium at the highest. They have a cloth cover that will protect your wood better. This is where the non attractive part comes in. DON'T let the tank sit directly on the heat pad. Even the reptile pads should not be in direct contact with the tank surface. First off the surface gets too hot, and second the tank is squishing the power cord. With an under tank heater you DON'T want to heat the glass, you DO want to heat the air between the heat pad and the glass, then the air will warm the glass and the enclosure. So you need to support the tank, usually 1"x2" boards will do nicely, they are actually like 3/4ths" x 1 3/4ths not pretty but the best set up for your new pet. Needless to say but make sure the lid is secure, corn snakes are curious and allot stronger than they appear, they will push the lid and escape. Sorry for the flood of info
UTH are the best way to go. I have 4 corn snakes, they all have UTH and it wont burn them. my snakes actually push the bedding(ASPEN) out of the way and lay on the glass on top of the heater. I do recommened having a hide on both the cool side and the warn side of the tank. I heard that corn snakes dont need lighting, my snakes dont have any lighting but they are in a room that does get plenty of sun light. Corn snakes sleep all day long and are active all night long, so I really dont know how much light they actually need.
When I bred corns all I had in the was a heatmat under everything. I had a two tier tank and the bottom tier had the sunlight beaming in with the heatmat and the second tier was dark, during the day they prefered it up the top, it was nice and warm up the top as well cause it was a powerful mat and in the evening they came down to the bottom. I always took mine outside when it was nice and dry and let them spend about an hour in the sun and they when healthy the entire time I owned them. My mum made me sell them though cause I had an unexpected clutch and 5 of the babies got loose! Mum hasn't let me bred ever since!
I use a heat lamp. It's a 60watt red reptile bulb. I have a perfect 10 degree difference from warm to cool sides. The lamp works well if you don't trust a UTH It also doesn't bother the reptile's eyes or skin. It's on all the time. As for the thermometer, I have an indoor/outdoor one that is very helpful, it also shows the humidity. It was somewhere between 15 & 20 USD at Wal-Mart, and was definitely a worthwhile investment.
My snake has a UTH, and the same Reptile Bark you are talking about as the subject. The substratre is only about 3/4 of an inch think, which is enough to tell where the heat pad is on the back of your hand within the cage. Altair (my snake) seems to love it, and hangs out in his warm hide every time after he eats. For lighting I have 2 lamps, one is a 60 watt Daylight bulb from T-Rex, and the other holds a 40 watt Moonlight bulb from ExoTerra, a company I feel particularly comfortable with. Altair doesn't seem to mind the light, (my room is in the basement so he doesn't get that much light anyway) and always comes out at night climbing all over his grapevine. The Moonlight bulb gets him a lot more active, so one can tell he appreciates and recgonizes the day and night differences. One more thing: for a particularly small snake, such as a Baby, make sure to provide plenty of cage furniture and visual barriers. It helps them feel much safer and illustrates the whole Terrarium as a 'Safe Place' rather than just the hides.
