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I would like to offer a wider temp range for my snakes. The question I have is...How are the rest of you accomplishing this? I have T10 animal plastic cages with belly heat. How would I offer a wider temp range with this type of caging? For those of you not familiar with them they are made of 1/2" PVC plastic type material (This may not be absolutely correct but close enough to get the point across).

Thanks,
Miller
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1.1 Florida King
1.1 Eastern Kings
1.1 Black Milksnake
1.2 Kankakee Bull Snakes
2.2 Still Water Hypos
1.1 Possibly stillwater x Red Bull
2.2 N. Pinesnake
0.1 Tangerine Honduran
0.0.1 Black Ratsnake
1.0 Chow Chow (2003 Papi)
0.1 Cats (Shug)

There are a few basic ways to increase your temp gradient. The easiest would probably be to increase your ventilation and turn up the heaters. By increasing ventilation you reduce the tendancy of the entire cage to heat up. Careful you don't cause humidity problems though.

Another thing to do is place a hide over the heat element. It will trap the heat giving a hot spot to the warmer side.

You could also place a partial barier in the tub down the middle to offer a physical barrier from the hot to the cool side.

Really the most important thing is tub size (i am not familiar with the rack you mentioned). The longer the better. anything less that 24 inches is really pretty difficult to create a good gradient.

Belly heat is probably best for all of these suggestions.

Here is my adult set ups. 72qt tubs, heat cable, temp gradient of 70-92ish for most of the year. Gradient gets bigger in winter and smaller in summer.

Here are my hatchling tubs. They are 12x3x2 inches and can get a 10-15 degree gradient.

Thanks for all the info. I have racks and display cages the cages are 4'x18" or so. I will try a few of your suggestions to see what works. Thanks again for your input maybe if I had posted pics others would have chimed in as well

Thanks,
Miller

>>There are a few basic ways to increase your temp gradient. The easiest would probably be to increase your ventilation and turn up the heaters. By increasing ventilation you reduce the tendancy of the entire cage to heat up. Careful you don't cause humidity problems though.
>>
>>Another thing to do is place a hide over the heat element. It will trap the heat giving a hot spot to the warmer side.
>>
>>You could also place a partial barier in the tub down the middle to offer a physical barrier from the hot to the cool side.
>>
>>Really the most important thing is tub size (i am not familiar with the rack you mentioned). The longer the better. anything less that 24 inches is really pretty difficult to create a good gradient.
>>
>>Belly heat is probably best for all of these suggestions.
>>
>>
>>Here is my adult set ups. 72qt tubs, heat cable, temp gradient of 70-92ish for most of the year. Gradient gets bigger in winter and smaller in summer.
>>
>>
>>Here are my hatchling tubs. They are 12x3x2 inches and can get a 10-15 degree gradient.
>>
-----
1.1 Florida King
1.1 Eastern Kings
1.1 Black Milksnake
1.2 Kankakee Bull Snakes
2.2 Still Water Hypos
1.1 Possibly stillwater x Red Bull
2.2 N. Pinesnake
0.1 Tangerine Honduran
0.0.1 Black Ratsnake
1.0 Chow Chow (2003 Papi)
0.1 Cats (Shug)