Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have one kingsnake now, and i use a zoomed undertank heater for it. i'm fixing to expand on my collection, and am having to set up more tanks and what not... the zoomed heaters are pretty expensive, and i was wondering about using the human heat pads from a drugstore instead... does anyone know if those do okay being left on all the time, or would i be better off just spending the extra on a zoomed, or similar product.

also, do ya'll reccomend using the undertank heaters or heatlamps? or both?

I've used the human heat pads in the past without any problem. I had two of the pads you get at the drug store in a wooden cage for about two years and never turned them off. I did, however, have to put them inside the cage as I did not think it would be safe to put the weight of a cage on top of them. I never had any problems with the pads getting too hot (I had them set on level 2 of 3). I now use a combination of a heat pad made specifically for reptiles as well as a radiant heat panel and a ceramic heat emitter that is in a flukers fixture that sits on a piece of hardware cloth on top of the cage. I have a lot of variations in heat with this setup. Good luck with your heating.

Hi, I have a question, did you have substrate on top of the heat pad? If so, what kind and how deep? I'm trying to heat the bottom of my 6' tall cage for my timor monitors and the temp at the bottom is difficult to control, and I don't want to take the chance of burns if I install a ceramic or incandenscent heat lamp inside the cage closer to the bottom. Thanks!