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Fluctuating Temperature

335 views 2 replies 2 participants last post by  Mr X 
#1 ·
Hi, I am new to snake keeping and fairly new to this forum so if I have posted this in the wrong place then please accept my apologies, but I thought this advice might help some of you in some way.

I decided to get a corn snake but ended up with 5, all in separate vivs. 2 x 24" for Sashay and Kavorta (this summer's babies), 1 x 48" for Coco who is about three and these 3 vivs I bought new then I got 2 x 36" that I bought when I bought Misty and Max who I was told are about 4 which were their original vivs.

Having set the vivs up I found that using heat mats the temperature wasn't too stable so I set about an idea of how to control it better and this is what I came up with.

1. I got a polystyrene box lid that my frozen mice came in, placed it upside down and put the heat mat in it, checked where all the cables would go and carved out indentations for them and the annoying knobbly plastic bits that all heat mats seem to have so that everything sits nice and flat.
2. Got a slightly larger plastic Ice Box Cooler and put it on top of the heat mat, the mat heats the water in it up so it is like a hot water bottle. I placed the Habstat sensor on top of that in one of the little grooves that is in it.
3. Drilled a hole in the back of the viv for the little thermometer to poke through.
4. Placed the wooden hide (wine box) on top of the ice pack, checked where the thermometer touched it and drilled a hole in the wooden box and pushed it snugly to the back of the viv it and that was it.

It makes cleaning very easy as you just pull it all out to clean it and reassembly only takes a minute or so. This gives them a nice warm hide to sleep in if they want to and a warm basking area beside it where there is a slight overlap.

I will add that Misty and Max have an infra red light above each of their hides and that is on a separate Habstat and I used polystyrene simply because it would eliminate any heat transfer from the lower viv into the upper one. Because the two vivs are the same size and the heat mats are identical in both size and wattage I run both vivs off the one Habstat controller and the infra red lights are run off a second controller, because the temperature is so stable in their hides the infra red lights come on very rarely, probably only when I open the vivs to do anything.

I have some pictures of my vivs, my snakes and the hot water heating method here.

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/lcsv6q8cpkv3j05/P3P1cZWnBu

I hope it helps solve some of the problems that any of you might have regarding temperature fluctuations and there are also some in my albums. The video of Misty shedding is a bit juddery but she caught me unawares so I had to hold the camera and I got handshake and I would have cleared some of the obstacles out of there for a better view had I had the time! I do plan to make both Misty and Max new 60" vivs but that is going to have to wait till spring, I have already designed them but it is just a case of getting the cash together for them.

Misty spends most of her day sleeping on the shelf I put in her viv right in the open, she is happy to come out onto my hands and arms when I open here viv. She is probably the most placid of them all and seems to be bonding with me nicely. When I lie on the floor to watch telly she always seems to be looking in my direction, of course I don't know if she is asleep or not but it looks like she is watching me anyway.

Max spends most of his time sleeping, alternating from hide to hide poking his head out every now and again just to see what is going on but he is a grumpy draws and only ever tries to escape behind just about anything when I get him out.

Coco sleeps a lot and tries to hide most of the time but uses all of her hides and the shelf I put into here viv, her shelf is heated using the hot water bottle method too. She comes out under protest and just tries to get back into her viv when I get her out by stretching out as far as her body will in order to get back there so she doesn't stay out long at all, hopefully she will get used to it and calm down a bit.

Sashay and Kavorta are both still a bit skittish when they are in the viv and although they are inquisitive enough to poke their heads out to see what is going on they are not brave enough to come to me voluntarily and will only wriggle to get back in their vivs when I get them out but they are young so that will change I hope.
 
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#2 ·
Seems a lot of work for a corn, Corns are very hardy snakes, fluctuations here and there won't hurt them anyway.

Are you using a mat stat for the mats?
Would have been easier to just swap it for a pulse stat, they keep temps spot on.

Good luck with it and keep us updated, different methods are interesting to see.
 
#3 ·
LOL well I like to do things to the letter so I try to do as well as possible, Yes I am using mat stats for them. As far as the 3 ft vivs are concerned, the mats are on a normal stat and the infra reds are on a dimmer stat, the other vivs are on stats too.

I hope to learn as I go along about all the different types of equipment and of course where I can get it as certain stores aren't particularly helpful or well stocked.
 
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