Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi

I have a vision cage (28"W x 24"D x 12"H ) and wanted to put a cobra UTH under one side. I know plastic can be delicate and after reading sites was thinking of using sheet of tinfoil between the cage and the heatpad.
The heat pad runs a steady 100 degrees and I was planing on just leaving it as is but not sure if to hot for the plastic.
I use them in my tanks and they do great snakes alternate between that and cool areas and with substrate warm to touch but not hot but again not sure if to hot for pvc cage. I can use a dimmer if you think to hot for plastic.
flex watt and things I have to put together are out of the question lol .
Any input you might have would be great and lots help.

Thank you

You will need a thermostat no matter what you heating element may be.. You can order elements and thermostats prewired
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www.MGReptiles.com
Professional Reptile Heating Supplies

Posted by: justcage at Mon Apr 24 20:43:57 2006 [ Report Abuse ] [ Email Message ]

You will need a thermostat no matter what you heating element may be.. You can order elements and thermostats prewired
-----

www.MGReptiles.com
Professional Reptile Heating Supplies

I had intended to use just a dimmer not a thermostat as was going to set the temp rooughly around 90 degrees and since the enclosure is big enough for the snake thought that a warm area and cool area on other end were fine .

In many applications a dimmer is fine. I kept my snakes for years in a rack system with heat cable running under plastic boxes and the heat was controlled with only a dimmer. One thing to keep in mind, however, is how stable the temps in your room are. When using a dimmer, as your room heats up and cools down so will your heat source and, therefore, your cages. Dimmers work best in a room with a pretty stable temperature. The temperature in the room I keep my animals in now fluctuates by about 10 - 15 degrees per day so I switched to a thermostat for better control of temperaturs in the cages. Ultimately, you have to decide based on your situation but dimmers can work very well in the right situtation. I hope this is helpful (and not too confusing).

Rob

Yes that makes sense. I use a thermometer in my tanks on cool side and warm side and lower the UTH if temps to warm.
So going to do same with this plastic cage. Do you think using a sheet of tinfoil between the UTH and the cage is a good idea so it doesnt melt the plastic?

I have never used a plastic cage before only glass tanks.

Thanks

It would seem to me that if your heating element got hot enough to melt the plastic, your snake would be in real trouble. In my set up, I use herpcages.com cages which have a recess in the bottom for heat pads. I place my heat pads directly on the shelf and then place the cage over them. This leaves a small amount of airspace between the cage and the mat. Between that space, and the thermostat, I have no concerns about melting the plastic. I hope this is helpful.

Rob

Posted by: Rob Lewis at Fri Apr 28 17:47:03 2006 [ Report Abuse ] [ Email Message ]

It would seem to me that if your heating element got hot enough to melt the plastic, your snake would be in real trouble. In my set up, I use herpcages.com cages which have a recess in the bottom for heat pads. I place my heat pads directly on the shelf and then place the cage over them. This leaves a small amount of airspace between the cage and the mat. Between that space, and the thermostat, I have no concerns about melting the plastic. I hope this is helpful.

Rob

Okay thanks. I looked into herpcages long time ago but they didnt have 30 inches by 12 and 12 so didnt buy from them but they look nice.
So you prefer to leave a slight space between the plastic and the heat pad. I can do that with a penny , etc placed on each corner of cage to raise it .
The snake isnt in the cage yet as I ordered the cobra heat pad and that should be here by Mon . Going to try that and see how it works sounds like good idea.
Thank you

Juile