Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I was wondering.. I assume if you use any heating from beneath the cage, you have to lift it to prevent heat damage from the pad? UTH's adhere to the bottom of the glass tank right, so you can lift and the heat lifts too. How would it work, if it would at all, to use an everyday heating pad? Any advice would be great as I am new to all of this.
Thanks.

Regular heating pads work fine - I used one on a temporary basis when a new UTH I bought didn't work. They are much thicker than an UTH so you have to deal with that but your only other challenge is getting the temperature in the cage right. Mine had 3 settings so it was no problem. You can also plug the heating pad into a rheostat (called an in-line lamp dimmer at the hardware stores) and have infinite control of the heat output or experiment with layering something heat tolerant between the pad and the cage bottom. Good luck!

Will I need to lift the cage off the furniture in either case, or is furniture damage not really a problem. Does the heating pad or UTH get that hot that it would damage anything, or even start a fire?

I guess to be safe I'd put the whole setup on a towel, piece of cardboard, or piece of wood to protect the furniture. Mine was on a wire shelf like you use in a closet so heat wasn't a problem.