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Is this under tank heater (UTH) to hot?!

C

Checkersthecornsnake

New member
I recently bought a corn snake on friday and the one that the guy gave me (from online) was a piece of crap. So i bought a back heating pad made by sun beam from my local shoppers drug mart. I have kept it on low setting under 1/3 of my tank with a few dominos to hold the tank up since the heater says it shouldnt be crushed. I use paper towels as a substrate, as its in my room and they are the least smelly/expensive/easy to clean. I havent bought a thermometer yet but plan to soon, but for now im worried that its too hot and may have burn my snake last night :(! the paper towels feels just slightly noticable difference when touched from my hand temp, although the glass feels quite warm. Yesterday i fed my corn (sunday around 3pm) and after wards it sat against the glass (under the paper towel) for about 6+ hours till i went to bed but when i woke up it was on the colder side and stayed there all day in its hide. Im worried it may have gotten burned! also i used a back heater because it has the temp control (well it has low,med, high) and was suggested a better alternative then a regular UTH. Now im not sure if this is true and if i should return it and just buy a regular UTH! How do i know if my snake got burned?! and would he have stayed there for 6+ hours if it was too hot?

Sorry for the long post just concerned!

Thanks in advance,

John
 
I'm surprised you are still able to find a human heating pad that will stay on more than 2 hours. Human heating pads get much too hot for a corn snake, even on the "low" setting. I have used one in an emergency situation and needed a layer of bath towel 5 thick to get a temp reading that was around the mid-80's. You need to get a proper UTH and a thermostat/rheostat for your snake. And yes, your corn could have stayed on the hot glass longer than you would think and gotten burned. You will be able to tell by looking at his belly scales.
 
85 degrees will feel slightly cooler than your body temperature. If the glass feels warm, it is too warm.

Try layering towels until you get a UTH and a thermostat. Or, just don't use heat, depending on how warm your house is.
 
Hey John here is what I did. I went to Lowe's and bought a plug-in lamp dimmer. It's just a simple rheostat, much cheaper than a thermostat but it requires some tinkering and experimenting to find the right setting. Where do you live? I live in middle Tennessee, and my snake is always on the cold side. The hot side of my tank varies between around 83-86ish. I'm not a good judge on what type of pad you should use, just make sure it's reliable and that you have some way of controlling it. The lamp dimmer has worked fine for me, although I would like one of those high-quality thermostats X]. I'd say your snake is fine though, though like Susan said ^^ if he is burned, you would see on the belly scales.
 
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