The Flexwatt will heat the floor, and the snake will rest on the floor to bask. Air temp doesn't matter too much as long as the boa can bask and get its internal temp into the 80s and 90s or more as needed.



There is a boa book out there that has air temps vs body temps of wild boas from various regions in South America. Amazingly it shows that even with air temps of 65 deg, the basking boa IBT was 85 (basking on a gravely substrate). And similarly, with an air temp of 95 deg, a boa showed an IBT of 88 deg. In that case, the boa pressed its body against a tree to cool it in all likleyhood.



I have those cages. I have a spotted python in one using a 28-watt radiant heat panel only, even when the ambient temp in the room was in the 65 range this Winter. I like that setup alot; it is easy to install and easy to control the heating. I prefer this setup because it does not dry out the snake like undertank heating does. Of course there are easy ways to boost humidity with either heating method, or else soak the snake periodically.



For you and the background temp being in the 70s anyway, Flexwatt alone is surely fine.
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Mark

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• Upgrading terrariums; heating? - rantcaseyisgod, Sat Mar 14 17:43:00 2009
• RE: Upgrading terrariums; heating? - markg, Tue Mar 17 15:38:29 2009