Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello:

I purchased a bunch of vision 221 cages. These cages are 28Lx24Wx12H. I will be housing borneos and boas.

I was going to use one foot of the 11" flexwatt for each cage. Or, I was going to run 4" flexwatt along the entire bottom of each cage (28" long). The room temp is around 70-72 degrees.

What would be the preferred solution, or are they both adequate?

Thanks

PF

The thing with belly heat is you need to remember the size of the animal. Trying to maintain temps with smaller heat tape with larger boids is like trying to keep yourself warm on a winter night with a sheet of notebook paper. You need a larger coverage area.

Smaller tape can be made to work you just need more than one strip, and making a single strip longer doesn't add much, most boids don't bask in a straight line.

Also remember surface temps and air temps are two different things. 95°F surface temps aren't accomplishing anything in a 65°F room.

Cheers
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Jeremy

"I am become death, the destroyer of worlds" July 16, 1945 Robert Oppenheimer

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BigHurt gave you good advice.

I know from experience with those very cages housing tropical boids.. if the room is cooler than 72 deg, you had better cover most of the bottom with Flexwatt.

I did the following - a piece of the 11-inch wide on a controller set at 85 deg, and an additional piece on a dimmer dimmed very low (but higher than room temp.)

During Winter I had to add a heat lamp because the room got so cold.. HD sells a ceramic lamp socket that, with a little ingenuity, you can mount in those cages. I used some extruded aluminum and mounted the socket to that, then bolted the aluminum to the cage top. This provided a heat sink for the socket so the plastic didn't get too hot right above the lamp. More than you asked for, I know.
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Mark

Thanks for the responses.

I like the idea of using the 11" and another piece sightly above room temps. THANKS!