| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| LynneM_212 |
Posted - 04/03/2011 : 16:28:31
I have a thermostat on the way...
With the heat right, the the moment shes in her faun with a heat mat under 1 3rd of her faun aspen in the bottom, one hide the cold side one hide the warm side, a bowl of water on the cold side, thats all thats inside.... the thermometer end lays above the substrate on the warm side.... at the moment... i have her in a wardrobe ok ... that sounds awful haha...
I used it as a dressing table before... no doors on..... empty basically like a table, shes next to my windows and radiator but thats the only place she can be ..... the windows are always shut ... even though i die of heat in the night, because i dont want her to get to cold !! but still she is always always in her cold side whether the temp is 24 or 30 :S
Hope this helps a bit !!! :S
I thought it was just normal for her to be in the cold side, she doesnt seem stressed or anything, is putting on weight slowly ... she has gone from 24 - 25 - 25 - 26 and a half - 28 .... shes passing food through ok, excepting food really well :S, so im confused to what this means :S
hope you can help louise!! :) |
| 3 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| hillzi |
Posted - 04/03/2011 : 20:25:54
If I were you, turn the mat of until you have a thermostat. Snakey will be just fine.
The hot end needs to be about 28/30*C, calibrate this with a digital thermometer, it may take a few hours/overnight to settle.
and the cool end temps, just room temperature, around 20*C. |
| lotabob |
Posted - 04/03/2011 : 20:13:18
At the moment you have (only a guess but almost certainly correct) a mat running about 30-40 degrees which you have insulated to throw the heat upwards. No stat so no control on just how hot the mat is getting. A digital thermometer reading the air temp as its sat on top of the substrate.
The reason your temps are showing as they are is the surface area of the probe in contact with the substrate is tiny compared to the surface area of it exposed to room temperature so it appears lower than it actually is. Your snake's belly is good and flat mainly to aid motion but also to increase the surface area of the part of the snake absorbing heat. Your snake will absorb a lot more of the heat than the probes will ever pick up if they are incorrectly positioned.
Probes need to be as close to the mat as the snake could ever get to, and covered with a layer of substrate to remove the air temp messing with the reading.
As its a faun I would attach the stat probe (which you really need to get ASAP) on the mat for even greater accuracy & put the thermometer probe on the very bottom of the faun covered in a thin layer of substrate. |
| Invalid User |
Posted - 04/03/2011 : 16:43:55
First line says it all.
You really should have had a thermostat from day one. You were advised in your thread on the 13th of feb to get a thermostat asap yet you still have not got one? Running a mat without one is dangerous.
Lately the advice seems to be if you don't have a stat you turn the heatmat off, put the faun in a warm room and don't feed snakey until you have a stat.
How thick is the aspen at the warm end? There should only be a thin layer over the mat, almost a sprinkling. The temp probe should be touching the bottom on the faun directly over the heat mat. This is the hottest place your snake can get to so temps must be taken from here. I'm guessing your mat is much higher than your thermometer is reading. Most unstatted mats reach very very high temps quickly.
Remove the bubble wrap, position the therm probe correctly and watch the readings. You may well be shocked!
Come back and let us know. If it gets higher than 30c which I think it will then turn it off. |
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