Heat cable IN enclosure

[jossh27]

Hey guys, I'm picking up a/some Amazon tree boas within the next couple months and i want to keep them in a tub set up until a bit bigger to move into a display style enclosure with a rhp. Is it safe to use heat cable directly in the tub if its hooked up to s good thermostat?
I don't want to use heat lamps or che's and rhp's are too big for a tub

[akane]

I put mine under a thin natural stone tile from the hardware store when I had to set it inside. Then nothing could directly touch it.

[trailblazer295]

I would use some sort of tile or stone to cover the cable to prevent direct contact and more even heat distribution. Then you can put your substrate on that. The stone tile will transfer heat better then plastic anyway.

[chairman]

I have heat cable wrapped around a branch to create a heated spot on a perch for my carpet pythons. They use it fairly regularly, especially after meals. But you do need another heat source, the cable doesn't heat the cage (it may bump temps a couple degrees).

[jossh27]

Akane and TB- i can't put it under substrate as the snakes ate arboreal. I want to give them a hot spot off the ground.
Chairman- would the cable not act the same as heat tape? Its intended use it the same. And ambient temps would be appropriate

[chairman]

I've never kept ATBs so I'm not familiar with their husbandry requirements. Most snakes need ambient temperatures in their cages to vary about 10 degrees from the hot side to the cool side. Heat cable doesn't have enough surface area to provide that kind of gradient in most cages. Hence a need for an additional heat source above and beyond the cable.

Typically, the cables are only good for raising humidity (bury a cable deep in moist substrate) or to create additional basking spot opportunities off the floor (and without lamps).

[jossh27]

Neither does heat tape, but we use it right? I keep the entire room set to the lower temperature and use heat tape for belly heat on the hot side.