Hey all,

Just got my new ball python today and I am SO excited. Obviously I've done a lot of research, and my new baby Kevin is happily at home. I have a few questions, and welcome any advice through the forums here or my e-mail.

My main question right now, is at night. I have a red heat lamp to heat his cage for him, positioned outside his cage on the right side. His hide is on the right side as well, with his water Dish on the left side. Is that ok to have his hide underneath the lamp?

Also, do I ever turn the lamp off? Or should it be on all the time, and just turn off room lights at night/bedtime for him?


Thanks in advance

Daniel

The hide should be ok with the heat lamp on, just make sure to keep an eye on temps to see if it is getting to warm or not. Get a good DIGITAL thermometer and I would even consider putting the heat lamp on a thermostat. That way if it needs to be on it will come on, and you shouldn't have to worry about it otherwise.

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Awesome, Thanks for the info. Are thermostats expensive? Also... the heat lamp should be on at night as well, correct? As long as all other lights are out it's not too much light for them?

I think that the ZooMed 500R (?) runs about $35. I don't know how well it works though, hopefully someone who uses them will chime in, I don't however keep anything that needs the temp control at the moment... If you set the heat lamp up on the thermostat you won't need to worry about when to turn it on or off cause it will take care of that. If it doesn't get to cold in the room you might not even need the heat lamp. I dunno... I will let someone else who knows more about the bps than I do.

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Cool, any and all input is appreciated.

So. I live in a basement in a duplex, which is.. quite literally... a cement basement, lol. It's already pretty humid down there, and generally cooler than the rest of the house, so the heat lamp is going to be going 24/7 I Think.

If I can get a thermostat that will shut off the heat lamp until it gets cool enough that it needs it that would be perfect. Any brands/model advice would be awesome.

P.S. Tips for making the cage homey and fun for the snake? I'll be getting a 30gallon long tank next week.

I have a light and heatmat on during the day and I just have the heatmat on during the night that seems to get the temps just right

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My Herps
2 Leopard Geckos
1 Emperor Scorpion
1 Chille Rose Tarantula
1 Western Hognose
1 Royal Python
3 Corn Snakes
4 Giant African Land Snails
1 Tail-less Whip Scorpion
1 Goliath Birdeating Tarantula (t.blondi)
1 Columbian Rainbow Boa
1 Guyana Pink-toe Tarantula

So assuming I have only a red heat-lamp, should I and/or is it healthy for them to have that lamp on day and night?

(and should it be placed ont he side of the cage with the hide or the side with the water dish?)

How big is the tank?
Whether or not the the heat lamp needs to be on at night depends on the temperature of the room itself. If the temperature in the room doesn't drop below 75 the heat lamp is not necessary to be on at night.

Put the heat lamp on one end of the cage. This will cause it to have both a warm end and a cool end. You should also have another hide on the cool end so the snake doesn't have to chose between correct temperature or security.

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Merlin,
What's Life Without A Little Magic!

Awesome, thanks Merlin, that's what I was looking for. As soon as I get my new larger tank I'll get another hide to put on the other end, and I'll just leave the water dish in the middle.

Again thanks to everyone who's responded so far, I'm so excited about my new snake (Kyle) and am trying to absorb enough information from websites books and people as possible.

That is very good advice, you should have two hide boxes for your ball python. I keep my temperatures for my ball pythons in the summer at 90-95 degrees at the basking spot and the cool end is usually at 82-85 degrees with an ambient room temperature around 85 degrees. My night temperatures in the basking end during the summer are usually 85 degrees with the cool end at 80 degrees. In the winter the basking spot is the same as during the summer but my ambient room temperature is around 80 degrees the temperature for the basking at night is around 82-85 degrees the same as the summer. My ambient room temperature is at 72-75 degrees, this is generally the temperature for the cool end of the enclosures. The only thing that I would recommend along with all of the other good advice that you have gotten from the forum is to get a good Temperature Gun just to make sure that nothing is malfunctioning(Other temp gauges, etc.) this will assure that every temperature in your enclosure is correct. I am a firm believer for the ownership of a temp guns after finding out that some of my enclosures had a 10 degree variance from what was registering on the thermostat and need to be adjusted due to the location of the enclosure. And you can also use the temp gun to see the temperature reading on the body of your ball python as well.