Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Ok since I last posted about heating my cage the temps seem to be rising outside, Thursday its even going up to 60. Now I have had no luck with my het boas breeding and now I have a new jungle habitats cage and heat tape and I can get a hot spot of over 100 now. I been reading care sheets and such and trying to see what im doing wrong that my boas wont breed, I see that normally the abient temps are suppose to be like 75-80 and 95 hot spot. Well im thinking the problem is that I cant get the ambient temps right, the room temps now are only low 70's so even though I have a hot spot of 95 I notice only the floor gets this warm if I temp gun the area right above the floor the temp really drops. I have a oil filled radiator heater on high already. I was told earlier to get some foam insulation from homedepot and line the walls of my room but I believe after doing that when the temps get lower then I still wont be able to get ambient temps of 80 or so. I want to also know with these oil filled heaters do some put out more heat then others because I have a regular one that cost about $30 but I seen some at home depot that have digital read outs and cost a bit more so im wondering if maybe these put out more heat? if so then lining the walls with insulation plus a better heater may work. I also thought about if I can put a fixture in the plastic cage like I did in my wooden one and put a ceramic heater on one side and the heat tape on another, and finally I been thinking of the expensive heat panels (I need to have my mind made up with this by this weekend) because the white plain show starts and if i go with the panel I can avoid shipping. How do you install the panel in a plastic cage with the large plug, I cant see putting a big hole in my cage to fit this plug through, is this how you all do it? Now I have jungle habitats plastic cage which measures 4Lx2Wx1H. Thanks to all that help

Just my 2 cents here pal...skip the heat panel.

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With one heater you are getting 70 ambient temps? You could try putting a tarp across to make a smaller closed in room. Or you could use plastic sheeting.

Maybe I am wrong here...but you are anticipateing your boas just to start breeding...Is your female fattened up?

Your female needs sufficient time to build up fat reserves. She should also be in the cage alone during this time. 75 cool and keep the hot spot going is fine. After a couple months of feeding 2 Large rats every 7 days...then try your male.

Your male should be trim and muscular. Not fat. He should not be skinny because if he is an adult, he will go off feed and may not feed again for along time.

Your male should be getting 1 large rat every 7-10 days.

Your female will give off her scent and the male will then be interested. Let me know if you have done these things allready. Good luck Andy Federico

Really? why skip the panel?

I been trying to breed them since last yr but was told because of the age (female 2.5, male 1yr) I should wait until this season.

The female has nice weight so does the male.

I atually was thinking of sectioning off part of the room as I think the heater will really do justice then, I just dont know how to go about doing it...what to use to section off and how to as far as attaching to walls and ceiling.

I just separated them a few days ago and fed the male 2 med rats, the female is in shed now.

BigDee, It is only my opinion that the heat panels would be better suited for an arboreal setup. Useing a cage that is only 1 foot high ...it seems like overkill.

If I remember right you are setting up your basement. You could get some 1x2x8's usually dirt cheap. Tack those across the ceiling and the floor and walls and get your plastic roll sheeting and staple away! That should seal in the heat.

When you say your female has good weight...how much does she weight? How long is she? Alot of people think their boas are huge and weigh all kinds of weight. Very few people will believe I ever had a 13' colombian, mainly because they are so rare to ever find one that size...but she only weighed just over 40 pounds. She had not been fed heavy, so I know she would have weighed about 60 pounds before breeding. I have also seen 10 footers weigh 40 pounds. Most 6 footers weigh about 8 - 15 pounds. Andy

I be....Man you dont know how much you helped, i never even thought of that..1x2x8's and tack up a frame whoa why didnt I think of that. But wow people did say it wasnt alot of help in the boa forum,,I was looking foward to a few post and ideas.

My female does have good weight she is pushing 7' and should be over 3yrs old. She is not fat but is no where near thin, hold up I have a pic on her from like last yr. Here she is