Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have heard a few people talk about insulating snake cages.
I have a couple burms that i keep in the garage and wanted to insulate their cages for a little extra protection
Got any suggestions on what works the best

Thanks Jason

Just about all sources of heat for cages tends to produce a lot of infared energy so you'll want to use something with a reflective component. Reflectix foil/bubble insulation or the foil-covered styrene insulation both work very well in this regard.

My bearded dragon cage is constructed from 3/4" plywood and has glass sliding doors. Nothing has been plugged into the normal gaps in the glass.

The top is 100% screen but then a false ceiling is built over that. The back of the false ceiling is 100% open, all 6"x48" of it. Such a cage sounds like a disaster for heating efficiency but it is not.

I took some of that foil-covered styrene insulation and covered the plywood floor. Then I glued some vinyl flooring over that. Only the floor has this insulation.

Now I'm able to heat the cage easily with a 100 watt Pearlco Ceramic heating element. The cage is sitting on the floor of the coldest part of my house and the cool end still stays at 80* or more.

How you go about this depends on what your cage is made out of, where and how much ventilation there is and what and where the primary heat source rests.

Regardless, the above mentioned products will be your best bet.
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Current snakes:

0.2 Gonyosoma oxycephala - (Silver/Yellow)

3.3 Gonyosoma oxycephala - (Green)

2.1 Gonyosoma janseni - (Black)

3.3 Gonyosoma janseni - (Black & Tan)

so it has to be mounted inside the cage??

>>so it has to be mounted inside the cage??

Not at all. Certainly it is more effective inside a cage, but that is not always possible. Here is a scenario that I had:

Vision cage.. heated below with Flexwatt and also behind the back wall with Flexwatt. I couldn't hold 70 air temp deg inside the cage in the cold room even with the warm floor.

Solution: I set the cage ontop of styrene foam insulation (a couple of dollars at Home Depot) and taped another piece on the outside back wall over the Flexwatt there. Now, I easily get 75 deg air temp plus a nice warm spot over a greater area on the floor even with the room temp dipping to 60 deg.

I didn't have to change the heating system. I just had to insulate. Much more cost effective and extremely easy. You can cut the foam with scissors. I used the 1/2" thick stuff. The 1 1/2" thick foam is even more effective.
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Mark G

That sounds like what i am looking for...I think i will get some tonight and put it in.

Thanks for the help...Jason