Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hey all. I just got my second boaphile cage today, a 421T and I had a few questions. First, are they supposed to put the heat all on one side of the cage? I was under the impression that it should be in the middle so both sides of the cage gets a little heat. If it is placed wrong, what do they use to glue the heat pad to the bottom? Can I peel it off and move it? If I can move it to where I need it I'm pretty sure I'm going to have to break out the router and make a trail to hide the wires. I don't know...let me know your thoughts. Thanks all. (I also posted this on the boaphile forum and will be calling Jeff tomorrow)

Most people put the heat on one side of the cage to create a heat gradient from one side to the other. Different people cite different numbers, but the rough average is that the warm side should be 85 to 88 degrees F with a basking spot around 90 to 92 degrees F. The cool side should be around 75 degrees F. Both sides can drop about five degrees at night. The advantage to this setup is that your snake can then move around the cage to find a spot that's comfortable for him/her at any time. If the heat were in the middle, the cage wouldn't have this gradient.

Does the Boaphile cage come completely outfitted with heaters and other necessities of snake husbandry? If so, I wish I had known before I bought aquariums and tried to outfit them myself.

Bill
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It's not how many snakes you have. It's how happy and healthy you can keep them.

I recently purchased 2 cages from Boaphile. I dont have them yet, but if you go to their website you can customize almost anything you want. And if you call Jeff Ronne he can usuall do specific things to it.

The cage is built properly and the heat tape is applied where it should be. Leave it alone! I no longer use Boaphile cages because I'm not keeping boas. My experience with Jeff and his product was good. The cages are built well, a good design, and they work properly. Monitor your temps and watch your snakes behavior. That will tell you if you need higher temps. When I set mine up, 2X heat, I was not getting as a high a temp as I wanted and the snakes were always right on top of the heat source. I picked up a piece of rigid insulation, 2" thick, 24" x 48" and placed it under the cage. Problem solved. The room that I use tends to get very cold at night, all ceramic tile floor and it's a large room. If I attempted to heat that room to the mid 70's it would be in the high 80's to low 90's upstairs in the bedrooms. $2 worth of rigid insulation is a good investment for boaphile cages.

the 421T comes with a divider in the middle so it's like 2 cages in one right? well, I want to put a snake on each side of the cage so they will be seperated by the divider, the way the heat is glued on this cage....one whole side of the cage isn't getting any heat and the other is completely covered by the heat pad. That's why I need to move it to the middle of the cage giving both sides of the cage an equal amount of heat while leaving the far ends of the cage without heat. Does that make sense?

I can see where you are coming from - although I don't use the Boaphile cage and don't know first hand how thier undercage heating is set up - from my expereince once you remove heat pads they have a tendancy to not stay stuck anymore and they become less efficient (this may not be a problem with Boaphile). Maybe you can try putting another heat pad on the other side? But that would also depend on how much space that the original pad is taking up - it shouldn't cover more than 1/3 of the bottom surface for that one side or it may not provide a proper gradient. Call Boaphile and see what they suggest.
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Tosha

"Nihil facimus sed id bene facimus"

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don't most if not all of those cages with divider in them seem to have the hot spot in the middle,mine do, not sure about jeff's call and ask him about it,i'm sure you'll fugure it out even if you had to get some big flexwatt tape 24inch.and taped it to the middle,that or freedom breeders,they work great too,hope this helps you out alittle
Greg VanZweden
http://www.geocities.com/vanzwedensreptiles/

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Forever Trust in what we are,and nothing else Matters

That info is important to know and to pass on to Jeff before he builds the cage. For now, don't use the one that Jeff applied to the cage. Just pick up one of the larger pads available online or make your own out of flexwatt. I would tape it to the rigid insulation I recommended in the previous post and then place the boaphile on top of that.