Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Put my boas in three seperate kinds of cages. One in a sweater box (with just a heat pad), one in an aquarium (with just a heat pad and with suran wrap on top of most of the cage. and one in a vision cage (with a radiant heat panel and about 4" by 4" of a air opening besides the glass front. The air temp in the sweater and the aquarium is only at 73 for the aquarium and 75 for the sweater box. In the aquarium it probably goes a little cooler on the cool side. I know it needs to b at least at 80 on 1 side.....or both?

Well, the purpose of heating one side of the cage is NOT to provide consistent temps throughout the cage. You are trying to provide a gradient. As long as your warm side is within acceptable warm side ranges (I would think for a boid somwhere between mid-80s to 90 degrees)then you should be fine with the cool end being "room temp". This allows your snake to choose where in the cage its most comfortable. If it needs to get cooler, it will crawl to the cool side where you should have your water bowl situated. After a meal, it can crawl to the warm end to digest. If you feel your cool end is too cool (say upper 60s to low 70s) you can always add a heat source to that side as well, just not as hot. Maybe a heating pad set on medium on the hot end, and one on the cool end set at low. You may have to experiment a bit if your room temps are generally lower than say mid 70s.

Good Luck!!
KevinM

Well the temps in my room recently have been in the 71 degree range so ive been using a little heater(only when im home to keep it warm.) this is a temporary solution for now till I can figure out what to do. Im just running out of ideas here. covered 95 percent of the aquarium to just keep a little heat and humid in. humid stays but heat goes.

Boa constrictors?

Are you saying the heat pads are not very warm, or are they warm but you have too much substrate so the temps on top are cool while the underside is hot?

Also, some heat pads conduct all of their energy to the surface they are resting on. A melamine shelf for example in a room 65 degrees will suck much of the heat from thin heat pads of low watt density (racks are OK because they are enclosed). The solution in that case is to stick/tape/velcro the heat pad to the underside of the box/cage, then elevate the box/cage so the heater doesn't touch the shelf. Or use a shelf material like 1/4 inch hardboard, which seems to insulate very well moreso than conduct.
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Mark

This is how I often deal with heating a boid in a tub in a cold room. The cable is held about 85-90 deg. More heat will be where the cable traces are closer, less heat where the traces are farther away from one another. Just adjust the traces as needed. The ZooMed cable works great, as do the Big Apple ones or the Creative Aquatics cables.

You can tape (Gorilla tape works) the cable down on a piece of pegboard and lay the box right on top. Easy. Works.

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Mark

Mark, can I use the gorilla tape on the heat pads as well? they dont seem to stick too well on sweater bins I appreciate the idea on the heat cable. I will have to invest in one of those in the near future when my funds roll in. I recently spent $300 on a vision, some cheapo thermostats, digital temps etc. (Money that I shouldnt be spending.) But neaded. thanks mark. great diagram!

>>Mark, can I use the gorilla tape on the heat pads as well? they dont seem to stick too well on sweater bins I appreciate the idea on the heat cable. I will have to invest in one of those in the near future when my funds roll in. I recently spent $300 on a vision, some cheapo thermostats, digital temps etc. (Money that I shouldnt be spending.) But neaded. thanks mark. great diagram!
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Mark

Do people really keep boas in sweater boxes? You didn't mention what kind of boa and how big, a large boid should have a considerably larger space with climbing branchs etc, and good radiant heat source rather then a heating pad.

I'm guessing it is a baby/juvi. How are you checking your temps? A heat gun will tell the temp of your substrate. A thermometer usually tells you your air temps. In most cases surface temp will be more important