>>About the substrate does anyone have any opinions about Calci-sand?
It's rumored to cause impactions. I'd avoid it.
Regarding your heating issues, I've always found Bearded Dragons to like huge temperature ranges within their cages. I only keep one dragon at the moment and he spends almost all of his time in the coolest part of his cage. We just moved into a new house and he is spending more time over on the warmer side.
But like all dragons he'll occasionally climb up near the ceramic heat emitter (CHE) and bask under the 100* plus temperatures.
So depending on the temperature of the room the Kane heat mat is possibly unecessary. Some good quality foil-covered insulation underneath your floor would be a good idea, though.
I like radiant heat panels and have never specifically looked into using one in a tall cage where high basking temperatures were needed. It might work but I've always found CHE's to be well suited for this application.
It might be worth also putting a lower basking area in the cage if your dragon(s) do(es) not climb to thermoregulate.
>>Hi I am building a new beared dragon cage and I need help with heating options. I am thinking of use a Kane heat mat in the bottom and a heat emitter or heat lamp for basking in the top at one end. I was going to use a Radient heat panel on the top but the cage will be pretty tall and I was afraid the bottom temp would be too low. the cage will be about four feet tall. Has anyone used these heat mats? Also I didn't want to use a RHP because it would take up space needed for lighting.
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>>Thanks for any help you can give and sorry so long.
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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)
