heating question for all

[froggystyle34]

i noticed in one of the posts on RH.net that the guy built his cage and it had dome light fixtures mounted to the back of the cage with standard bulbs in it. do you think this would create enough warmth on that side of the cage, or what???

froggy

[XzyluM]

Re: heating question for all

Well it depends on the room temperature and other things. It's best to experiment and get things right. For any wood enclosures I would personally recommend a heat panel. They seem to work the best all around with wood. I believe the person you was talking about was using CHEs as well.

[LucyABCC]

Re: heating question for all

just from the sounds of it, i wouldn't think that would heat very well at all. and what would you do at night for heat? i have a wood enclosure and tried many things, but an RHP was the only thing that worked for me.

[Doug]

Re: heating question for all

HI,
I have a problem using lights to heat cages, light can stress your snake, what are you using for heat at nite, and another problem most external heat dries the air in the cage.
 I would try using some type of UTH and cover that cage to hold the heat. I always  use a thermostat in all my reptile cages to control the heat and prevent over heating of the cage.
 If my cages are a couple degrees to warm my snakes try to find the coolest place to hide.My  snakes are more active when the temps are stable in the cage they have complete sheds and feed on a regular schedual to the day. My records are kept on 3/5 cards one card per boa, I use the shipping container Clay sent one of my hogs in for a file box ,it has her number and DOB on the out side..It has a sentimental value.. :

I can tell you the next feeding day for each boa in my house.
 In my mind having a balanced heat that dosen't over heat the cage and dry the air.
 back to the cage planning stages..
  Doug  

here's a cage that works for me I have raised about 3 different boa's in this cage never a sniffle or bad shed. It has two 75 watt che's one cobra mat under the right side floor and a thermostat controlling all three.


I gave up on the aspen and went with newspaper only.. cheep cheep cheep... doug

[LucyABCC]

Re: heating question for all

doug, you have some BEAUTIFUL cages and snakes s9.gif

[XzyluM]

Re: heating question for all

Very nice cage Doug. While lights can stress your snakes and when I used them, I went with either red, blue, or green. They do not cause stress and do not affect their photo period.

[Doug]

Re: heating question for all

HI ,
 Thanks for the nice comments about some of the cages and my babies, many of my babies came from CLays breeders, and the cages are my effort to try and achieve a natural environment that provides the boa's with temp and humidity.
 My first boa cage was a forty gallon glass tank ( critter cage).
I paid 80 bucks for the tank, I then bought an external ceramic light 29.00 plus the  che  32.00  .I had lots of problems then with a BP that just never seem to settle in and be healthy. The bp forum suggested a  Large UTH to heat the under side of the cage another  50.00 bucks and a thermostat that was 35 .oo bucks at the petstore, I finally bought a crummy heat humidty thermometer device for around 29.00 thsi to my horror said the humidty was down to 20% in my set up . I now owned a very expensive 40 critter that was extremly dry from the external che heat.   My next reptile was a baby guyana, she was a nippy little snake, at the time, I had found the BP forum on the internet and found a couple boa forums one in germany and the other here. The german forum was very clear about cage requirements. Thats when I ordered my first melanine cage for custom cages. (They went out of buisiness)  I copied the european cage designs and heat to the letter in that first cage and it worked. The one in the pic above.
 This is when I realized that them boa  snakes have specific temp and humidty requirements. The pet store my wife bought my first boa from told her not to worry about size the Guyana are the smaller speices of boa's .. Yea ,,right they made the sell though. The reson Iam telling you this is take what ever the petstores tell you for cage requiements and check it out., many stores want to make a sell, many petstore employees are new and never owned reptiles..
  I have decided that some cage options are not adequate for keeping a tropical rainforest animal in.
  If your on a budget or just getting in to the keeping of reptiles.
I would start with a boaphile cage, they hold heat and may be large enough for 5-6 years of a normal BCI life and a hog island would be ok in one. [ftp]http://www.boaphileplastics.com/[/ftp]
 this model is my favorite I would get it in BLack. he paid shipping in the past.

they are building the cages with heat installed all you need is thermostat to control the high end of the temps.ANd the boaphile cages hold humidty.
   My 2 cents
 doug

[froggystyle34]

Re: heating question for all

i have built my own melemaine cage that heats up perfectly and hold humidity perfectly for my boa and i use a 60 watt plant gro flood light. my snake loves it. it has a uth and works great i was just curious cause i saw it and wanted some opinions.

froggy