How to Use a 50-Gallon Heat Pad for Snakes

Snakes are immensely popular pets, whether tiny garter snakes good for beginners or large boa constrictors often raised by expert keepers. However, snakes are relatively delicate creatures that require special care. Being exothermic creatures, snakes are unable to regulate their internal body temperature without the use of outside sources like the sun or warm rocks. Heat lamps are welcome additions to a snake's tank, and undertank heating pads have become very popular in the pet trade for their convenience and quality.

Things You'll Need

  • Heating pad
  • 4 checkers
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Instructions

    • 1

      Tilt the snake's tank away from you by about 45 degrees, allowing you easy access to the underside.

    • 2

      Strip the adhesive backing off of the heating pad.

    • 3

      Place the sticky side of the pad to one side of the bottom of the tank and press it against the glass securely. This side of the tank will be the snake's "warm side," where it can heat up its body. The other side will be the cool side.

    • 4

      Place a checker at each corner of the bottom of the tank, raising it a few centimeters above level, so that the heat produced by the pad can vent and not crack the glass.

    • 5

      Plug the heating pad into a power outlet, it should gradually begin to warm up.