Reptile & Amphibian Forums

This last weekend I got around to replacing the heating system in my Oak BRB breeding cages. I already had ordered and received the new parts, RHP's for each section and Herpstat Pro T-stats to control them. Each "stack" consists of 8 cage sections in a 2 wide X 4 high config. Since the T-stats have 4 channels, I divided the stack into 4 pairs of left/right cages. The right cage got the t-stat probe and both were powered equally.

WOW, I had read that RHP's were the way to go but never had any. WOW They are working great. with the seperate T-stat channels for each vertical pair, they are all being controlled to very precise temps. Along with a built in night drop feature I am now able to dial in just about any temp I want.

The ambient temps in my snakeroom had been running a bit high for winter cooling on my BRB's. I did a few things to fix. I turned off an entire stack of boaphiles I normally house adult male BCI's in - They were all off visiting girlfriends. Also with the changover to RHP's, now the heat source was inside the cage warming it from the inside. The old flexwatt underneath was losing heat to the room. Now the room is several degrees cooler and much more comfortable for me.

I'm thinking all my future cages will be designed around RHP's and eventually over time I may even change over other existing cages as well.
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Thanks,

Dave Colling

www.rainbows-r-us-reptiles.com

0.1 Wife (WC)
0.2 kids (CBB, selectively bred from good stock)

LOL, to many snakes to list, last count:
12.24 BRB
11.13 BCI
And those are only the breeders

lots.lots.lots feeder mice and rats

I am a supporter of overhead radiant heat as the primary heat source for many types of snakes. I think overhead heat makes it far easier to generate a true temperature gradient both vertically and horizontally. The downside is cost and the possible use of more electricity to heat a cage compared to Flexwatt for example. For the cost issue, I just keep fewer animals

It will be interesting to see how your snakes behave, breed, feed, etc while you use RHP's. While I do not keep BRB's nor larger boids at this time, I have noticed interesting basking behaviors in other snakes where the snakes utilize a wider range of basking area. I'd be interested to hear if your animals seem to do better (or worse) for you over time or if there is no change.

In one experiment I kept rosyboas under ceramic heat emitters. Every caresheet known to man for rosyboas says the same old regurgitated speel about how the UTH is the only heater of choice for rosies and how rosies need small meals. Yeah right. Keep some under a CHE and watch them eat huge meals with no regurges. Watch them stay hidden to avoid heat and bask when they need it. Alot of fun.

what kind of heat panels did you use?