Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I am thinking of purchasing some boaphile cages with the optional radiant heat panels. For those who have them what do you think? Pros and cons?
How about the basic heat mat option. Do they produce enough heat? Are they easily replaced?

Thanks,
Dan

Personaly I think they get too hot if you don't have a good thermostat and of course you have to place the probe in the correct spot. With my digital thermometer I clocked mine at over 110 degrees just letting it run so you have to be careful. I went overboard when I bought my boaphile, I purchased the radiant heat panel and the under cage heat for a 421D. I don't use the heat panel because the under cage heat works just fine. Just my 2 cents.

use only the single heat option in the 421D. My house is 70 degrees year round, and the heat is set on a proportional thermostat to 90. This leaves a large gradient for my boas, and I haven't had problems with it.

Make sure you get a good thermostat, I recommend Helix DBS1000 or Herpstat digital proportional.

I just got my stack of cages from Jeff and was wondering the same thing. I got the under cage heat and keep my room in the mid to upper 70's in the day and a little cooler at night. I was worried that they may get too hot and was considering setting up a thermostat but didn't know how that would work. Do you put a thermostat in every cage or just plugged into the wall or what? How do you set it up so that each cage is receiving the desired benefit from the thermostat? The only thermostats I have used are waffer types and thet are much different from what you would need to use for this. So please expand on the how to of using a thermostat to regulate the temps. of cages using under tank heat. Pictures of the design and set up would be very helpful. Thanks

I run one stack of boaphiles per thermostat. Main reason is different requirements for the two different stacks - different species involved.

I am using Helix thermostat, I place the probe between two cages directly underneatht the heat panel, that way you are running the thermostat directly on the heat source. You will have to play with it a bit to get the cage temps you want, the thermostat will be set higher than the desired cage temps by a few degrees.
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Thanks,

Dave "Rainbows-R-Us"

0.1 Wife (WC)
0.2 kids (CBB)
4.12 Brazilian Rainbow Boa
2.1 Hypomelanistic BRB
0.1 Het for Hypomelanistic BRB
0.1 BCI "Elvira" normal from 1989
1.0 BCI albino / het-anery
0.1 BCI Hypo / het-albino
0.1 BCI Anery / het-albino
0.1 BCI Hypo (possible super)
1.0 BCI albino het stripe
1.0 BCI salmon hypo
0.1 BCI ghost

lots.lots.lots feeder mice and rats

As Dave, rainbows-r-us, said you can hook the entire stack to one thermostat.

I however like to use a seperate thermostat for EVERY cage. I figure, if one fails, I only have the problem in one cage vs. the entire group.
Also, it is easier to maintain the best gradient this way.
I know a lot of people who put one thermostat per row of cages, so that they are all on the same heat level. I do not like useing one per column because heat rises.

I just plug the thermostat into the wall, plug the flex-watt into the thermostat and tape the probe onto the floor of the cage centered on the heat (and put the substrate on top).

I am going to get some boaphiles in the near future and I want to use the Helix DBS1000 Thermostat with them. In your opinion, how many 421D's can one DBS1000 handle safely? This is assuming the 1.5X heating option. Thanks for your help Chris.

Jason Gonzalez

you will have to check with Jeff to see how many watts of heat are in each cage.
The DBS-1000 is rated to 1500 watts I believe. You could put a stack of five on one thermostat without overload.

I however use one thermostat per cage, it is a lot more expensive, but I like how it works. So, I can not really help you with putting multiple cages on one thermostat. Read my other post for some more info.

Hope this helps.

here is a tip that is a bit off the subject. To keep the ambient temp. the same from the top cages to the bottom I use a fan in the middle of the room pointed at the ceiling. Before I did this there was about an 8 degree difference in ambient temp. from the ceiling cage to the floor cage. I'm sure a ceiling fan would work too, just use the lowest setting on your fan that will get the ambient temp equalized. I had to set my fan on Med. to get adequate air/temp. circulation. Then of course a hot spot is added to each cage.
I'm not sure how other snake owners with a "snake room" maintain their humidity, but I have a "Vicks" brand humidifier.. Well actually it's one of those cheap things that help people w/ decongestant or sinus problems breath better. I then attached it to a timer. I can run in on and off in 15 min increments with the timer, and about once a month depending on the time of year i'll adjust times that humidity is added to the room.

chris