heating.....

Lindze · 10-01-04, 03:47 PM

I was just wondering if i was to build an encloser how would i heat it? The enclosuer would be made of wood, and have sliding front doors. Could i use a human heating pad, or any other ideas? It would be for Kings... just curious as i may be making some for mine.

hooter · 10-01-04, 05:44 PM

Heat Tape!

MouseKilla · 10-02-04, 08:35 AM

A human heat pad will work well and the best part is that you won't have to order it as you likely would have to if you wanted to use heat tape, just go to the drugstore or canadian tire. They only cost about $20 bucks and come ready to plug in and use right away. No matter which you use though just make sure you test the hotspot temps before you stick the snake in there.

To adjust the temps for a human pad you can either build or buy a dimmer for it or use the existing controls on the pad combined with the use of spacers that you can use to raise or lower the enclosure. The spacers allow you to sort of fine tune the temps beyond what you can with just HI/MED/LOW.

Some people are pretty dogmatic about the dimmer thing but I can tell you that you can do equally well without one as long as you are able to adjust that air space between the bottom of the cage and the surface of the pad.

hooter · 10-02-04, 12:34 PM

human heat pads would work good but the only problem with them is they are not as thin as heat tape thus possibly tilting the cage or causing damage to the heat pad itself.

Heat tape would be the better choice because its very thin and would fit under a cage better. I use tubs with heat pads for all my reptiles with no problems at all but if I were to buy some snake cages I would use heat tape because its thin and will fit under the cage much better than a bulky heat pad

MouseKilla · 10-02-04, 07:01 PM

Yes, heat tape is thinner than a heating pad, hence why I mentioned SPACERS. A chunk of 2 x 4 under each end of the cage will do the trick.

Only an idiot would drop a big wooden cage directly on top of one anyway. Even if you use heat tape instead it's a good idea to have a space in between the bottom of the cage and whatever it is resting on to keep the weight of the enclosure off the tape itself. It's no big deal to put a plastic tub right on top of it but if you're talking about a big, heavy wooden thing it's only common sense to keep the weight off whatever heat source you have.

Heat tape is wonderful stuff, there's no denying that it's a great product, however it is far more expensive particularly when you cannot get it locally. When I can pick it up at canadian tire I'll be all over the stuff but until then I will use human heat pads instead whenever practical.

Lindze · 10-03-04, 03:05 PM

Thanks for the advice, its all very helpful. It gives me ideas of options that i have.

hooter · 10-03-04, 09:19 PM

Just thought I would point out that although Heat Tape may cost you a bit more you will certainly make up for in the long run. Heat Tape is A LOT lower in wattage thus cutting your electric bill in half if you have a lot of cages.