New Owner

[Roan]

Hello-
I've recently purchased my first snake. I have a young ball, about 18 inches in length. I have put together what I think is a feasible set up, but I'm well aware that what I think is pleasing and what the ball thinks is pleasing may be two different things. Here's what I've put together so far:

-29 gallon tall tank
-piece of store bought wood to climb on that is about 2 feet long and varies in width
-a plastic water dish large enough for the ball to submerge and soak in
-a plastic "cave" that is large enough for the ball to curl up and hide in
-one day lamp with ceramic bell
-one night lamp with ceramic bell
-shredded newsprint paper for substrate

The water dish is on the right side, somewhat beneath the day lamp. Because of the bell sizes I have the night light a little closer to the center of the tank's top. The hideout is on the left, on the cooler side, and the piece of wood angles across the tank, allowing a little heigth to climb up to for basking (though I haven't seen the ball climb yet). The ball has actively explored the entire setup and prefers to hide during the day and do its nocturnal thing at night, often soaking and basking beneath the night light. So far I think my temps are too cool for it, with day temps of 85 (my thermos are an inch above substrate on glass on back, the strip kind) and about 80 at night. I want to make sure the ball is warm enough.

I've considered a couple of options since reading a lot of posts. Would it be better to turn the 29 gallon tank on its side and set things up that way to increase warmth? I've also read about heating pads. Would a human heating pad or UTH from a pet store be enough to increase my temps? If so, what combinations of rheostats and heaters have y'all had success with? Heating elements are pretty restricted where I am. I'm already breaking the rules clean off with my pets and heating elements but why not go ahead and shoot for getting the big bill if I'm discovered? I just want things to be safe. It doesn't look good when the fire department comes to a firefighter's place to find out why the detectors are going off. If I can borrow a digital camera I'll put up a couple of pictures of the setup as is and prepare to take my lashes from the experienced herp types on the forum.

I appreciate the help.
-Roan

[jay76]

UTHs and human heating pads work great. There's a few good rheostat sections under the "how-to" thanks to Lisa, Katey and Boidkeeper:

http://www.ssnakess.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=16678

If you're not comfortable with wiring up your own, you can buy them rather cheaply. A few of my fixtures have an inline slide dimmer picked up courtesy of Home Depot instead of home made ones. Remember to leave room under the tank for air flow.

[Big Mike]

You really need to get a better thermometer. Those strip ones are useless. You need to measure the temp right on the substrate and/or right under the lamp. You need to know what temp the snake is at...not the side of the tank. A simple indoor/outdoor thermometer with a probe (from a hardware store) is an inexpensive and accurate way to go.

You need to heat the hide for your ball. It should not have to choose between being warm and being hidden. This is one reason why UTH are good for these snakes. Also, a UTH will use a fraction of the power that a bulb or ceramic heater will use. If you get the temp set at 85-90 with a UTH, you won't need to worry about day/night.

Any under tank heater from a pet store will work. You want it to be about 1/3 of the area of the tank floor. You can buy a dimmer to control it or you can go with a more expensive (but safer) thermostat. I find that regular lamp dimmers work well.

If & when you do change to a UTH, make sure you control it with something and make sure you give it time to reach max temp and that you measure that temperature right on the floor of the tank.

Good luck with him and welcome to the site. :cool:

[Roan]

Based on more reading and your recos (thank you jay and Mike) I have altered my setup a little. Nyx is now enjoying more floor space. I've put my 29 tall on it's face. I added a UTH from Exo Terra. It gets nice and toasty, so I bought a Credenza dimmer, which was the simplest and most effective design I found without having to build something myself. You plug the UTH in to the Credenza, the Credenza in to the socket, and damn if I can't control the heat in the tank from across the room. The slide has an off position and a pretty wide range for tight control. I also bought a indoor/outdoor thermo with probe from Home Depot. It was relatively inexpensive and has 10' of cord to the probe along with a handy bit of velcro to put it about anywhere. It will record the high and low temps and you can reset that feature to fine tune judging temp changes. I still have my two lights, night and day, and I'm learning how to adjust those and the UTH to achieve optimum conditions for my BP.

[latazyo]

sounds like you got the perfect equipment

closely monitor your temps if you're still using the lights...a regular 75w bulb raised my temps up to 107 degrees WITHOUT a UTH

you definitely don't need a night light at all, the UTH will be his heat day and night, you only need a light for YOU to look at him

I just got a ball about a month ago, you're going to love yours

[Roan]

After reading responses again and looking elsewhere on the site I haven't found any information that says anything about using shredded virgin newsprint as substrate. That's what I'm using now and my BP doesn't seem to mind it. It's allowing adequate heat from the UTH and will hold moisture to maintain humidity as long as it isn't soaked. What's the general feel on using it as substrate. Label said that there are no chemicals added and no dies. I feed Nyx in plastic container. Is that enough to not worry about him possibly ingesting a little of the material? And if he did, is it safe to assume that it would simply process and biodegrade in the same way it would for other animals?

On another note, I've added a second hide so that he can feel safe and secure on the warm or cold side, though I think I might buy a smaller hide to replace one of them after reading that BP's seem to feel more secure when they can bunch themselves up against the sides of the hides. He does that already, but the hide I have is kind of large (could fit at least two snakes his size in there with room to move). Might be better to replace it and save for when he's a bit larger.

[latazyo]

perfect substrate, perfect feeding procedure, good to add the other hide, good job!