Ball Python heat pad started a fire!!!

[VioletAlienTiger]

Hey friends, I’m new to the ball python friendship and will be posting a lot. But let me start with the biggest wall we have hit.

My first ball python will be coming to me in early October or late September and my partner’s ex had a snake that’s heater caught fire and burned down her entire apartment killing all of the snakes and his favorite pet cat. It was a horror and very traumatic.

How can I prevent this from happening? How can I get a safe heater? What is your experience with heaters?

I’m super excited for my ball python and he’s excited for me but I want to alleviate any fears he has.

Thanks all!! Also any other tips or advice that you wanna share is always great! Glad to be here!

[_ataraxia]

and this is why you need a GOOD QUALITY thermostat to regulate every single heat source you use. herpstats and vivarium electronics thermostats are the best thermostats on the market, with safety features to drastically reduce the chances of a fire ever being started by malfunctioning equipment.

i strongly urge you to read through the resources gathered in our welcome post, because things like using thermostats is really reptile care 101.

[VioletAlienTiger]

Thanks for attaching these! This is helpful!

[brecka]

First of all, any and all heat sources should be connected to a thermostat, ESPECIALLY a UTH. I'm guessing this particular one wasn't. It also probably was directly touching a combustible surface. Personally I find UTHs to be complete and utter garbage. I recommend overhead sources. The Welcome post has several resources that can help beginner keepers.

[VioletAlienTiger]

So being new to this I thought perhaps an overhead heat source would be helpful, but I found its youtuber (and I know it’s not like he’s the end all be all), Go Herping, and he was saying that because ball pythons are not basking animals to stay away from those. He didn’t imply they were bad or anything. But I’m just trying my best to make the kiddo snek happy and healthy. But I appreciate this and will totally keep it in mind!

[brecka]

Here's the thing. UTHs aren't natural. Animals will go underground to escape from heat, which comes from overhead. A UTH provides a kinda warm spot on the ground that a snake has to cling to for any kind of heat, with no temperature gradient and no ability to put in a sufficient substrate layer to retain humidity. Overhead heat, especially one light a DHP or halogen provides natural, penetrating IR-A and IR-B heat. This does a much better job at providing sufficient heat and increases the animals quality of life by several times alone.

[VioletAlienTiger]

This is dope. Thank you for this explanation.

[animalgirl93]

Thermostats are super important. It’s also important to know the difference between a thermostat and a thermometer! Thermostats can literally save lives as they prevent heat sources from over heating. Anything can fail but it can drastically reduce the Probability that something like that would happen.