Hey,
I just built three cages for my three bloods: 2 females 58 inches long and 10 and 11 pounds, and one male 63 inches long and 13 pounds. The cages are from 5/8 thick melamine board (the chipboard with white surface finish like for snake racks). They are 4' x 2' x 18". About 2/3rd of the back is made from perforated board - the one with 1/4 inch I think holes. I installed a light fixture with a 50 Watt bulb - it keeps the hot end at about 91 - 98 F, depends on how hot it is outside. The cool end in the 80's. Now, I used to keep them in plastic containers with undertank Flexwatt heating tape. It workek fantastic, kept the humnidity at around 50-60 at all times. Now in this new setup the bulbs dry the air really quick, and the humidity drops to 40, and rarely goes over 50. It is too low.
So, my question is - how do you guys handle the heating/humidity issue under control for cages made from melamine boards ? I can't put the Flexwatt directly on the floor in the cage, because of the electric shock hazard. I am thinking about putting the same plastic containers I used to keeep my bloods in in the new cages, cut one end of them open, place the tape underneath, and made some sort of a guard/bracket to hold the containers in place. Then get rid of the heating light bulbs all together, and replace them with fluorescent.
What do you think ? How do you handle this ?
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1.2 - Blood python
1.0 - Central Am. boa constrictor
2.2 - Dumeril's boa
1.2 - Kenyan sand boa
1.0 - Mid-Baja Rosy Boa
2.2 - Irian Jaya carpet python
0.1 - Spotted python
1.1.14 Children's python
2.3 - Ball python
0.1 - Western hognose
0.1 - Sinaloan milksnake
1.1 - Mexican snapping turtle
0.2 - Common snapping turtle
0.0.1- Alligator snaping turtle
0.1 - New Guinea side-necked turtle
