Hi Curt -



A woma and a new Vision cage? Sounds like a nice situation!



I don’t light my cages or heat my Visions from above with bulbs or ceramic heat emitters. When one burns out in a lower cage, it’s a pain to unstack whatever is sitting above. And I guess on some level (not entirely irrational) I’m afraid of the ultra high temperatures those CHE’S attain. Another option for you to consider would be a small radiant heat panel. I use the ones from Pro Products and am quite satisfied. If your room stays above around 75 degrees (I’d feel safer with 78 degrees), you probably won’t have to add radiant heat from above in addition to belly heat.



If you’re still feeling nervous about Flexwatt, consider the use of a product like Ultratherm heat pads. They are the same as the T-Rex brand but less expensive through The Bean Farm (click here). I don’t know how much of the floor space in that cage your python will occupy, but I like to try to provide a thermal gradient from side to side instead of front to back (assuming a cage has a rectangular footprint, not a square one, of course). So I would lay the heat pad from front to back on one side of the cage if the snake was small enough. That allows for more of a gradient, at least in 4 to 6 foot long cages; it probably matters less in the 3 foot size. Definitely use a controller on all your heat sources. Like Mark, I like the Big Apple proportional thermostat and use a lot of them. Unlike Mark, I don’t place the thermostat’s heat sensor on top of the UTH. I drill a small hole in the side of the cage a few inches above the cage floor (for non-arboreal forms). If I’m heating with a heat panel overhead, I secure the probe at that level with tape outside the cage. If I’m using under cage heat, I can pull the probe in closer to the floor or tape it to the bottom of the cage.



Even though most of my Visions with pythons are heated by overhead heat panels, I vacillate regarding whether it’s better to provide belly heat or radiant heat (or a combination). I’ve heard it said that “heat’s heat”, but I don’t believe it is as simple as that. The main thing to factor in is how cold the ambient will be at the coldest time of the year. Obviously, you don’t want to have to crank the UTH to levels which might burn the python in an attempt to overcome too-cool ambient temperatures.



One last thing not related to heat. I get the impression this is your first Vision cage. So be prepared for the twin devils of the front lips of those cages. The snakes often crap underneath the lower one - hard to see and messy to clean out. And many like to crawl up and across the upper one – and fall down repeatedly with a loud thud. I’ve truly wondered whether or not a few of my snakes have broken ribs as a result.



Have fun.

-Joan

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