Python heating?

Question

i'm getting a ball python and we bought an 8 watt undertank heater for my 10 gallon tank and i have reptibark substrate. The hot side is only about 75-76 and the cool side is abot 70. Theres hides on both sides, and the hide on the hot side stays warmer than the rest of the hot side, im guessing around 78-80. Is this too cold? With the heat pad and a blue night lamp from a previous snake brings up the entire hot side to about 80-84.

Answer 1

i personally don't use an under tank heater for my ball pythons...there isn't any harm to use one i just dont.  i use a basking spot lamp (it's by zoo med).  i put that on one side which keeps their vivarium around 85 - 90 F during the day and i dont put any kind of heating on the cool side of the tank...room temp is fine for that.  also at night i just turn off their day lamp and the temp usually drops around 70 - 75 at night.  i put hides on both sides and i leave their water on the cool side.  then just mist it several times a day (3) with a squirt bottle to keep the humidity up.

Answer 2

You will need to raise the temps they should be between 80-85 degrees during the day with a basking spot of 90 degrees and then you will need to drop the temps to 70 -75 degrees at the night.  An easy way to up the temps would be to get a heat lamp it also works for the basking spot, and for your night time drop you can turn the light off while leaving the heat pad on.

Whats the humidity like? you should keep it above 60% this is the lowest it should ever be.

Here are a few links you might like:

http://www.kingsnake.com/ballpythonguide...

http://www.anapsid.org/ball.html

http://www.wnyherp.org/care-sheets/snake...

I hope you enjoy the links. and I hope this helps you out some, if you have more questions you can email me. Good luck!