UTH or Lamp???

[tHeGiNo]

Linds not saying that UTH are or are not the better way, but I do not think it is fair to say that because all breeders use UTH that makes it the better choice, for the snakes benefit that is. I'm sure you would agree that a good reason why breeders use them is because they are much cheaper to run, much cheaper to buy, they last much longer and take up less space.

[Jeff_Favelle]

I'm sure you would agree that a good reason why breeders use them is because they are much cheaper to run, much cheaper to buy, they last much longer and take up less space.

No. The reason we use them is because they WORK better and there is less of a chance to screw up (TWO PERFECT reasons for NEW people to use them also!). With the dollars involved with some of these morphs, if one method worked better over another method and produced just one more baby per year, believe me, ALL the breeders would switch.

Lights don't work as well with snakes. Period. This was hashed out like 20 years ago. I can't believe the discussion is still going on. It just proves the lack of education and lack of good literature out there. No one person's fault, but sad nonetheless.

[Invictus]

Originally posted by Jeff_Favelle
Lights don't work as well with snakes. Period. This was hashed out like 20 years ago. I can't believe the discussion is still going on.

It was hashed out 20 years ago? Where? Was there a meeting of herp owners held somewhere? Do you have a transcript of this meeting?

It just proves the lack of education and lack of good literature out there. No one person's fault, but sad nonetheless.

I think it proves that herpers are prone to bandwagon jumping. Ie, one respected breeder says lights do this and lights do that, even to the point of attempting to defy basic science because they theorize that something doesn't work. (Prime example: Lights dry out the air... riiiiiiiiight... I'm sure there are geologists, geophysicists, and meteorologists all over the world that would absolutely love to tear you apart for this theory. And by the way, I am a certified geological tech, so maybe it's possible that I know a thing or two about how environmental factors can affect temperature and humidity.)

So then along comes someone else who has another theory, and has PROVEN this theory. Well, since this herper's opinion is not the trendy, popular opinion, his opinion gets trashed by others who have never even tried it.

This is not unlike when Freud was the popular theorist for psychology. Along comes Willhelm Reich, whose theories were not only way different from Freud's, but way BETTER... and he was laughed out of the psychology community because others had already jumped on the Freud bandwagon.

Now I'm not for one second saying that a UTH isn't better - it most certainly is better. But how much better it is negligible at best.

So you want to talk about lack of education and literature? You're right. Pick up a book about how evaporation causes humidity. You'll see it has everything to do with temperature, and nothing to do with whether the heat is coming from above or below the water source. A cage that is heated to 90 degrees on one side with a UTH is just as dry as a cage that is heated to 90 degrees on one side with an overhead. PERIOD. An overhead shining down on a water source, however, will cause WONDERFUL amounts of evaporation and humidity, even right around the heat source itself.

Don't believe me? Stop jumping bandwagons and get some education and some literature, and see for yourself.

Just keep breeding those killer bottom-heated hondos Jeff. I'll keep using overheads to CREATE a humid environment for my herps. Neither of us has any dead or uncomfortable herps as a result of our choice of heating, do we?