FR,
I was the guy who posted the heat emitter over the crevices, with the goal of getting the snake to use the rocks

You are correct about the outcome. Snake (small pyro) didn't even go near the crevices.

So my dilema: I didn't want to heat them from below, because that was against the goal. Heating from above didn't coax the snake into the rocks, at least not with too wide of a heat beam that covered the stack.

Then I thought, what about the side? But nobody does that, do they? What the heck, nothing to lose.

I mounted a heat pad to the side of the cage and pushed the rock stack against that side. That simple. Most of the stack is essentially ambient temp except for where it meets the heated side. Now what I see is the snake in there, often with just a small portion of its body pressed against the heater. Sometimes his head and neck, sometimes more midbody.

Rocks are cooler, crevice edge is warm. So that is when they use crevices. If the rocks are warm as a whole, exposing themselves in a crevice is not necessary if they seek warmth. So obvious. I even knew this from my zonata sightings, and yet the application escaped me at home for captives.

I guess I can do the same thing with the heat emitter, but the rock stack needs to be large enough so most of it is away from the wide heat beam if I expect to see a snake using a crevice. Will be great to try on adults.
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Mark

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