Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hey gang..I just picked up a screamer from the Atlanta show this past weekend. He is very young, but awesome. I also got a great deal on a cage built by M & J cages. It is made from melamine and looks great. I am using a regular (human) heating pad, but was told to put it inside the cage, as putting it under would not provide enough heat. I also have a 12 x 12 piece of ceramic tile directly over the pad. I am using cypress mulch as my substrate, with a large water bowl half on the heat source and half off. I also have a tree and a hiding rock in there. Here are my main questions:

Temp is ok (around 80 degrees or so).
Humidity is ok at about 80%.

The tile is pretty warm, almost hot...I have the cypress throughout the cage, but if you reached in it to feel the tile, it might be a bit too warm, so I turned it down from med to low.

I can never really see the little fella, let alone find him to get him out. He is always buried in the mulch, in which case I have start aimlessly reaching in the mulch to find him, which has startled him a time or two. Can I just do with out the mulch completely? Maybe perhaps use newspaper? I only wonder what I will do with the tile and heating pad.....any suggestions? Will it affect the humidity to just use newspaper?

Thanks in advance.

Brian

Brian,
The cage sounds awesome but I'd be nervous about having the heat element inside; though the chances of electricution is slight the chances of getting burned are real (little snakes are amazingly strong and possibly could work itself under the tile). Is the temp. 80 at the high end, low end, mean? Mine spend the majority of their time where the temp. is between 75 and 80. If you choose to go with newspaper (a good substrate if changed frequently), pile some damp moss around.
Good luck,
Paul

Hey gang..I just picked up a screamer from the Atlanta show this past weekend. He is very young, but awesome. I also got a great deal on a cage built by M & J cages. It is made from melamine and looks great. I am using a regular (human) heating pad, but was told to put it inside the cage, as putting it under would not provide enough heat. I also have a 12 x 12 piece of ceramic tile directly over the pad. I am using cypress mulch as my substrate, with a large water bowl half on the heat source and half off. I also have a tree and a hiding rock in there. Here are my main questions:

Temp is ok (around 80 degrees or so).
Humidity is ok at about 80%.

The tile is pretty warm, almost hot...I have the cypress throughout the cage, but if you reached in it to feel the tile, it might be a bit too warm, so I turned it down from med to low.

I can never really see the little fella, let alone find him to get him out. He is always buried in the mulch, in which case I have start aimlessly reaching in the mulch to find him, which has startled him a time or two. Can I just do with out the mulch completely? Maybe perhaps use newspaper? I only wonder what I will do with the tile and heating pad.....any suggestions? Will it affect the humidity to just use newspaper?

Thanks for the message. If the bottom of the cage is melamine, will putting the heating pad under the tank provide enough heat? It is around 82-84 degrees on average. If not, what other heat options should I consider? I assume the moss you are referring to in a basic type I can find at any pet store...should I mist the moss daily? What about possibly using the tropic-aire system I have read about on this forum? Thanks again.

Brian,
. If the surface of the heating pad is 82 to 84 it will not provide enough heat through a melamine cage bottom. If you meant that you have already tried it under the cage and the cage floor had a warm spot of 82 to 84 that will be fine. Many reptile heating products are not recommended for use inside the cage. However, I have used ceramic heat emitters mounted inside the tops of melamine cages for years with no problems. Like most reptile heating products the ceramic heat emitters are too hot at full power and have to be controlled with a proportional thermostat and/or a rheostat. Any sort of reptile petstore moss will work fine. You can manually mist it or use a Tropic-aire or similar system. When people use a manual mister it takes a lot of squeezing to put much water into the cage. It is much easier to just pour the water on the substrate and let that humidify the cage.
Jeff

>>Thanks for the message. If the bottom of the cage is melamine, will putting the heating pad under the tank provide enough heat? It is around 82-84 degrees on average. If not, what other heat options should I consider? I assume the moss you are referring to in a basic type I can find at any pet store...should I mist the moss daily? What about possibly using the tropic-aire system I have read about on this forum? Thanks again.

Jeff, thanks for the response. The surface of the heating pad and also the piece of 12x12 ceramic tile over the pad is MUCH warmer than 82 degrees. It is hot to the touch. I was referring to the temp of the cage in general. Are you suggesting that I take out the heating pad altogether and replace it wil a ceramic heat emitter (like a heat rock)? Also, how much moss should I use and where should I put it? Thanks again.

Brian,
. I am confused. I think I understand that you have the human heating pad inside the cage with a piece of ceramic tile over it. Any surface inside a BRB cage should not be hot to the touch. You also run the risk (which was mentioned earlier) that the snake could crawl under the ceramic tile. I would get the human heating pad out of the cage. I think that in a wet environment it presents a possible fire or shock hazard. If the overall cage temperature is 80 degrees that is a little too hot. You need to have a temperature gradient in the cage with one end in the low to mid 70s and one end in the low 80s. You might try setting the heating pad back on medium or high and put it under the cage and see if it will provide a comfortably warm spot on the floor of the cage. If it will do that and the pad is not hot enough that you are worried about it overheating and causing a fire then you could use it under the end of the cage to provide a temerature gradient. If the melamine is too thick for this to work then you might try flexwatt heat tape under the cage. I use this stuff controlled with a proportional thermostat and a rheostat under Vision plastic cages. It works well heating cages made of many different materials. Flexwatt on full power will even heat through as much as 3/4 inch of plywood. Hot rocks are lousy products because most of them are way too hot for even the highest temperature lizards and snakes. But, if you control one with a thermostat and/or a rheostat so that it provides a reasonable temperature they are acceptable. Whatever you use to heat the cage you will need some sort of control so that it provides safe cage temperatures during changes in room temperature. I do not use moss in my cages. All I use for my Rainbows is newspaper. You can use as much or as little moss as you want. It looks nice and can be wetted to provide humidity in the cage. Damp newspaper will also provide humidity but it does not look as nice.
Jeff

>>Jeff, thanks for the response. The surface of the heating pad and also the piece of 12x12 ceramic tile over the pad is MUCH warmer than 82 degrees. It is hot to the touch. I was referring to the temp of the cage in general. Are you suggesting that I take out the heating pad altogether and replace it wil a ceramic heat emitter (like a heat rock)? Also, how much moss should I use and where should I put it? Thanks again.

The cage was built with a light fixture inside the top of the cage. Can I remove the heating pad completely and use a basking light or possibly a infered light to heat the melamine cage? I am not very familiar with flexwatt, plus I am not positive it would heat all the way through the melamine bottom it put underneath, would it?? Thanks in advance.

Shuntzu,
. Flexwatt will heat through quite a thick piece of wood or melamine. You would have to try some to see how it does with your cage. It may even be too hot and require some method of elctrical control. Flexwatt is available from many of the reptile supply places. Have a look at some of the links at the top of the page here on the forum. Even though it is generally not recommended to use any heating device inside a cage I have had good results with ceramic heat emitters in light sockets inside my melamine cages. These products are all way too hot when hooked directly to 120 volt alternating current and have to be controlled to be used safely. I would not use any type of visible light to heat a BRB cage. These snakes are very nocturnal.
Jeff

>>The cage was built with a light fixture inside the top of the cage. Can I remove the heating pad completely and use a basking light or possibly a infered light to heat the melamine cage? I am not very familiar with flexwatt, plus I am not positive it would heat all the way through the melamine bottom it put underneath, would it?? Thanks in advance.