Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi, I'm new to the forum but have a question. I'm in the process of building two new cages for me snakes and want them to be stackable. The problem I have come in contact with is how I will heat and light the cages. I have read that flexwatt is a great UTH for custom cages but hjow deep will my substrate need to be to avoid injury to my snakes? and is there a light fixture that mounts flush that will work for a basking area? or would the wire cages around the lights work to guard them from the snakes? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

Welcome to the forums!

Whether using belly heat or overhead heat a thermostat should be used. At least, a dimmer switch. Something that gives you control of the heat output.

Of course, some snakes do better with bottom heat sources compared to overhead, but it's usually more of a personal preference.

The snake's body size (mostly diameter when considering overhead heat) and the desired cage height are things that need to be considered.

I recently built two stackable cages for some Burmese pythons using CHEs (ceramic heat emitters) and wire guards that I made. The guards work fine.

Those are porcelain lamp fixtures mounted to a shallow (1/2 inch deep) electrical pan. The wire is 1/4 inch hardware cloth. The guards hang down somewhere around 8 inches. Because I'm using 150-watt CHEs I kept the guards further away from the CHE.

The cages are 7ft long x 3ft wide x 21 inches high. That leaves about 1ft clearance between the bottom of the guards and the cage floor. While you could build a 12 - 16 inch high cage and still do the same thing, if it's for a small species, it's not really desirable. As far as eye-pleasing - at first I wasn't too wild about the way it might look, but once I got 'em installed it didn't look too bad to me.

Radiant heat panels are probably a better option but are costly. They are said to be more energy efficient, though.

Since I don't use heat tape for heating cages I'll leave that for someone else to touch base on. I'm not against it, not at all, I just prefer overhead heat.

Hope this helps & I hope to see ya around.

Have a good one!
HH
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Due to political correctness run amuck,
this ol' hillbilly is now referred to as an:
Appalachian American

www.natures-signature.com

We prefer to use flexwatt mounted under the cage. You never want to put the flexwatt in the cage. We recess the floor about 3/8 inch on a 3/4 inch floor with a router. Then staple the flexwatt in the recess with 3/8 inch staples. We put the thermostat probe between the flexwatt and the floor. The floor heats up slowly this way, so when you adjust the temps wait a couple of hours for it to take full effect. In this picture we put flexwatt on both sides of the cage. One side is for ambient heat and the other side is the hot spot using two different temp probes.

Then we cover the floor with Reflectix, kind of like bubble wrap with aluminum foil covering it. It makes pretty good insulation.

This way is cheaper than the overhead heat, but it's more labor intensive, just depends on which way you want to good. I can make my cages shorter because I don't have the heat in the ceiling, so I can stack more in one spot.
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Randy and Michelle
Art In Scales
(719) 439-4199
info@artinscales.com

"I can make my cages shorter because I don't have the heat in the ceiling, so I can stack more in one spot."

-----
Due to political correctness run amuck,
this ol' hillbilly is now referred to as an:
Appalachian American

www.natures-signature.com

For small snakes, these halogen puck lights work well. No guard necessary, but use a dimmer.

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Mark