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new owner / heating question?

sa_grubb

Reptile Reaper
Hello everyone. I just ordered a baby cornsnake that will be here on tuesday. I have a 10 gallon tank set up with an undertank heater made for 10 gallons but it gets pretty cold in my house so i purchased some heat lights. I have bought a 100 watt sunglow and a 100 watt infrared heat glo for at night. I have a clamp lamp with a dimmer built into it. I was planning on getting a big tank in a couple of months and was just trying to figure out if these bulbs will be ok. I can dim them pretty low and will use their potential when i get a bigger tank. will this be ok or will it be too much? any input will be appreciated. thanks, scott p.s the snake is a creamsicle okeetee and i have included a picture of what it will look like.
 

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My house gets down into the mid to low 60's at night during the winter, and my snakes are fine with just their UTHs. Be careful not to fry your snake- that's a very powerful bulb.

See your hollow log hide? The plastic one? I had a very bad experience with that hide.

http://tinyurl.com/4vur9w

You might want to seal off the hollow end or even better saw it off to prevent misplacing your snake. See the bad thing about him being up in there is you can't _prove_ he's in there, so you're worried he may have escaped. You can't see the secret passage, but you may be able to feel it. I have a few of those hides, all altered so there is no blind limb, and the snakes still love them.

The half log. The baby will most likely be afraid to hide in it. Snakes like hides that are snug and cozy. I would recommend either using aspen as a substrate or scrunching up a paper towel and putting it inside the half log.

Reptile carpet. It works just fine, but it's a PITA. You need two pieces so you can remove one to launder it and have another to replace it. That's fine. But your snake will burrow under it and you have to remove everything to get him out. Eventually you will get tired of this.

Might I suggest aspen as a substrate. Babies (and adults) love being able to burrow. it is not natural for a wild cornsnake to just laze about out in the open. They are afraid of being eaten by everything. They appreciate a nice deep layer of fluffy aspen to burrow in. You would appreciate it too, compared to dealing with reptile carpet. I know, I have used both.

And you could add a paper towel roll for an extra hide. Babies (and adults) love those. I resisted them for a long time because they were so unnatural, but after trying a couple, now all my snakes have one.

Do you know that you will most likely need a thermostat or rheostat for your UTH? A UTH will get to 120F or higher and can burn your snake.
 
And you could add a paper towel roll for an extra hide. Babies (and adults) love those. I resisted them for a long time because they were so unnatural, but after trying a couple, now all my snakes have one.

That whole post was just excellent advice.

I have to comment on the roll hides. I was super hesitant as well to use these but now even my adults have "shipping" tubes that they just love. For the babies I save the toliet paper tubes. I also have purchased the hides from reptile basics and my snakes also love the exo terra reptile caves (if not buying them in bulk like I did you can find the exo terra ones cheaper on Ebay than a pet store),(they like something more closed in, without so much light peering in)

Also might I suggest some clips for your lid? You would be surprised how well the little snakeys can escape about anything, and they are much stronger than I would have ever dreamed. Losing a snake is heartbreaking.

Congrats on your upcoming addition
 
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