Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi, I have 2 Juvenile 1.1 BRBs that I keep together for now, I will be moving them into a vision 322 cage with a radiant heat panel. My question is about cage lighting. I know you can put a florecent strip on the grate on the back of the cage, but the problem is that too much heat escapes from it. I was considering puting plexiglass over the grate but I was also conisering covering it with reflextic and mounting some lighting inside. Does anyone have any experience/suggestions? Thanks,
Dave

Dave,
..My advice is to not put any lighting in a BRB cage. These snakes are very nocturnal. Lights will cause them to spend more time hiding. I cover all of the vents in my Vision cages with duct tape.
Jeff

>>Hi, I have 2 Juvenile 1.1 BRBs that I keep together for now, I will be moving them into a vision 322 cage with a radiant heat panel. My question is about cage lighting. I know you can put a florecent strip on the grate on the back of the cage, but the problem is that too much heat escapes from it. I was considering puting plexiglass over the grate but I was also conisering covering it with reflextic and mounting some lighting inside. Does anyone have any experience/suggestions? Thanks,
>>Dave

Jeff, which vision cages do you use for your BRB's and do you have any pics you could post of how you have them setup? Also are there any rack setups that work well enough for them or should we stick to stable units?

Just trying to find the optimal combination of effectiveness for the BRB's and cost.

Sean,
...I keep my smaller adult BRBs two (two females plus one male during breeding season) to a cage in Vision 332 (36x28x18) cages. I use paper substrate and inverted clay flowerpots with the drain holes enlarged as hiding places. The pots get soaked in the bathtub once a week and soak up enough water to keep the cage humidity up for several days. Water bowls are heavy plastic and large enough for the snakes to submerge in them which they do. This usually spills water on the paper substrate adding to the cage humidity. I use a 12 inch length of 11 inch wide flexwatt heat tape under one side of each cage. The flexwatt is controlled with a proportional thermostat and a dimmer. One thermostat and dimmer controls 12 pieces of flexwatt under 12 cages. The cages are stacked four high in my snake room. Stackability, security and easy cleaning are the strong points with Vision cages. Weak point is that the sliding glass doors are smaller than the front of the cage and inset with a ledge above and below them which is just the right size for small adults to wedge themselves into When they are wedged in they can take a little time to get out of the cage.
Jeff

>>Jeff, which vision cages do you use for your BRB's and do you have any pics you could post of how you have them setup? Also are there any rack setups that work well enough for them or should we stick to stable units?
>>
>>Just trying to find the optimal combination of effectiveness for the BRB's and cost.