My daughter just bought a Western hog nose and will be bringing it home next week. For now she got a exoterra 12x12x12 terrarium until he grows some and then will put him in a 26x14x12 pvc. What kind of heat should we use for this enclosure? They sold us a small zoomed UTH heat pad but the It’s only getting up to 88 degrees surface temp even without me putting the reptile basics thermostat on. Wondering if there’s a better heat solution out there. Our ball pythons us RHP which is what we will go to once in the PVC.
How are you measuring the temperature of the heat mat? Is it with the probe between the mat and glass, or are you measuring at the surface of the substrate? Honestly, UTHs aren’t the best option in those types of enclosures, you might be better off using overhead heating.
Actually @jrdunn8200 the hoggie would be better suited for a 10 or 20 gal long tank to start out with. Hognoses are burrowers more so than arboreal. Not to say your tank isn’t a nice one, but it’s more suited for a crested gecko, etc. With a longer than tall tank it would be a lot easier to heat for the hognose.
This thread was made a while ago by a hognose breeder to help new hognose owners:
I’d like to highlight the following section:
DO NOT place your baby in a large - to - them exposed enclosure , such as a 10 gallon tank. Baby hogs like things very confined and “hidden” to feel secure. We recommend nothing larger than a 5 gallon with at least 3 sides blacked out at first.
Great info. I am just going by my own experiences with baby Hognoses. Before I went with tubs I was a tank keeper. I started one of my babies out in a 10 gallon tank with no sides blacked out and reptile carpet of all things. Two hides and UTH. That baby was my best eater of all times. And that was before I found out how difficult Hognoses can be. Retro huh!
But of course I am not a breeder, just a keeper. Dumb luck? Of course!, especially according to the above information you provided!
A 30cm cube Exo is fine for a hatchling hognose as a grow up cage. I strongly advocate lots of hides and clutter for cover and also cryptic basking.
I also concur with Jess that overhead heating will likely be your best option. A very small, confined spot-type heat bulb would be the best option, something that casts a small footprint that the animal can enter and exit easily but does not overheat the entire cage. Also, do not be afraid if the hottest part of the area is in the 90s to low 100s, hogs seem very well adapted to make quick use of “speed basking”. This is not a recommendation, mind, just an observation to help keep anxiety down if it should happen (and if you are still worried about it you can set the heat on a timer that only comes on for a couple hours in the middle of the day)
We have blacked out 3 of the 4 sides to make him feel more secure. What kind of overhead heat would you reccomwnd. I just don’t want to overheat the enclosure.
@t_h_wyman Would this be a good heat source? They have the nano in 25 watt and 40 watt. Which would be best in a Nano dome? It will be on a ve-300 thermostat.
@caron I will get some pics once we pick him up. I told
My daughter we won’t pick him up until we get his enclosure set up and stable. Same as we did with the Ball Python.
. He is very nice!