Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My boyfriend and I are modifying a rotating display case into an arboreal cage (the kind used in hardware stores to display swiss-army knives and the like). While brainstorming about all of the features this cage is set up for already (florescent lighting, heat lamp, custom built waterfall, room for a habba mist, and a fogger) I started asking about our plans for UTH. The problem is that we've built a false bottom to the cage, so we can remove the entire bottom (like a tray) when we need to. We could fit a heating pad under there, but it's a wooden tray. I'm concerned about the heat splitting the wood (it's done so to the top of my old dresser), and the fact that this is pretty thick wood (a great insulator) and not enough heat might get through. I should clarify that the cage itself is about 4 feet tall, with a matching 4 foot stand, and that's part of the reason I don't feel a heat lamp will be enough. I won't want to use a stronger heat lamp to get heat to the bottom of the cage, because I don't want to make the top most perches unusable.

We considered mounting those little cobra heat pads to the sides (the sides/doors are made of acrylic and all lock), or using just plain heat tape on three sides. My question is, how do you properly heat a very tall tank?

Heat pads are out, and I don't want to affix anything to the sides of the cage until we know it'll work (I'm big about that on this project, we're not making anything permanent until we know it'll work). I would really like to have some sort of UTH or some other way to heat the bottom of the cage, otherwise we'll have to be concerned with future substrate collecting too much moisture that won't be able to evaporate.

Thank you sincerely, for any help and advice you can offer.

I've always just used a heat lamp of some sort to create a basking spot near the top of a vertically-oriented cage. I'm assuming you'll be housing arboreal species since you are building a vertical cage. In that case you're providing your animals with a place to bask closer to the top where it's warmer with cooler retreats lower down. This is much the same as what you'd have in the wild. You can also maximize the animal's comfort by providing elevated hide spots, that way if they want to be near the warmth but not exposed and basking, they can retreat to a secure hide spot. This approach has worked very well for a species of large arboreal snake that I keep. They alternately move up and down the cage depending on whether they want to bask or cool off, and of course there are intermediate perches and hide spots to allow the widest range of thermoregulation. I would skip trying to heat anything from underneath, and if you want to try heating lower down and from the side, there's nothing saying you can't try heat pads/panels and simply don't permanetly affix them. However, you should keep your heat sources inside as plexi will warp if heated from the outside. Also create lots of ventilation as high heat and humidity differentials between inside and outside the cage will also cause extensive warping.
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Matt Campbell
Animal Keeper, Small Mammal/Reptile House
Lincoln Park Zoo Chicago, Illinois

Assistant Curator
Wildlife Discovery Center at Elawa Farm
Lake Forest, Illinois

Thank you so much for your response. I was beginning to lose all hope of being noticed. lol. I'll probably sound like quite the numbskull when I say this, but (for once), I didn't think about how their natural habitat would be heated. We're trying to make everything look natural, and I never considered that temps would be cooler near the bottom of the cage. *smacks her forehead* Thanks for that.

As for ventilation, there is a small (maybe 1/4 inch, I never measured) space around the doors on all four sides of the door (and there are four doors). After everything is assembled, we're going to treat the cage like it had an inhabitant and see what kind of humidity range and such we can get to. We're building this without a clue as to what arboreal creature is going to live in it, so there's no pressure to move one of our snakes into this cage asap. Anyhow, I'm babbling, and as helpful as you've been, I doubt you're really interested in this little project of ours. I really appreciate the reply.

Thanks again,
Mary Ann