Milk Snake Temperature

[TRD]

I don't use any thermostat as I don't use anything that can actually burn my snakes or cause such huge spikes or drop in temps that the animal is in any type of danger. However I did research the subject for some time and I came to 2 conclusions;

1- I wouldn't get an ON/OFF type thermostat
2- I wouldn't get a pulse thermostat (as I don't use heat mats)

The reason is that an ON/OFF will turn the whole heatsource to maximum power, and completely off. It has a buffer of a few degrees (ie if set to 82 F it will raise to 86 F then switch off, then turns on again when temp drops to 78 F or so). So temps would never be a stable number. Imagine laying in water that gets too hot and too cold constantly, that's what your snake will experience.

A pulse thermostat will turn the heatsource ON/OFF very rapidly by delivering pulses of electricity. This can be used on a heatmat.

There's a third type called a dimmer type thermostat, but this is generally not suited for heatmats as it requires a minimum wattage load that heatmats won't reach unless they are really big or you also connect a light source to the same device.

In any case you have to take care with minimum wattage load on any thermostat, otherwise it may not trigger it at all.

Both dimmer and pulse stats are better, but more expensive. Cheap products also tend to malfunction more often... and, well, look-up pictures what happens to your snake if a heatmat thermostat malfunctions. It literally fries them. I would suggest you don't go cheap on things that can be a potential hazard to your animal.