Corn snakes:heat pad and spotlight combo??

Hey,

Ive kept lizards,spiders etc before, but never snakes,i recenlty
purchased a corn however,but during reading up on them and asking my
local pet store for advise, ive heard many conflicting views on a lot
of things i was hoping you guys might be able to clear up for me:

I have a 2 foot tank at the moment as the corn is still young, right
now it has a 40w incadescant bulb at one end,and a heat mat that
covers the whole base of the tank on a thermostat...

nearly every source ive read has recommended heat mats only covering
either 1/3->1/2 of the base of the tank,but the dealer i bought the
snake from recommended me to buy this one that completly covers the
base,in addition to my bulb, is this correct?

i thought i could make this arrangement work,if i set the heat mat to
around 70F across the whole base, but supplmented one end with the
bulb to raise it to somehwere in the 80's? but im not sure ,owuld this
be ok?

also if its not correct,and i need a smaller heat mat should the heat
mat cover the same half of the tank as the bulb,to bring the basking
temp up or should they be on opposite sides?

i'm just thinking along the lines of....if i put them on oppisite
sides,then im not really getting much of temperature gradient, but if
theyre both on the same side,one side might be too cold?

any help will be much appreciated,thanks

"H0dgey84b" <H0DGEY.TakeThisOut@HOTMAIL.COM> wrote in message
news:faf6676.0402221101.47e4e3d9@posting.google.com...
> Hey,
>
> Ive kept lizards,spiders etc before, but never snakes,i recenlty
> purchased a corn however,but during reading up on them and asking my
> local pet store for advise, ive heard many conflicting views on a lot
> of things i was hoping you guys might be able to clear up for me:
>
> I have a 2 foot tank at the moment as the corn is still young, right
> now it has a 40w incadescant bulb at one end,and a heat mat that
> covers the whole base of the tank on a thermostat...
>
> nearly every source ive read has recommended heat mats only covering
> either 1/3->1/2 of the base of the tank,but the dealer i bought the
> snake from recommended me to buy this one that completly covers the
> base,in addition to my bulb, is this correct?

he is WRONG, all animals need a cool end


>
> i thought i could make this arrangement work,if i set the heat mat to
> around 70F across the whole base, but supplmented one end with the
> bulb to raise it to somehwere in the 80's? but im not sure ,owuld this
> be ok?
>
> also if its not correct,and i need a smaller heat mat should the heat
> mat cover the same half of the tank as the bulb,to bring the basking
> temp up or should they be on opposite sides?
>
> i'm just thinking along the lines of....if i put them on oppisite
> sides,then im not really getting much of temperature gradient, but if
> theyre both on the same side,one side might be too cold?
>
> any help will be much appreciated,thanks

Spot light and heat mat same end, nice n warm, let the gradient drop to the
other.

welldone for asking questions, not everyone does.