Questions... Substrate and Heating

[Frankenstein]

Hello,

New poster.

I've had my bp for a year now, almost to the day. I got her as a hatchling. Her name is Lucy, short for Lucifer. I thought it was a boy until I got it sexed. She's cute as hell. Her last trip to the vet was about a year ago, and from what he told me about signs of a healthy snake (gums, color, tongue, etc.) She seems pretty healthy. I plan on getting her checked out again though, as it's been almost a year since the last visit and I want to be sure she's doing well.

Anyway,

I recently switched over to coconut bark from ground walnut shells . She did pretty well on the walnut shells as I feed her in a seperate tank, but I know that the shells weren't holding much moisture when I misted her tank during shed (She wasn't shedding well.) I bought the T-Rex brand coconut bark. It was listed on the back as one of the best for balls. They listed that along with cypress and aspen I think, but I was weary of her getting that stuff in her mouth. I was wondering if anybody had any experience with coconut bark, and what the opinions are.

Also I read a bit on heating and am looking for more opinions on that. I have been using full spectrum basking lights since I got her. I have a 100 watt bulb on the hot side, and a 75 on the cool side. I know that probably sounds like a lot, but her tank is pretty big. It's 50 gallons or something like that with a screen lid (lets out a lot of heat.), and those were the wattages that I felt correctly heated the tank. The air temp on the hotside is about 95 -100, but the temp on ground level reads 88-90. The cool side Air temp reads 88. I don't monitor the ground temp on the cool side (I prob should) but I assume it's probably around 80 or so. Does anybody see any problems with this? Do you think her substrate is heated enough to aid in digestion? Lemme know what you think please.

I wonder if heat mats are any better for heating than the lighting. I tried a heat mat when I first got her, and monitored the temps (around 90 above the mat) but she would always move to the other side.

Thanks

 

[lilroach56]

Those temps sound high. You want the temps to be around 90 on the hot side and 80 on the cool side. Not the air temp being around 100 on the hot side and 90 on the cool side. Your ball won't be able to adequately cool off that way. When using heat lamps the air will almost always be warmer than the ground and when using heat pads the ground will almost always be warmer than the air. Also when using lamps you want to make sure you have a lamp that you can leave on 24/7 instead of just during the day to insure that your snake has night heat also. Heat lamps also dry out the cage a lot and make it harder to hold humidity. I use a heat pad for all my animals and right at the heat pad its about 88-94 depending on how hot the room is and the cool side is about 78-83 depending on how hot the room is. With the heat pad there is one spot of the cage that is hot and then the rest of the cage is cool. Also with the heat pad the humidity doesnt drop as fast. And heat pads use a lot less energy than heat lamps therefore saving you money. But with heat pads you need to watch out for them getting to hot as some heat to over 140 degrees.

With any heating option its best to look at the choices and decide what works best for youl