Reptile & Amphibian Forums

You just need to understand how to use them. As with all tools.

Its kinda like refusing to take off the training wheels because you will fall over.(bicycle analogy)

Learning to use hot rocks is only a little past beginer stage. It takes a tiny bit of reptile understanding to use them. Not much, just a little.

Saying that hot rocks are no good, is actually telling me, that you have little understanding of reptiles. Cheers

...i agree and i have always used hot rocks and have never lost an animal to them wether it was a snake or lizard...
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0.1 c.b.97' 9' 60 lb. common boa "scarlet"
1.0 c.b.02' 6' 15 lb. "hi pink" common boa "maverick"
0.1 c.b.06' 17" firebelly x pastel boa "betty boa"
1.0 c.b. 06' 15" ball python "bart"(i finally got one that eats lol)
?.? 2 savannah monitors:3'"ozzy" 2'"uggy"
1.0 everglades x yellow ratsnake c.b. 04' 4' "pooh"
1.0 c.b.06' redear slider "dweezil"
1.0 c.b.04' emorys ratsnake "zeus"

"...does it bite?"

Many hot rocks have a burning spot to them, these are totally useless and dangerous, some of the new models seem to heat evenly and don’t get dangerously hot.

I haven’t tested any in years, perhaps readers can inform us on witch models work good?
And if they use dimmers with them?

I think they are generally safe if ambient cage temps are ok. Just as with a heat lamp, if the cage is 50*F and you have a tiny 210*F basking spot the animal can get scorched on a little patch on it's back before it realizes this. If you bury a hot rock in dirt it gets a little hotter. If you have a cold-ass cage and a small hot rock that temp guns at over 200*F there is a risk, but under normal cage conditions they are fine if they are functioning well. When they break, they just dont get hot anymore. Just use a temp gun to check everything before adding animals to the caging.

When I was researching hot rocks(not for use, but to build) we found at least one brand that used heat cords, not tape. If during construction one part of the coil overlaped another, it would create a tremendous amount of heat.

At that time we would buy them and break them up and see how they were made.

Also some have very poor quality cords. When I was researching them we found no brand was UL listed, the better ones had cords that were UL listed. So they advertised being UL listed.

Anyway, we only found one brand that had these hot spots. Far worse then causing minor burms, they can burn your house down. But like with anything, do not buy something because its very cheap.

I ended up using hundreds of Human heat pads. They worked great and are UL listed. Cheers

There are new heat pads that works really well, many size available, I have some from Hagen and Zoomed and they seem quit reliable and safe.

I use mine so that lizards can go under or above them if they wish.
rgds

I use my hot rocks with a dimer... it works really well and wot get too hot... I also use a tempgun to meassure the temp...

Rick