Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I've been trying this new (new for me) approach for heating kings, milks and rosyboas after getting frustrated with bottom heat. I tried overhead heat, but it costs more to setup and run.

The pic is not great (taken outside a glass tank) because if I so much as touch the cage lid, the snake goes into the crevice more or under the substrate. You can see just a hint of the red coil there. The setup is simply a heat pad mounted to the glass wall, then a layer of "leaner" rocks in various locations.

Heat pad temp is about 90 deg here because the room temp was around 65 deg F when I took the pic.

The beauty of this setup is that the temp does not have to be regulated carefully, and the snakes have the choice of direct contact on the heater, some contact, nearby contact or none, all while being hidden behind the rocks. Neat for rosyboas and montane kingsnakes.

BTW, I have witnessed even a mtn king in this setup using 95 deg heatpad temps for short periods of time. When going opaque, the snakes with this setup will often coil their entire bodies against the heater, usually in the morning for awhile. As opposed to after feeding, when mostly the snakes just press their food bolus against the heater. Neat to see, easy to do, very safe.

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Mark

How is this different than back heat?
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Wade's Weptiles & Wodents

It isn't any different. What is different perhaps is the range of temperature. I've seen back heat racks where the end user is shooting for 82-84 deg at the back. What I've been trying is higher temps for kings/milks/rosies, and the snakes are using the heat much like they probably do in the wild. That is, they bask for short periods, then retreat to cooler areas. They bask when opaque alot. If fed at night, they often stay away from the heat until morning, then they press their food bolus against the heater for a short time, then retreat to cool areas.

I've had a 65 deg ambient temp, then a 90-95 deg heat pad. The snakes digest just fine with purposeful basking then cooling off.

Just interesting to see rather than a snake sitting at 82 deg all the time. Kind of brings out behaviors in the snakes that may go unnoticed when using average temps. Don't know if it is better than average temps, but definitely more intriguing for me. And I think safer than undercage heat in that it is virtually impossible to overheat the enclosure.

Back heat can do the same thing if the cage is close enough to the heater.
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Mark