Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I know that AP racks get rave reviews and I am in the process of deciding which rack to order. I was wondering about their new heating method on the CB-70 rack that uses 2 strips of 11" heat tape down each side. Has anyone used this in a relatively cool room? I am just wondering if it would be effective or if I should stick with belly heat.

Also, if anyone has used the 3' x 2' cage with sliding glass doors I am wondering how deep the litter dam is?

Thanks for your help.

Rob

In my opinion AP Cages makes the best enclosed rack bar none. If it is going to be used for Ball Pythons stick with the belly heat. They need it for thermoregulation and more importantly for egg development. They will lay in the cool are during follicular development and then lay right above the heat cable or tape when the eggs are developing and when they actually lay the eggs. They will not be able to do that with the radiant heat.
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Albey Scholl
Albeys Too Cool Reptiles
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Hey Abbey! I just set my room at 80-82 ambient. I also have a humidifier running in it as well and have the humidity showing at around 62. Would you still use the underbelly heat in this case on the rack? I turned off my underbellies for this week just to try it out. They all fed today willingly and seem to be ok. Do I need to set the underbelly again for digestive purposes or will they be ok with what I have going right now? Any info you can give would be greatly appreciated.

In my Reptile room I have two Ranco Thermostats. One of them is hooked up to an Air Conditioner that is set to come on to cool at 82 degrees and the other one is hooked up to a Pelonis Ceramic Disk Furnace Space Heater that is set to come on to heat at 80 Degrees. The ambient temperature is always around 81. I use Helix Thermostats on all of the racks with the probe either on the heat tape or less than a 1/16th of an inch away. I set the Helix at 90 – 108 degrees depending on how far away from the heat tape the probe is. This gives me a hot spot in each enclosure of around 90 degrees and a cool spot of around 83 degrees. I would never think of turning of the Heat Tape even if I lived in Florida. I like that fact that I have a guaranteed temperature variance.
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Albey Scholl
Albeys Too Cool Reptiles
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Thanks. You have no idea how much I am taking this info and applying it to the way I house my snakes. The first reason I had dropped the belly heat was due to the fact that I noticed one of my females was getting a little pink under the belly. I set the probe to the heat tape ( herpstat nd) and ran it at the same as you had stated (90). I put my hand in the tub and it was warm to the touch....but nothing that seemed major. The infrared reading was fine also. Maybe Im jumping the gun too quick.

Are you sure your Females belly isn’t turning pink because she is getting ready to Shed? All Ball Pythons and most other Pythons stomachs turn a pink color before they go into blue.
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Albey Scholl
Albeys Too Cool Reptiles
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She just shed two weeks ago and it wasnt the whole belly turning pink. Im going to attempt to set up my room as you described. I still need to go buy two more thermostats though. The heater I have has it built in......but doesnt work the way I want it to. Do you have any suggestions on what kind I should get. I tried to connect it to my herpstat....but the watts are too high on the heater. I also need one for the cooling fan right? If you could help me out as to what kind you have or pictures.....You would be my bestest friend in all of kingsnake.com serious....no joke!

Here is the link to the one I use.

Ranco Thermostat

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Albey Scholl
Albeys Too Cool Reptiles
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And you run your cooling fan and heater off of the Ranco? I have my flexwatt running off of a Herpstat ND. I know the Herpstat doesnt have enough juice to power the heater. Does the Ranco provide more or do you just use the Ranco for your flexwatt as well?

You can use the Ranco with an Air conditioner or a space heater. If you only have one of them you just change the programming of the Ranco to C for cooling or H for heating.
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Albey Scholl
Albeys Too Cool Reptiles
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Got it! The max on my herpstat was 600 watts and I was blasting it on a 1500 watt heater. OUCH! bad ju ju. The rancos max is at 1500. The price isnt too bad either. Im just going to get one for the AC and one for the heater as well. I will keep the herpstat on my flexwatt.