heating question

[oscar]

i am going to build my enclosures for my new king and gopher snakes and have figured it to be stacked. nothing different there and there's alot of good information around about how to do that, but i a little unclear as how to heat it best. i am going to use shower enclosure board for the floor and the back with appropiate framing to keep it from sagging and seperating. since its rather thin i was wondering how i should heat the enclosure. each one will be approximately 36"L x 18"D x 15"H. the options i have come up with are human heating pads, heat tape, or a heat lamp.. or a combination of the above. these are my first snakes so i dont know the best way to heat them. also, i should get some sort of rheostat/thermostat too, correct?

i accidently posted this is the other forum and asked a mod to move.... but for some reason it wasnt.. so i reposted it here. sorry.

[munchy]

heat tape or a heat mat combined with a low watt bulb during the day would be a pretty good setup. just make sure you use a rheostat of some sort to adjust the temps. also if youre using heat tape or a heat pad, put some kind of small spacers between each enclosure if youre stacking them.

[oscar]

ok, out of the two, which are better: heat tape or UTH? what about heating rope? i've been hearing some good stuff about that lately at KS. has anyone have experience in that? i do feel comfortable with the wiring of the heat tape so that isnt a problem either.

[rwg]

UTH is easier...stick and plug in through a rheostat. Tape is cheaper, can be used over any sized area, but requires wiring. I find 11X17 heat pads are just big enough for my 3X2 cages. Any bigger and I'd go with tape. Dont know anything about rope.