Reptile & Amphibian Forums

So, I have 2 ball pythons each housed in a 20 gallon aquarium (separtely). The room I keep them in is extremely drafty and quite cool (low 60s). To heat them I have under tank heaters (the stick on kind, I'm getting flexwatt soon), a 150W day light and a 75W night light. These keep the tanks at an ambient temp of 80. So mid 70s on the cool side to low 80s on the warm side. I think this is too cool for ball pythons. Am I right? And if so how can I insulate the cages. When I get home from school in May I intend to build custom cages but until then what can I use to keep the heat (and humidity too) in the tank? Any help would be awesome. Thanks in advance

In a cool and drafty room you should also consider an overhead heat source, even if it's something as simple as a light bulb.

Otherwise, Reflectix insulation or similar products do an amazing job of insulating terraria. I stumbled across is about a year and a half ago and have been absolutely amazed at its performance. You might be able to find Reflectix or similar insulation sold by the foot at hardware stores. I believe one of the regular participants on this forum sells it in small quantity. He also sells flexwatt so he may be the guy to contact.

For reference, Reflectix is the stuff that looks like bubble-wrap covered in aluminum foil. It is an incredible radiant barrier. I draped it over the back of my bearded dragon cage last winter and had to switch to lower wattage lights as it raised the temps to higher than what we had in August.

I used Styrofoam sheets that were in the box I got my dry ice frozen mice.
One of my tanks was in a cool room. I used those styrofoam sheets scotch taped on the back and the sides the difference was amazing. Less watts would raise and hold the temp at whatever I wanted.
Not to mention the snake seemed to prefer the feeling of security with three dark sides. Even my new plastic acrylic cages I put some type insulation on the sides and back major major difference when it comes to heat .
If I was sticking with tanks I would have gotten what Chris suggested as it more than pays for itself not just in heating watts saved but the insulation is fantastic. If you dont like the look of it you can simply use solid color poster paper as backdrop than put the insulating material behind it.