Great news everyone!

[gregmonsta]

Scientifically 'bottom heat' is much more important. Especially for digestion and for gravid females.

[EasternGirl]

Well, I have a 25 watt basking spot lamp on one side of the cage...and a heating pad on low with a towel in-between the pad and the cage on the other side. Like I said before, it's a human heating pad...and I know that is not ideal, but because his cage is plastic, I can't use the reptile tank heating pads. His cage is very large...he has plenty of room...I just can't afford to buy a big tank right now and every other cage I tried for him, he almost escaped from. He seems to like the set up I have for him...he often burrows on the heating pad side of the cage, and basks in the light on the other side of the cage. I did buy a stick-on thermometer, and put it in the middle of the cage....it seems to stay around 80 degrees.

On a different subject....Bibur is a fraidy-cat snake. I reach into the cage to check on him...he is always burrowed down in his bedding...I pet him and he freaks out and slithers all over the cage and then hides from me.

[ConcinusMan]

I do use a combination for my babies and leave the bottom heat on at night. I do still have a few and they are growing like weeds. But I dont use a reptile heat pad. I just don't see the point in buying (overpriced to begin with) something that gets too hot and then paying extra for a thermostat. I use a seedling heat mat and it's soooo much better and doesn't require a thermostat since it doesn't get too hot, and on top of that, it's thinner, cheaper, and bigger. I used it to heat several plastic shoe box tubs containing babies and it worked perfectly, and safely. I highly recommend giving these a try. You won't be disappointed. They come in a variety of sizes. I bought one that's big enough to heat the entire bottom of a 20 gallon long. No thermostat needed and it was only $30 at garden store.

Hydrofarm Seedling Heat Mat - 9L x 19.5W Inches - HDR001

Scientifically 'bottom heat' is much more important. Especially for digestion and for gravid females.

I disagree. I suppose if it was regulated it couldn't hurt but a gravid female will sit on that thing and cook her babies. I think what's more important for digestion and gravid females is that they can get their body temperature up to ideal. That can be accomplished with top heat alone and is less likely to "cook" the babies.

[guidofatherof5]

I think the snakes know how much heat is too much, in the same way they thermo regulate their own temps.
I've always used bottom heat without any known problems with gravid snakes.
I don't mean to imply that too much heat doesn't happen but it may be that an inexperienced female may get too much heat from top or bottom heat.
This may be one of those issues that boils down to personal preference.

[ConcinusMan]

I think the snakes know how much heat is too much, in the same way they thermo regulate their own temps.

I don't think so. Snakes sit on surfaces that are too hot and burn themselves all the time. I think this happens when the air is very cool, their body temperature is low, and the surface is hot enough to burn them. They really are quite stupid when it comes to this and don't seem to have enough sense to move and so they get burned. Of course they will move when their body temperature gets high, but they can get burned long before that happens.

[guidofatherof5]

Never having anything like that happen I can't say then. I may have spoken out of turn.

It was just my opinion from observations of my radixes.

[gregmonsta]

Scientifically 'bottom heat' is much more important. Especially for digestion and for gravid females.

I'm going to repeat this .... simply because there are multiple, scientific sources to report this .... not once was there any mention of cooked babies. Considering that if your heat source is statted (between 28-32C) cooking babies in this way is nigh on impossible if you accept 45C as the average/approaching lethal excess of colubrid snakes.

Edit - also, female garters are reported to be nothing but exact when they are gravid .... keeping their core temp at 28C with great accuracy.

[kibakiba]

My friend had a rescued Python that was burnt all over it's body because of a heating pad. If they knew when to get off of the heat, it wouldn't have gotten burnt. It as supposedly at the temperature it was supposed to be for that snake, but it fell asleep and got burnt. Unfortunately for my friend the snake had died a couple months after she had rescued it. But I also don't have much knowledge of snakes. Especially non-garter snakes.

[ConcinusMan]

It does happen a lot. I still think that is because the ambient air temperature is too cold and the surface they are sitting on is too hot. As Steve was saying, he hasn't had any problems with belly heat. I'm sure the air temperature in his enclosures is pretty comfortable for them and the surface is not too hot.

Marnie, just be sure that they can't touch a surface that is too hot. Also make sure your belly heat is on one end, no more than 1/3 of the enclosure and the air temperature on the cool end is at least 70 during the day.

[EasternGirl]

I see I started a controversy here....lol. The heating pad that I use is always set on low and only takes up about a quarter of the cage on one side...I put a towel between the pad and the cage. I check it often and if I feel that the bottom of the cage is too warm, I shut it off. It also shuts off automatically after about ten minutes. It does make me nervous, though...perhaps I will try the seedling pad. Thanks again for all of the posts.

Bibur's newest thing is to refuse to eat his worms if anyone is looking. I have to cover one end of his cage with a towel, and then he sneaks out and snatches the worms and takes them into his little cave!