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Been trying radiant heat panel heating for kings and milks. Thus far it is working very nicely. Thought I'd share some details about this type of heating as used on some of my animals.

The pic shows this milksnake cage where I am just using craft paper and newspaper as the substrate so I can lift the paper to see where the snake is periodically.

The snakes bask under the paper under the edge of the RHP heat beam often in the morning, then move to the cool end of the cage some time later.

I see them placing their food bolus under the heat for awhile, and sometimes just their heads. There is a definite movement from warm to cool areas each day, with the cool area being used most of the time thus far.

Also, these heaters do not heat the cage air much (only near the top of the cage.) So the cage can be around 70 deg but the snake under the paper is able to warm up much more than that. The air is not dry, nor is the substrate.

BTW, those crevices (remember from an earlier post) have been ignored by the mtn king. FR called that one. The pyro prefers going under paper and substrate.

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Mark

How does the Radiant heat panel work? what kind/brand/size are you using? How long have you been using it...do you use a thermostat with it too... I am interested in knowing more about it...nice cage the white one..what kind is it? Thanks

I've been using radiant heat on a milksnake for about 6 months, and just more recently on other kings.

RHPs direct long wavelength heat down, like the sun. What happens is objects below, be it rocks, wood, snakes, your hand, etc, will absorb the heat, even if the air temp in the cage is cool. That is the interesting thing about it. This type of heat does not dry out the air, since the long wavelength passes right through the air w/o warming it to any significant degree.

RHPs do emit residual heat, but it is surprisingly low. Far lower than any light bulb. Putting a thermometer in the cage does not always tell you much, since the snake can be 85 deg for example after it has been under the RHP for 30 minutes but the air temp shows 70 deg.

This is a different way to heat enclosures. We all know ground dwelling snakes make good use of undertank heating. Undercage heating or substrate heating is still very viable and effective. I'm here to say RHP heating works very well too w/o drying the substrate out so quickly. It also offers the snakes the ability to maintain a very wide body temperature range. I'm seeing these snakes use all temperatures, from the coolest to right under the RHP where, if sitting long enough, the part that is under the heat is 80-85 deg when shot with a temp gun. What their internal temp is like would be great to know, but I don't even try.

I use a dimmer plugged into an ON/OFF controller (Ranco for example). I set the ON/OFF setpoint around 80. When the inside air temp hits 80, I know the room is warm and will not cool down soon, so I prefer to have all heaters turn off. Under more "normal" conditions, the RHP is dimmed down about 1/2 power and the air temp in the cages is below 75. The snakes can be found hiding in any area of the cage for different reasons.

Back when I used racks, the snakes would coil over the heat almost all the time. With the RHP setup, the snakes warm up for awhile, then move away, then come back later, then move away again. During a shed they are right below the RHP.

Just look in the classifieds for radiant heat panels here on kingsnake. My cages come from different mfgrs. I have PVC cages and styrene cages. Any cage will work with an RHP. Wood, plastic, glass, doesn't matter. Cage in the pic is from Repti-Racks.
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Mark

Thanks for your info..that is very interesting.sounds like you have a good setup with the dimmer and the Ranco on/off.I guess thats what I was worried about... the snake could get too hot..of course they do move away.. I know my kingsnake does not like temps too high so 80 sounds about right. You have to take the temp of the snake though to really know what he/she is experiencing..I mean if the air temp is set to not go above 80...at the beginning of use did you check the temp of your snake to compare..it with the air temp of 80..I will have to keep reading and let it all sink in-it is a bit more complicated than uth heat. Thanks for sharing..

Yeah, at first the snake was staying well away from the heater, even though the air temp under it was about 80. That is when I placed my hand on the cage floor below the heater and realized my hand was heating up very quickly. So yes, it is misleading. The nice thing is the snakes can move around as needed and know what they need, how long they should bask, etc.

The nice thing about having a cage large enough and a substrate the snake can go under (like paper) or in (like soil) is that even if the RHP was on too much, the snake could get away and the ambient air temp won't get too high.

I would say the benefit of this heater is that it isn't heating the cage floor like a UTH does, and the snake can choose any amount of heat energy from high (directly under) to moderate (near the edge of the heat beam) to low (just outside the edge of the beam) to way outside the heated area. With a UTH, it is generally ON it or OFF it. Of course, they adjust by time spent on and part of body on it, so it still works.
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Mark