Reptile & Amphibian Forums

What is yout preferred method of heating an enclosure, heat tape or a lamp and why?

there are many factors that will determine what is the best method:

1) Exhibit: If you are showcasing your animals in your home (or in my case, home and at my zoo), ligthing becomes a very important factor. For our rattlesnakes, we typically use Verilux incadescent lamps of various wattages that provide both light and heat. The snakes look great when basking under this heat source. We also use a combination of a pro product radiant heat panel, and, full spectrum fluorescent lamps; that, too, has a very nice look to it. We keep some of our off exhibit animals in rack set ups that are heated by heat tape while others utilize either heat panels (w/fluorescent lamps) or incadescent bulbs.

2) Species: The type of species may dictate what is best. If you are keeping cooler, montane species, heat tape attached to a thermostat may be a good alternative as heat lamps (unless connected to a thermostat) can run the cage on the warmer side depending on ambient temps. I personally think heat tape works best for rack types of set ups. My views on racks have changed dramatically in the past few years - where I was once a big advocate for them (coming from a private breeder point of view) I now find myself not liking them too much with a few exceptions (so yes, we do use racks for certain things but slowly but surely weaning ourselves away from them). The more you study natural behaviors and movements of herps in wild populations, you quickly realize that most of us keep our herps in less than optimal conditions with little enrichment, lack of opportunities for movement, and set ups devoid of any decent lighting. Sure, they'll breed but I think we're doing them an injustice in these set ups. My preference is to use a more natural overhead heat source whether its a light or radiant heat panel. Pro Products' heat panels are probably the finest on the market and we use them for many of our exhibits for many different applications (basking heat, background heat, even our outdoor raptor exhibits for winter heat in their perch boxes).

Incadescent lamps will tend to dry the air so attention to humidity becomes important if you are keeping a high humidity loving species. UTH may be better (or, a UTH attached to the side of the cage); just smake sure that any heat device is attached to a quality thermostat (I highly recommend Spyder Robotics).

Rob Carmichael, Curator
The Wildlife Discovery Center

>>What is yout preferred method of heating an enclosure, heat tape or a lamp and why?
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Rob Carmichael, Curator
The Wildlife Discovery Center at Elawa Farm
Lake Forest, IL

I think Rob covered it well

I use ambient temp and lights. But this is due to my caging system. It doesnt lend itself well to heat tape
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Dan S.
Crotalus & Company
Venom-Center
Wisconsin Reptile Community

n/p.