Hi all. I'm struggling with the temperatures and heating of my enclousure.
I'll state all that I have. This final setup was made after talking with the store that sold me the terrarium and also my vet.
My snake is a male Morelia Spilota mcdowelli with about 1.60m and a weight of 1.5 kg aprox.
I have a glass terrarium of 120cm (width) x 60cm (depth) x 40cm (height).
It as sliding doors in the front with a vent below and a vent in the ceiling. Both vents go all the lenght of the enclousure.
I've lined all the terrarium walls from inside with coconut fiber (except the floor, doors and vents).
I've placed a 150W ceramic heat lamp on the right side distancing 30cm from the right wall and in the middle (depthwise)
Below I have a 50W heat cable attached to the floor on the outside zig-zaging until half of the enclousure
Inside, the floor was covered with newspaper and then beech chaff substrate all over.
I also have a HabiStat thermostat where I've connected both the lamp and the heat cable.
I've set the thermostat to 30ºC
Room temperature outside the terrarium are around 20ºC (I'm from Portugal and it's winter here).
I have a digital themometer and also a fixed one with a probe. Both give out the same readings so I excluded wrong temp readings from any of the devices.
Temperature readings inside (measured 1cm above the floor)
Right side (hot zone) further away from the door: 28º C
Right side (hot zone) nearer the door: 24º C
Left side (cool zone) further away from the door: 21º C
Left side (cool zone) nearer thedoor: 19º/20º C
For what I understood from talking for several people is that the terrarium temp should vary from 26º C and 30º C.
Everybody tells me that what I have in terms of heating is more than enought and that I should be getting the right temps. I've spent a fortune already trying to buy diferent heating and materials but nothing seems to work.
I want to know what can I do to help my poor snake getting the right environment. He already had a pneumonia a while back because of lower temps in a smaller terrarium. I've moved him to this one and I don't want it to happen again.
Are this temps normal? What are your suggestions to improve the temps? I cannot change the terrarium because this is brand new and I cannot afford to buy another one just now.
Also, I have some spare equipment I can use, I just need to know how can I used it.
Spare equipment:
25W Heat cable
100W Ceramic heat lamp
20W Heat mat (not sure if it's 20W, must recheck at home)
Please if anyone can provide me with some ideas or solutions...
Thank you
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