Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I currently own 4 ball pythons. I am looking for a better method to heat my animals. I am torn between heat tape or heating pads. What is the cheapest and most effective way to heat say around 6-8 balls (I am going to expand my collection in the semi-near future so I want to think ahead). The main problem seems to be thermostats. It looks like it could get really expensive having to buy thermostats for every two heating pads / heating tapes. Are there any heating pads that I could safely do without a thermostat? I saw some heating pads at Big Apple supplies that have different settings, but I don't know if its safe to trust those or what.

I am currently keeping my snakes in plastic Rubbermaid type cages and I am using butcher's paper / news paper for each. I have a large shelf that while its not custom built for reptiles allows me to keep all 4 cages (with room for a 5th) neatly stacked.

Another question about heating tape: does each section (I assume you just put once section on each cage) require its own outlet to a thermostat?

So basically I need a recommendation on the type of heating pad and on what type of thermostat to get.

I plan on trying to breed this season and would also like some suggestions on relatively inexpensive incubators (again, saw one for around 60 or so at Big Apple and some other sites.) Do I need a thermostat dedicated just to the incubator, or do some models come with a build in incubator. It seems like the Hova Bator incubator has a thermostat, does that mean I just need a heating source and I'm good to go?

ANY heating source you use should have a thermostat on it. I prefer heat tape, others use overhead source, but most balls don't climb.

There's a joke there, somewhere....

Use heat rope (big apple I believe) or flexwatt. They are both cheap and reliable.

Evey heat source should have a thermostat. But not every cage needs its own. If all of the cages are identical and all of the heat sources are the same size/watts then you can plug more than one cage into an individual thermostat. If you use either of the above products you can even use a single piece wound through the whole rack with a single plug and a single thermostat. I divide my racks into an upper half and a lower half so that the racks mower to the floor where its cooler have their own thermostat and the upper ones have their own.