Reptile & Amphibian Forums

This is the recent setup for each of my 2014 hogs. 5 1/2 gal glass tank. I am interested in overhead heat for hognose, at least during the day. Finally got around to constructing some tank tops and moving the young snakes into the tanks.

Aspen substrate, about 2 in deep in photo, but I went deeper now, about 3 inches now. Pyrex glass water bowl. Piece of ABS pipe.

Heating is a halogen bulb for daytime only. Temperature controller probe goes in the tank thru the top. I let the temperature get nice and warm on top of the substrate under the light, warmer than for any other colubrids I have kept. However the bottom of the tank is much cooler, so the snakes can go down to avoid the heat, or go to the vicinity of the water bowl. Night time is heat tape set low.

We will see how they do this way.

Hi Mark, around here that would dry out the cage a whole lot. How that works is, in order to heat the snake or part of the cage, you are heating the air between the lite and the substrate. Its much worse if the top is ventilated as the hot air will escape drawing moisture with it. There are ways to fix that some.
Make sure the top is not allowing lots of air to escape and put the lite inside the cage, a couple inches above the substrate. When you do that, you can use a lot less wattage to achieve the same amount of heat, and without heating so much air. Another way is to put the lite outside the cage and point it at one corner. My good friend does that.
I would put a couple inches of sand on the bottom and still use the aspen. I have been doing that with my hatchlings and they love it. It also absorbs the fluid in their feces and keeps the cage a lot less messy. Anyway just some ideas if you choose to use them.
Please report how your setup works for you. Best wishes

When you offer minimal husbandry like that (Don't get upset, I use racks which are just as minimal) you should offer an area for the snake to escape hot, dry conditions. Making sure the top is tight and does not allow heat and humidity to escape and offering a small humid hide on the cool end will help your snake thermo-regulate better and will allow you snake to maintain its water intake. Reptiles, especially from arid regions, have evolved to conserve the moisture it takes in from its prey or other sources. The cool, humid hide will allow your snake to conserve instead of having to replenish all the time.

See my post above on the results. With kings, I found out long ago that captives need to be able to conserve moisture while heating. A humid hide goes alot farther than a water bowl for kings.

I thought hogs might be different, more like rattlers. But I found out for myself that they seek moisture too. And in cages, they use mass heat - conduction - more readily than direct radiant heat.

Rattlesnakes also suffer from dehydration in top heated well ventilated cages. But to a lesser degree. Hognose have thicker skin then kings, and suffer somewhere between kings and rattlesnakes. Top heated open cages are not good for any kind of snake.
The key to understanding is, all snakes are concerned with dehydration and each and everyday of their wild lifes, is based on staying hydrated.
I totally agree with your test and your conclusions, even if your very early in the game. But there are more possibilities then just a moisture box.
The first is, fix the cage. These cages we use are only a tool to do what WE want. There are no laws, rules or even suggestions that cages cannot be modified to work BETTER, then their original design. With glass tanks, toss the original lid setup. Buy some plexi or lexan(polycarbonate) and make your. Use such tools as hot glue, or silicone to fix the lid to the top, make a hinged door. Install lites inside the cage. Limit ventilation.
One thought comes to mind. Normally snake want to be, dry and humid. In nature, permanent shelters, ones they use over and over for long periods of time. Are normally between 50 and 60% humidity. And without air loss. Temporary shelters are no so restricted, they have have lower, or higher humidity, but snakes normally avoid both Dry conditions and wet conditions to shelter in. I would like to thank you for testing this, and encourage you to keep testing. Great job and happy holidays

I have kept and bred Cal kings since the sixties, so I use them as a colubrid standard.
When comparing the two, one area really stands out, and that's temps. Lets say a temp range of 65 to 85F works really well and year around if that's what you want. You can maintain kings in the 65 to 75F range and they feed and grow(slowly) but do maintain activity. When I keep my hogs at that 65 to 75F range, they act like they are on the north pole. They simply shut down.
So Mark, keep an eye on that please. Would love to hear others experience with that. Thanks

But one word of caution, FR is not to be trusted or believed. Here is how he really keeps his animals. NO sand and barely 1/4 inch of aspen chips.

-----