A bigger cage will have a cooler end if the heating pad is on the warm end. There will be a temperature gradient from artificially warm to the coolest side of the cool end. Bigger cages allow the cool end to be near room temperature, smaller cages don't.



It's thermodynamics - heat (random kinetic energy of individual molecules) flows from warm to cool. It will flow to the coolest part of the tank and warm it, continually adding heat to it until it is in balance (temperature flowing to it from warm side equal to temperature lost due to convection, black body radiation, and conduction with whatever the cage is sitting on). The larger the cage, the less thermal energy reaches the cool end and the lower the equilibrium temperature.
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x.y L. getula nigrita (MBK)

x.y L. getula floridana (Brooksi)

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0.1 Heterodon nasicus (W Hognose)

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