Probe Placement

Once you have selected the correct type from your thermostat or have purchased the correct type for your heating source, the next step is to set the heat. For the purposes of this explanation we will use a heat bulb source, but similar theory applies to other types.

Thermostats work a bit like our heating in our house, we are setting the temperature on the thermostat that we would like our heating source to reach. Perhaps the most important thing to understand about heating and thermostats is that there will be a difference in what the thermostat probe measures when placed, and what the actual temperature is where the animal sits on the hotspot.

Generally with a thermostat probe it will be placed at the bottom of the tank near to where the reptile sits, but it is not always possible to pin it exactly where your reptile would get the hottest heat. To explain this simply, I may have set my thermostat to 35°c and my probe may measure this where it is placed, but if I use a thermometer to measure exactly where my pet sits, it actually shows only 30°c.

If my pet needs a hot spot of 35°c but it only actually measures 30°c then that would mean I would need to raise my thermostat by 5°c. Although this may mean my thermostat says its too hot for my animal, the important thing is that the hot spot temperature measures correctly. For future reference, you would then know that your temperature is usually around 5°c lower than what it says on the thermostat screen, and so you could set temperatures accordingly.