Preferred heating for racks?

[darkbloodwyvern]

Do you prefer back or belly heat for adult sized tubs? Can you tell my why? I'm trying to decide what I want my setup to have.

[Black_Shark]

I have belly heat in my rack in the form of 3 zoomed 30-40 gallon heating pads taped to the backside of my 41q tubs. They were leftover from my tank days and since I never removed the covering from them, they were good to go on the tubs. They do an amazing job! The only extra thing I have to do is run heat cable through the one empty spot above my ball python so that way the heat soaks through the wood (takes about an hour) and heats the space under it. Perfect way to achieve ambient temps while keeping my room cool!

[j_h_smith]

I prefer belly heat, due mainly to belly heat aiding in digestion. I think it's a personal decision, but most commercially made racks are sold with belly heat.

These are just my opinions and are not meant to be construed as fact or factual.
Jim Smith

[Powerspythons]

I think it might depend on the species of snake in the rack, like I've heard that colubrids dont need belly heat so I'd say back heat would be fine for them, but if it's for ball pythons I'd go with belly heat all the way as it is very helpful for their digestion. I also know a few people who have said that they use both belly and back heat for their racks but IMO thats just overkill..

[yeroc1982]

Bellyheat for ball pythons!

[OhhWatALoser]

I prefer belly heat, due mainly to belly heat aiding in digestion.

but if it's for ball pythons I'd go with belly heat all the way as it is very helpful for their digestion

have you read or studied anything that says or suggests this? so far I've found this just to be an internet rumor

I did find this tho

Do these racks use belly heat or back heat? Which is better?

RBI Plastics Shoebox and Sweaterbox racks come standard with back heat. Which is better? We have found back heat to be every bit as effective, if not more so, than belly heat. The back heat in these racks will easily warm the back 1/3 to 1/2 of the boxes to a cozy 88-90 degrees. Actually it will get hotter than that if you don't use a thermostat or rheostat which is why one is required. The heat tends to be more even than belly heat which is usually in a more concentrated 3"-4" wide strip across the bottom. The heat gradually tapers off to about 80-82 in the front of the box. Our animals very easily thermoregulate with this setup and we have switched over to entirely back heated rack systems here.

Is belly heat bad? We dont think so, we just like this better. If you will be setting up the 32 Qt. Sweater Box Rack in a room that is regularly below 74 degrees you may want to consider the belly heat option. On the Shoe box and MCB-S tubs the back heat will provide great performance in all but the coolest of rooms (below 65 degrees). One note, with belly heat racks you MUST place your thermostat probe on the heat tape itself. NOT inside one of the tubs. On the CB-70 rack we install belly heat standard. The extra long CB-70 makes back heat ineffective. To help give your animals a more even heat and a larger basking area we use two independently wired strips of three inch heat tape (80 watts each) placed about 6 inches in from the back. NO HEAT CABLE is used, only flexwatt heat tape. The heat tape is recessed into the shelves for years of maintenance free use.

Now to the OP I used to use belly heat when I used newspaper as substrate because it was easy, but now that I use cypress I find it harder to control the temps through multiple cages, different amounts of substrate change the temps and the snakes like to move it around. Its not a big deal, but i find back heat just alot easier.

back heat is alot easier with substrate in my experience, substrate won't change the temps, I am currently working on switching all my racks to back heat now. The racks that are back heat, I have not seen any difference in their digestion. They still eat, digest, and crap just like normal lol.

[LOSTCOAST_BALLZ]

have you read or studied anything that says or suggests this? so far I've found this just to be an internet rumor

I did find this tho



Now to the OP I used to use belly heat when I used newspaper as substrate because it was easy, but now that I use cypress I find it harder to control the temps through multiple cages, different amounts of substrate change the temps and the snakes like to move it around. Its not a big deal, but i find back heat just alot easier.

back heat is alot easier with substrate in my experience, substrate won't change the temps, I am currently working on switching all my racks to back heat now. The racks that are back heat, I have not seen any difference in their digestion. They still eat, digest, and crap just like normal lol.

I agree with this statment regarding belly heat and substrate it was very difificult to get a steady ready on my tubs when I used husks as substrate. I recently switched to pre cut paper liners for flooring and belly heat is awesome I enjoy having steady reads and believe that it would be more effective with digestion just as an assumption. an assumption that comes from understanding how the thermos work and that the heat would be more directly distrubuted with belly heat. but like i said just IMO.

[DC Reptiles]

I use to use belly heat, but since I built my rack I changed to back heat and I like it better and have not noticed any difference in my snakes and they way they act. the back of the rack is 92 and the front is 83 and I can chage it to whatever I want. This works for me and I have not had any issues

[BallsUnlimited]

for the bps i prefer belly heat.

[TrpnBils]

It's a matter of substrate too as well as species. I'd rather use back heat if I'm going to have some kind of thick substrate like cypress mulch. I use back heat for my racks, but that's mainly for green tree pythons so they're off the ground anyway. Personally I'd be more worried about trapped heat starting a fire if the tubs were sitting on them versus pushed near to them in the back.