hello everyone, i just bought my first snake yesterday, a baby corn snake! i have a bearded dragon and a crested gecko and they both use overhead lamps, so i've never dealt with undertank heaters before. honestly, they kind of make me nervous =/ my corn snake is in a 10 gal tank and i'm using paper towel as substrate...i haven't added the heat pad yet because the directions said not to use paper towel if using the heat pad. however, after doing research and talking to some breeders, paper towel seems like the easiest substrate to use. so, is it safe to use an undertank heater using paper towel as substrate? and how hot do the heatpads get? if not, what kinds of substrate do any of you use thats not hard to maintain? i did research about the different types of substrates to use, i'm just curious of everyone's opinion. any or all replies would be greatly appreciated! thanks! -julia
It is safe to use paper towels with a heat pad, but you always want to use either a thermostat or a dimmer (rheostat) with a heatpad. This prevents it from over heating. Thermostats are available at the petstore or off the internet, they are a little more expensive but you set the temperature and they will maintain it for you (although you always want to double check witha digital thermometer to make sure) Dimmers (Rheostats) are cheaper, you buy them at home depot (a plug in lamp dimmer - in the lighting section) and plug it into the wall, the heat pad plugs into it and then you use the dial to tweak the temps up and down. Again, using a digital thermometer to double check the temps are correct. Heat pads can heat up to over 100 degrees so they should never be used without one of the above devices, this will make the heat pad safe with any substrate :lol: Congrats on your new snake!
Hi, Paper towel is ideal for a baby corn. The pad should cover no more than half of the bottom of tank. It should be controlled by a thermostat, the on/off type will do. The probe from the thermostat should be placed on top of the pad inside tank. You also need a digital thermometer with a probe, this should be placed beside the other probe, they can both be held in place with a small rock, check the temperature which should be around 88F and adjust thermostat to get it right. You also need a small hide on the pad and another at the cool end. A dish of water should be placed at the cool end and changed daily. You can then add logs or rocks for it to climb on or move around. After 6 to 9 months you can use something like aspen shavings but must be fed outside the tank to avoid it ingesting the substrate.
thank you both for your responses! i feel sooo much better about using the heatpad, and i will pick up a dimmer or thermostat tomorrow
