The aim when heating a corn snake enclosure is to make one end of the cage much warmer than the other.
Corn snake heat mat setup.
If your enclosure doesn t have a lifted base the rubber feet included will be useful to create airflow between the heat mat and ground surface.
A range of different heating sources may be used though arguably the best heater for corn snakes is a heat mat.
Tips for corn snake heating.
I used a lucky reptile mat on the underside of the box for her hot basking area.
But for a heat mat any mat stat will be sufficient.
How you heat the cage is not nearly as important as achieving the proper temperatures.
You can also heat the habitat from the ground up using a heat mat tape or pad.
These can be placed under a glass tank or inside a wooden enclosure and provide a gentle background heat.
Choose a high quality heat mat that will cover about 1 4 to 1 3 of the terrarium s floor space.
The heat mat is buried under around an inch of bedding the sensor for the thermostat is then rested on the bedding.
If you are using a wood or melamine terrarium place the heat mat inside the enclosure underneath a thick layer of substrate.
To make sure that the heat mat remains the correct temperature it is controlled by a simple on off thermostat set to 80 o f.
The heat mat will warm objects around it providing a warm patch of ground for the corn snake to rest on.
While she was still in her exo terra plastic box as a young corn snake i used the following setup.
The vivarium setup for my young corn snake.
There are other ways to go about it these are just the most common strategies.
There should be no risk of your snake burning itself on the pad if you re using a thermostat but if.