Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I acquired several model 221's (28"x22"x12) a while back and was looking for heating and lighting ideas...these don't have the fluorescent vent and are quite dark inside so I installed bulb fixtures off to one side (ceiling) thinking I could use a low wattage red or blue heat bulb to both heat and light them...but now I have second thoughts since even a 25w red bulb gets pretty hot and they're so low it could easily burn a climbing snake. So I could either build some kind of bulb cage around the fixtures and go with my red heat bulb idea (would make it a pain to change bulbs and probably would not provide enough light) or use the lowest possible wattage compact fluorescent bulbs and put them on a timer so they are on daylight hours. So that brings me to the second part of the question...

What are you guys using to heat smaller visions...I assume flexwatt or one of the pre-made heat pad/tapes(such as Cobra or Exo-Terra)? Are you using aluminium tape to tape it to the bottom? And for anybody else who has put light fixtures in a vision-type cage, are you still stacking them one on top of the other with all the weight resting on the electrical cords...or are you using some type of spacer or a rack? What about with heat tape/pads, is it ok to have that much weight on them (sandwiched between the visions) Any help is appreciated...

Give us a call.

Those exo terra heat pads work great and almost any other heat pad will also work well.

Thanks, will do n/p

I have 4 Vision 221s. To light them, I drilled two 1/2" holes in the back and ran lengths of rope light through them, making a U around the roof of the cage (using the front overhead lip to run the rope light in the front). I hot glued the plastic clips that came with the rope light to the cage (though the hot glue eventually came off - didn't adhere well to the cage, silicone would probably work better). The rope lights get warm, but not too hot, so they help heat the cage.

I also used adhesive Exoterra (11x17 I believe) undertank heat pads underneath, seems to work well (keeps an ambient temp of 82 with a 95 hot spot where the pad is).

There are small fluorescent fixtures that do not get hot that you could use (slimline), though you might have to drill a large hole to run the plug end through and then block it back up with something.
-----
Lauren Madar
www.ophidiagems.com
1.1 Hog Island Boas
1.1 Hypo BCI
0.1 Sorong-type GTP
1.0 Normal Ball Python
1.1 Surinam BCC

I've seen those at Lowe's I think but I thought they ran on some kind of weird low voltage...or can you just plug them in to an A/C outlet? It seems like a good idea like you said the only difficulty might be to fix them to the top of the vision so the snakes can't pull them down by climbing on them...

Also are you stacking yours one on top of the other with the exo-terra heat pad in between them? Are you using a thermostat or rheostat with those or can you run them full power? Thanks, Robert

The rope lights come with a regular house plug, no transformer or anything. They get warm (not very hot), so they help heat the cage a little when they are on (I had mine on a timer).

I had my Visions stacked 4 high (I moved them now and have them stacked 2 high side by side). I had all the heat pads on a thermostat just in case (since the top of one cage would get more heat from the heat pad of the cage above it). You just have to be careful how you put the heat pad on - I used the 11x17 Exoterras, I put them on the center portion of the cage towards the back (I do not like those ribs on the bottom, but the 11x17 pad fits pretty well between the ribs). Just make sure that the little connection block (where the power cord attaches to the flat part of the heat pad) isn't completely under the cage, so that it won't interfere with stacking. Dry fit it a few times until you see what I mean before you stick the pad on.

Most rope lights come with little plastic clips. Like I said, hot glue doesn't stick well to Vision plastic, so either try superglue, or E6000 (an industrial glue), or silicone and let it set up for a while so the fumes don't make your snakes sick. The ropelight I bought came with little tiewraps, too. I used two long strands of rope lights to light 4 cages - one strand per two cages (I threaded it in one side of one cage and out the other side, then up to the next cage), so each cage had 2 half-inch holes in the top back.

For attaching the ropelight to the ceiling, you can also try using tiewraps - each tiewrap location would need two small holes drilled in the ceiling of the cage. you thread the tiewrap through the two holes, and tiewrap the ropelight onto the ceiling. Let me know if this doesn't make sense - I did this on another cage of mine. That way, you don't need to glue anything onto the cage.
-----
Lauren Madar
www.ophidiagems.com
1.1 Hog Island Boas
1.1 Hypo BCI
0.1 Sorong-type GTP
1.0 Normal Ball Python
1.1 Surinam BCC

../