Heating ball python tank, adjustment for colder weather?

[kiiarah]

Hi everyone,

I have already received a great deal of help here with setting up initial heating requirements in my young ball python's enclosure, but I am noticing some changes now that the weather is getting colder and am hoping someone can give me some advice on what to do to help maintain temps through the winter.

The enclosure is a 30 gallon tank with a screen lid (majority of screen covered by aluminum foil). I have a heating pad on the hot side of the tank which is regulated by a thermostat and a heat lamp on a stand above the cool side over a cut out in the foil to help boost ambient temps.

My problem is this, when I first set everything up the thermostat was keeping the hot spot at 88-91 degrees and the ambient temps were pretty consistently 80. I have been noticing that the hot spot doesn't get up to 90 anymore and has been dropping as low as 85.5 at times. I know the temps will fluctuate when using a thermostat but until recently setting the thermostat temp to 93 would keep it around 90 on the surface of the glass, now I have it set to 94 and it will only get up to 87 or so. So basically what used to be a few degree window between the setting and actual temp has jumped to a 7-8 degree gap.


So my main question is does it make sense that I would have to set the thermostat higher to get the proper tank temps during winter? I have only had my little guy for a month and a half so I have never been through a season change with him. I figured maybe this is normal since the heat mat is fighting the ambient cold of the glass, but I was afraid maybe this is abnormal.

Also I have been having a hard time keeping the ambient temps at 80 consistently and would like to insulate the tank somewhat to help reduce temp drops at night. I have a towel wrapped around the back of the tank right now, but it seems to be doing very little good. Would sticking cardboard around the back and sides with double sided tape help? Is there a better way to go about this?

Thanks for any advice!