Reptile & Amphibian Forums

What do you all prefer belly or back heat? gunna build a rack and I was going to go with back heat but not so sure just wondering what you all use.

Ricky Ortiz

Edited on September 30, 2009 at 22:39:23 by PHGinger.

Belly all the way

A common misconception is that reptiles need belly heat in order to digest their food. This is untrue. The fact is, reptile need to maintain a certain core body temp (varies between species) in order to properly digest and metabolize their intake...

As long as their ambient air and hotspot temperatures are in range, it does not matter at all where the heat source is...

I use both style racks and there is no difference between the two...

Gregg brings up a very valid point. Heat is heat regardless of location. However, the consideration of placement of a heat source is still a viable one I believe. First off, we all accept the fact that hot air rises and cold air lowers.

Let's consider this scenario, if your placement of a heating element is on the back side of the tank, then how much heat is really being displaced for the animal? Really, the only heat the animal is getting is close to the bottom where the animal resides. All the rest of the heat near the top is, in my opinion, being wasted as it quickly rises to the top. Sure, it might help create some ambient temperature, but if you have enough ventilation, that heat is escaping. So really, your usage of space for heat is quite small.

Now, let's consider placing your heating source under the tank. The entire dimension of that heating element is now being used to displace the heat on a larger area for the animal to use. And typically the tank contains some sort of substrate which diffuses the heat as well and can also hold in a certain amount of heat unlike placing the heating element on the back where there is no substrate to hold and diffuse the heat and where it's in direct contact with only one side of the animal and quickly dissipates.

The only argument I can see where back heating might win over under tank heating is that the size of the heating element is too big and by placing it underneath the tank ends up heating the entire surface area, therefore not allowing the snake to have a cool spot. In that scenario, back heating might be more better suited.

My overall preference however is placing the heating element underneath for better surface coverage, better diffusion and substrate heat retention. But that's just me.
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Troy Rexroth
Rextiles

Rex replied to it perfectly. Though Ricky already knew my thoughts on it.

Cheers,
Chad

I like belly heat so I can give them a hot spot without raising the ambient temp to high. I also prefer heat cord over flexwatt.
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Please don't talk about snake prices when my wife is around!!

Here are my thoughts...

Belly heat is not what helps our reptiles digest or metabolize their food intake... It is their core temperature... How our reptiles get their core temp up is not as important (back or belly heat)as it is for them to maintain it... Like I said, I run racks with belly heat and back heat and see no difference between the two as far as the health, digestion, or growth rate of my reptiles...

Plus in a rack system it is much easier to maintain a proper ambient air temp with out having to have a really high hot spot... Ambient air temps are just as, if not, more important than the basking temp... The OP was asking about racks, not cages...
In a well ventilated cage application, an under tank heater would be a better choice than back heat for sure, but in a rack application, there is no difference...