Reptile & Amphibian Forums

This shows my herpcages.com 36x12x12 small boa cage face-down revealing the heat cable on the back wall and the Flexwatt under the floor. These cages are made from high-density polystyrene and are light-weight and easy to heat.

Front view - 36x12x12 cage

Hi Mark -

Dang! That looks like a lot of heating capacity. What sort of ambient room temps do you have, and how warm do you plan to heat that cage? Are you regulating both heat sources with the same thermostat? What brand of heat tape or heat rope is that? And is that aluminum foil tape? Thanks for answering pedestrian questions. Oh, and nice carpet!

-Joan

Hi Joan

Lots of heat, as the room temp gets cold (60-65ish) during Winter and early Spring, and this setup houses boas and a python. The Flexwatt is set to not exceed 82 deg, and the heat cable in the back just helps to keep the air temp from dropping to low in the cage. In summer, the Flexwatt can be turned off pretty much.

I wouldn't use this much Flexwatt unless I had a proportional controller, and I do. It is on its own controller. The heat cable is on a dimmer, as its temp is not as critical.. i.e. too much heat on back doesn't burn the snake. Too much heat below would.

That is aluminum foil tape. The heat cable is awesome stuff. I got it from Creative Pet Supply advertised here on kingsnake. The heat cable works great under cages and is real easy to tape down. I have another cage that uses the heat cable under instead of the Flexwatt.

Is that heat cable on the top?
Does the heat actually work its way downward? How much heat do you loose from the top and out of the back?
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0.1 Rubber Boa
1.0 Eastern Hognose 2003 super red
0.2 Eastern Hognose Snakes
3.3 Western Hognose Snakes
1.0 Durango Mountain Kingsnake
1.1 Woma's (new!)
Spadefoot
Black Knobbed Sawback
Northern Diamondback
Florida Redbellied Slider
Western Painted
Southern Painted
1.0 African Hedgehog
1.0 Sulcata

1 Pleco
2 Silver Dollars
3 Bosemian Rainbows
1 Cory Cat
1 Upside Down Catfish
2.0 Fire Guramis

uhh... I think that is it.

The cage is lying face-down. The heat cable is on the back of the cage, and the Flexwatt underneath.

While I am a big believer in undertank heat, I think you have too much flexwatt under there resulting in a cage without enough of a cool spot. What if the flexwatt were to get too warm? There really isn't much the snake could do to get away from the excess heat.

It looks like you have about 3/4 of the cage covered by the Flexwatt. I would suggest 1/2 of even 1/4 at most.
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Chris Harrison

...he was beginning to realize he was the creature of a god that appreciated the discomfort of his worshippers - W. Somerset Maugham

The Flexwatt is controlled to 82 deg with proportional control and is backed up with an ON/OFF set to 84 just in case. This setup is my Winter setup for boas and a python. The room temp gets rather cold during this time of year, like 60-65 deg, and any unheated spot in the cage gets cold as well. Unheated floor space is just about unusable for a tropical snake. The heat cable on the back helps ensure that the air temp in the cage doesn't drop too low.

During warmer months I can simply turn off the Flexwatt and let the heat cable heat the cage.

That heat cable is awesome. I have seen similar cables used on roof tops to prevent the buildup of snow....i was wondering if something similar could be used for heating reptiles. I would love to find a way to heat all of my gecko tanks with one heat source instead of using under tank heaters (they are all on an 8foot unit). Thats what i have but what i've noticed is that ONLY the area covering the heating elements gets warm. The heat doesn't radiate from that small 6X8 area of the UTH. For a 20 gal long tank that just doesn't seem enough to keep the temps up by itself.

Anyways, cool setup.
Red
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Crested Gecko Zeek:1.0
LEOS: Boo: 1.0 normal , Bronx & Nala: 1.1 blizzard,
Lily: 0.1 patternless, Abby: 0.1 albino, Zoe: 0.1 reduced pattern, Dot: 0.1 hypo
Chip: 1.0 papillion (small dog)