Reptile & Amphibian Forums

hello

i am in the process of building several wooden cages for my boa's and burms, and my question is this, i'd like to heat the cage on the bottom using a heatpad instead of lighting so i can make the cages stackable (light fixtures would prevent the cages being stackable)
so if i bought flexwatt or exoterra heatwaves and sandwiched them between 2 sheets of acrylic would that be safe? would it be a ventialtion issue for the heatpad??i wanted to make acrylic heat matt's and then screw them into the bottom of the cage, i know people do something similar to this for racks with back heating..would this work as belly heat??

i just want to make sure it won't overheat thanks for any advice

James
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1.0 savannah monitor "cringer"
0.1 coastal carpet python "lola"
0.1 dumeril's boa "porter"
1.0 burmese python "arnie"

Hi James,

Do not use acrylic in that close of contact with flexwatt. I can think of two options for you. I'll start with the one I think is best.

Cut a rectangle out of the wooden floor of your cages. Make the rectangle at least 2" larger than the size of the heat pad you will use (if your heat pad is 12" x 16", make the hole in the floor 14" x 18". Then cover the entire floor with a thin sheet of PVCX, the same material used by boaphile. You can get this at plastic and sign shops.

Assuming you use 3/4" material wood, this will give you a 3/4" air space for the heat pad. The PVCX conducts heat nicely and will give you a more gradual gradiant. It will also make for a much easier to clean floor than any sealed wood.

Just make sure you don't cut the rectangle out too close to the walls. Leave at least 3" from any wall of the cage.

The second option is to not have a wooden floor at all. Instead attach a slightly thicker piece of PVCX to the bottom of the cage. Whatever you set the cage on will then act as the supportm for the plastic floor. The top of the cage will act as the support for the next cage.

I have done this and it works very well. Saves weight, easy to clean, and conducts heat. However, I have never tried this with a floor area greater than 48" x 24". With a large cage a wooden floor will offer a degree of structural integrity not provided by a stapled on piece of plastic.

Lastly, there are thin light fixtures that can be mounted inside of wooden cages. These combined with a radiant heat panel eliminates all of the problems. More expensive, however.

thanks much chris, i'm going to locate some plastic shops in the pittsburgh area and see if i can do the hole in floor thing depending on how much this material is, any idea how much i'd be looking at? just curious

thanks again
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1.0 savannah monitor "cringer"
0.1 coastal carpet python "lola"
0.1 dumeril's boa "porter"
1.0 burmese python "arnie"

You should be able to get a sheet of the 1/4" for less than $50. But there lies a problem. If your cages are larger than 2'x4' you won't make very good use of the material unless you start laying pieces of it in. For example, one 2'x4' piece and one 2'x2' piece for a floor area of 2'x6'.

You could try the 1/8" but it is more brittle.

If you covered the entire floor with the 1/8" and then laminated an extra piece on from underneath in the cutout area that should be strong enough. Maybe nail on some small strips of wood on to support that doubled area.