Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I been trying to decide how to heat my new beardie cage and was wonder what you all thought. My new cage is 3' deep 3' tall a 5' long. I have a empty room in my basement that im in the process of convertining into my reptile room and built the new cage right into the room. There is a large cement shelf and i built the cage right on the shelf, therefor not needin to put something on the bottom of the cage(i secured the cage right onto the cement). I was planning on filling the cage with about 3 inches of play sand. My basement isnt the warmest place in the world so extra considerations are needed. let me know what u think the best way to heat this is...thanks

A nice halogen light of a higher wattage (probably >90 watts) would make a good basking site. If the cage has only small ventalation that may raise the ambient temps. Dragons can stand ambient temps down to the 60s at night, I like to keep it in the 70s. If you are making a reptile room, you may want to consider getting an oil filled radiator. And use that to keep the room in the low to mid 70s (I keep mine at 75), as snakes are prone to RIs (boidades at least) if the temperature gets too low below 75 ambient. so that could be a way to go.
-----
Derek Affonce
DeKeAff Exotics
dekeaffexotics.com

If the top of your cage is made out of wood, i would simply go to Home Depot and purchase some ceramic light fixtures. The ones that are in the closets of where you live. They are about 3 bucks a piece. They can withstand some pretty hot temps too and they are UBER easy to install. Plus they have a nice on/off feature with a hanging wire.

You can check out how I did my cages light fixtures here....

http://708designs.netfirms.com/customcage/customcage.htm

Thanks
Daniel Kelly
-----
2.0 Ball Pythons
0.1 Leucistic Texas Rat
0.1 Kenyan Sand Boa
1.1 Bearded Dragons
0.0.1 Albino Ornate Pacman Frog
0.0.1 Ornate Pacman Frog
2.0 House Cats

And a partrige in a pear tree...

~!Bearded Dragon Custom Cage Design!~