Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I built a cabinet-style cage, which is currently holding 2 adult corns, 1 blue tongue skink & 1 Hog Island Boa. I'm heating w/ human heating pads, nailed to the ceiling below each cage. Each ceiling/floor is made of 3/4" melamine. I have the pads on their lowest setting & on a rheostat, on its lowest setting. The boa cage, for some reason, is fine- 88 degrees. But both the corns' hot spots are over 100 degrees w/o any additional intervention. I've added a 12x12" tile over each hot spot, which helped a bit, but not enough. I then put a folded hand towel under each tile, which has also helped, but not enough, they're still around 89 degrees- too hot for corns.
I just don't know what else to do, short of putting them both on a timer where they turn on & off every 1/2 hour, all the time... Any suggsetions would be appreciated.
Here's my cage:

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1.1 Corn snakes Snake Plissken & Abby
1.1 Hog Island Boas Harley & Isaboa
1.3 leos, Yoda, Geo, Tang, Ginger
1.0 Blue Tongue Skink Indigo (Indy)
0.1.1 frogs Buffy the Cricket Slayer, Butrose Butrose Froggy
1.1.5 firebelly newts Wayne Newton, Isaac Newton, Fig Newton, Juice Newton, Olivia Newton John, Helmut Newton & Thandie Newton
1.1 cats Gus & Mena

Assuming the heat pads are doing a sufficient job of heating the air I think you can make them work. It sounds like some of the pads are running a bit hotter than others and need to be moved around. Without more information I'd also guess you're dealing with the higher cages running hotter.

If you have an infared thermometer I'd go ahead and confirm that the surface temperature of the pads vary. Then you'll need to experiment with placing the pads on different levels.

Perhaps the hottest pads on the bottom, the coldest on the top. You might also have to move species to different levels if you are producing an unavoidable vertical gradiant.

Unfortunately this could take a while as the number of possible combinations is endless.

Thermostats for each level is probably cost prohibitive.
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Current snakes:

1.1 Gonyosoma oxycephala - (Silver/Yellow)

3.4 Gonyosoma oxycephala - (Green)

2.1 Gonyosoma janseni - (Black)

Actually, it's not a verticle gradient problem. It's the top & next to the bottom cages & the top one is actually a few degrees (87 instead of 89)cooler. The next to the top cage is the boa's cage, which is cooler on the surface than the corns', so I agree w/ you that it's probably differences in individual pads' heat production. I am using an infrared to get temps & I'm measuring surface temps right on the hot spot. The air temps & air gradient w/in the cages are fine.
You're right, thermostats are cost-prohibitive for me. To be honest, moving pads around is a bit prohibitive, too as it was an INCREDIBLE strain getting these nailed in!
I guess I'm really looking for some ideas of a more insulative item to place under the tile to lower the surface temp of the tile I've placed on the hot spot. Any ideas there?
Or should I try the timer idea- turning the pads off every 1/2 hour, then back on for a 1/2 hour, etc...??
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2.1 Corn snakes Snake Plissken, Jack Skellington & Abby
1.1 Hog Island Boas Harley & Isaboa
1.3 leos, Yoda, Geo, Tang, Ginger
1.0 Blue Tongue Skink Indigo (Indy)
0.1.1 frogs Buffy the Cricket Slayer, Butrose Butrose Froggy
1.1.5 firebelly newts Wayne Newton, Isaac Newton, Fig Newton, Juice Newton, Olivia Newton John, Helmut Newton & Thandie Newton
1.1 cats Gus & Mena

Assuming the rheostat is working properly, I myself would add an
adjustable ventilation grate. Giving you more control over heat escape in your case. Goodluck, Clint

Those controllers on the human heat pads do not give you the level of control you need. Plus, cornsnakes aren't boas, so how can an identical cage setup for corns as boas be reasonable? It can't.

You need to set up the corn cage for corns. That may mean a smaller heat pad or else a light bulb heater with its own thermostat. Cornsnakes are smaller and therefore easier to heat because of their smaller mass. You need less area heated, or a large area with not as high of temps.

