The radiant heat panels you speak are mounted on a ceiling and radiate heat down. They are not heat pads, so forget about those for this application.



The box you have chosen are great for Sinaloans and nelsoni - these boxes give the snakes lots of room, which they will make use of.



OK, now to your question. You will need to make your own lids. You have a few ways to do this. I've done it myself with success. I used 3/4" square pine molding to make a frame around the lip of the cage. I covered that with 1/2" plywood and made a large rectangular cutout. Then I added more molding on the top around the perimeter of the cutout and screwed on screen over the cutout. On the underside of this lid, apply vinyl adhesive shelf paper on the plywood to protect the wood and snake.



The other way was to use pegboard with the white vinyl covering over the frame of 3/4" square molding. On the unfinished side of the pegboard, cover it with vinyl adhesive shelf paper and poke through the holes with an awl or pencil.



To keep the lid on, you need to attach some type of locking device. I simply use screen locks that pivot on a screw and swing under the lip of the box. You'll need at least 4 - one per corner.



Heating: I would try a heat pad under each shelf. This should warm the metal and transfer to the box resting above. Not a heat pad under the box on top of the shelf, but under the shelf out of sight so the box doesn't rest on it. I'm assuming metal shelves here. Or are there no shelves and just slider rails?



Once you have the heat pads on there, use the Helix to control the temp. Good heat pads are Exo-Terra type, but any would work here. Use aluminum tape to stick the heat pads on, this way they are easily removed if necessary. I would use the 8x8 size or maybe the 11x11 size depending on how warm/cool the room is.
-----
Mark

[ Show Entire Thread ]