Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Whats the best way to heat a wooden cage? I am in the process of building two 4'x2'x3' wooden cages to be stacked on top of each other. Was wanting to use heat tape on the bottom quarter of each cage but wasn't sure if the heat would transfer efficiently through the 3/4" plywood floors. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

That's almost impossible to answer without knowing more. The most important issue is the species being kept in the cage. Secondary to that is what the ambient temperatures of the room will be at various times of the year.

The ideal way to heat most cages is with Radiant Heat Panels (RHPs). I'm partial to those from Pro Products. But they are not the best for lizards with extremely high heat requirements. In that case I like ceramic heat emitters (CHEs).

I am not a fan of using flexwatt or other forms of belly heat unless it's in a relatively warm room and only a small amount of heat is needed.

If that's the case, then just cut a large rectangle out of the floor that is at least 2" longer and wider than the size of flexwatt you will need. Keep this rectangle away from the sides of the cage to maintain the structure of the floor.

Then cover then entire floor with Sintra or another type of expanded PVC. You can get this at sign and plastic shops. You can probably get away with 1/8" Sintra. The heat tape is then taped to the underside of the Sintra with the properly rated foil tape. Also, route a shallow groove from the cutout to the back of the cage so the cords have a place run out.

Sintra makes for a durable and easy to clean floor but also transmits heat well. This is a nice solution provided flexwatt is appropriate for the species you keep and the conditions. It also ends up providing a small air space for the flexwatt which increases safety.

But for a 3' tall cage I would lean towards a RHP or CHE.

Thanks for the info. The animals in question are a grey banded kingsnake and a columbian boa. My house is kept between 75 and 80 year round. When using radiant heat panels how do you protect the snake from contact?

RHP's are so efficient that their surface temperatures are far from dangerous. Surface contact is not an issue, especially with the Pro Products version.

When you listed the dimensions did you mean they were 3' tall or 2' tall?

If they are 3' tall I would definately use a RHP for those species, even with a 75* room. I would also use them for a 2' tall cage, but that's just me.

Looks interesting. Could I use one tstat to control both heaters? If so I would put it in the top cage corret, since heat rises? Kinda pricey but if they last all least 10 years, as the warranty does, its worth it. Thanks for the help.

You would have to play around with probe placement. This really depends on a lot of factors. And if you have more than one species you might consider more than one Tstat. It's actually more complex than this.

Heat does not rise, heated AIR rises, and RHP's don't directly heat the air. You will get a bit of a vertical thermal gradiant but not as much as you'd think.

In some cases you can actually get a "reverse" thermal gradiant with a RHP. If you have a lot of thermal mass in a dry cage you can actually measure warmer temperatures on the floor than near the top of the cage, other than the RHP surface itself. I won't say this is expected, but it is quite possible.

just my 2 cents but I bought a piece of black pvc plastic (4x8) from a sign shop and it was $39...which i thought was reasonable because it is necessary to heat the floor of the cage...(idea originally from chris harper)...you can get almost any color, green, blue, black, white, etc.....
-----
0.1 normal redtail boa
1.0 true redtail boa
1.1 100% het for albino redtails
1 miami red phase cornsnake
1 baby sulcata tortoise
1 snow corn
soon to be 0.4 ball pythons.