The boa cage needs more area heated due to the larger size of the snakes, plus the fact that where they come from, temps do not drop below the low 70s hardly if ever.

Obviously, an identical setup for both species is not doable.
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Mark G

Assorted rosy boas, some annulata. That's it.

Thank you, I realize that. They are not in the same cages & I'm asking these questions so that I can better customize each animal's home to meet its needs. I bring up the boa (who is a Hog Island, by the way, so is not as big as you may be thinking) as an example of how varied the hot spot is in each of the cages with the same heat source.
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2.1 Corn snakes Snake Plissken, Jack Skellington & Abby
1.1 Hog Island Boas Harley & Isaboa
1.3 leos, Yoda, Geo, Tang, Ginger
1.0 Blue Tongue Skink Indigo (Indy)
0.1.1 frogs Buffy the Cricket Slayer, Butrose Butrose Froggy
1.1.5 firebelly newts Wayne Newton, Isaac Newton, Fig Newton, Juice Newton, Olivia Newton John, Helmut Newton & Thandie Newton
1.1 cats Gus & Mena

as mark i think or maybe clints one , the controller level on the heat pads is basic and can vary due to the make of them. what i would do is if you have a way to check direct surface temps as chris said with a point n shoot temp gun is ideal.
Buy some lamp dimmers from lowes homedepot etc $10-$15 for one . plug the two heatpads that are running hot into this then toy with the dimmer to reduce voltage to the heat pads, this will take verious setting on the heat pads and the dimmer to obtain a voltage that will fit the settings of the heat pads you have.
hope this helped and made any since at all lol good luck
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Buisnesses come and go everyday, what keeps you here is how you treated the customer the day before....My Boa Can Kick Your Boas _ss!www.cheapcages.com
Visit the new website while the Jungle gets made over.

Thank you. I'm wondering, isn't that basically what the rheostat does? Will the lamp dimmer allow me to go lower in voltage than the rheostat does?
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2.1 Corn snakes Snake Plissken, Jack Skellington & Abby
1.1 Hog Island Boas Harley & Isaboa
1.3 leos, Yoda, Geo, Tang, Ginger
1.0 Blue Tongue Skink Indigo (Indy)
0.1.1 frogs Buffy the Cricket Slayer, Butrose Butrose Froggy
1.1.5 firebelly newts Wayne Newton, Isaac Newton, Fig Newton, Juice Newton, Olivia Newton John, Helmut Newton & Thandie Newton
1.1 cats Gus & Mena

Yes they are for practicl purposes the same thing just the lamp dimmer is plug & play ready. The rheostat dimmer has to have a box, cord with a plug and a cord with outlet to it.

Now you could do a dblg gang box to hold the dimmer & outlet thus removing the need for the corded outlet. However for ease of use , cost and time the lamp dimmer is faster and probably cheaper.

a low grade dimmer is about $9-$12 ,double gang box $2.00, outlet $0.35, cord connector $1.19 for a small pack then cord and plug however ya chooses that method . if it was me ... id buy premade just faster .

Also keep in mind some dimmers will only dim so before hitting the off position the higher grade the dimmer the lower you can actually go with the voltage.
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Buisnesses come and go everyday, what keeps you here is how you treated the customer the day before....My Boa Can Kick Your Boas _ss!www.cheapcages.com
Visit the new website while the Jungle gets made over.

Great, cool! Thanks so much! I'll get that this weekend.
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2.1 Corn snakes Snake Plissken, Jack Skellington & Abby
1.1 Hog Island Boas Harley & Isaboa
1.3 leos, Yoda, Geo, Tang, Ginger
1.0 Blue Tongue Skink Indigo (Indy)
0.1.1 frogs Buffy the Cricket Slayer, Butrose Butrose Froggy
1.1.5 firebelly newts Wayne Newton, Isaac Newton, Fig Newton, Juice Newton, Olivia Newton John, Helmut Newton & Thandie Newton
1.1 cats Gus & Mena