Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I am planning a home-made cage, and was playing with the idea of using heat tiles to heat them. It will be a stack of cages actually. 4'x2'x18" a stack of 5 or 6 cages. Would a heat tile in each be enough, or would I be better off going with wide heat tape? It will be made of a good grade plywood, and the interior of each cage will be lines with the bathroom paneling that is basically coated to look like tiles so that it is waterproof. This is the best solution I could find as far as durability and ease of use. All corners will be sealed with a high quality of silicone sealant to prevent moisture from getting under paneling. Any thoughts of what I may be missing in addition to the heat question? I am totally open to Ideas... Thanks

What do you mean by "heat tile"? Radiant heat panel? Heat pad?

In my not very humble opinion about heating wood cages, I say go with overhead heating via radiant heat panels or red heat lamps in ceramic sockets, especially for 4ft or larger cages. See www.pro-products.com for RHP info.

Heating plywood with Flexwatt or any other substrate heater is not a great way to heat a cage IMO.

What you could do though is cut out a panel in the cage floor, cover it with PVCx, then mount the heat pad under that. But now you'll need to router a cord exit channel and do all kinds of cutting. A radiant heat panel is just so much easier and quicker.

Yeah, I had the same question - but it sounds like maybe it's some kind of new electric floor tile option (say for heating bathroom floors? like an electric version of radiant flooring) - I haven't seen anything like that either, but it would be interesting if such a product does exist.
-----
Lauren Madar - OphidiaGems.com
1.0 Ball Python, 1.1 Hog Island Boas, 1.1 Hypo BCI, 1.1 Surinam BCC, 0.1 Green Tree Python