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Temp in my basemtent changing too much

bloodboy128 Jan 18, 2005 08:37 PM

My snakes cage is a 550 gallon tank...the first 15 inches is covered with a heat pad and his hide box for his fat 4ft body. The second 15" is about 75 for his coldest spot...and then the last 15" is about 80 due to the fact a heat lmap sits over it....He uses all 3 spots and seems to thrive on it....One thing though...my room temp is around 68 usually even with a heater because my room is in the basement...On my b day in april i am getting his 8' cage built by my dad./...I was wondering since all hell have is a large heatr pad for basking in the cage how to heat my ambient room temp to around 80 so hell have a nice warm cage? I was thining of those digital heaters at home depot where you can set the temps yourself? If i set it to 80 will my whole room about 150 SQ FEET REALLY HEAT UP TO 80 DEGREES? THANKS,
Jake

Replies (5)

justin stricklin Jan 18, 2005 09:57 PM

I would not want to put a burm in an enclosure of that size till it is at least 6 feet. You can keep it in plastic boxes until or even passed then. To large enclosure for a small snake can be hard to provide the correct temps/himidity and all that. It is much easier to keep the temps right. I do not know about gettig the ambient temps perfect. Good luck.
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Justin

jasonmattes Jan 18, 2005 11:16 PM

The size of the snake makes no difference on how difficult it is to keep temps and humidity...Why would it be harder to heat a 8ft cage with a 4ft snake than a 8ft cage with a 8ft snake...
Try insulating your cage...i have heard that works well..i am going to do it to my burm cages in a couple of days and see how it goes

Jason

bloodboy128 Jan 19, 2005 12:00 PM

Ok what do you mean by insulating my cage...wont the home depot heater work? I just want the ambient te be high 70s and then the heat mat will take care of the basking

jasonmattes Jan 19, 2005 12:43 PM

keep the heat in the cage from escaping. If you can keep heat in the outside ambient wouldnt matter as much. Just like your house..if you had no insulation you would freeze in the winter...at least where i live you would freeze..LOL
Sure heating the room would work but would cost more than just buying insulation for the cage.
You can get a styrofoam kinda stuff that has a foil covering on one side...i am going to screw it to the inside top of my cages and see how that works. I have heard it works very well.

Good luck

rich-k Jan 19, 2005 12:46 PM

By insulating I think he means to cover up 3 sides of the cage. I would do something like tie pillows to the 2 sides and the back some way. If its temporary like you say til April then what it looks like wont matter too much ya know. Even a heavy blanket or something. Maybe even use velcro straps to mount pillow or something similar like I suggested to the glass.

Maybe I'm just corney but I love challenges like what you have on your hands. It allows you to be trully creative. Have fun n good luck.
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1.0 Ball Python
1.0 Burmese Python

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