Dumerils - No belly heat needed?

[KWenger]

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I will be getting a juvenile male Dumerils in about a month and yesterday I ordered a T10 cage from Animal Plastics to house him. Ali at Animal Plastics was extremely helpful and seemed knowledgeable about the housing needs of all types of snakes, including Dums. I was surprised when she advised me to order the T10 built WITHOUT Flexwatt for belly heat. She said I should instead get a radiant heat panel. At her suggestion, I called Bob at Pro-Products and ordered their model PH3 heat panel. They are going to ship the panel to Animal Plastics & they will install it in my cage when it is built. Both Ali and Bob explained that the heat panel would be mounted in the top of one end of the cage and, controlled with a thermostat, would make a "hot" spot directly under the panel of whatever temp I wanted while keeping the ambient temp of the cage a little cooler. Bob said that even in the winter when the room temperature dropped into the 60s I would easily be able to keep the ambient temp in the 80s. Do those of you with Dumerils agree that belly heat is not needed? Does the set up I described sound OK? I can easily call Animal Plastics and have them add Flexwatt for a small additional charge.

[3skulls]

I have a number of snakes that don't have any belly heat, or a hot spot at all.
Just heating the room itself.
In my little bit of research here, a number of people posted that they practice this or know someone who does.

Now Heattape vs RHP.
They both produce radiant heat. One is coming from above and one is coming from below.
IMO heat tape is more efficient.
I can't remember off the top of my head but 1' of 11" heat tape pulls less than 20w. A RHP big enough for a t10 is something like 80w ?

If you had a room full of cages, that cost would add up quick.

I really don't think one would be better over the other (for the snake) unless you were talking about a GTP or the like.

I can't wait to get my T10s in

[KWenger]

The radiant heat panel I ordered for my T10 is 12" x 18" x 1" and 65 watts. That is the RHP they recommended as being the correct size for a T10.

[nick654377]

i use an 80w rhp in my t8's and t10. for my dums, she is on the bottom of the stack and has no belly heat. I heep her hot spot at 90 and ambients around 80. she never has missed a meal and passes once or twice a month for me. she is feed every 7 days on small rats.

[BFT12890]

I dont have a dum, but I have a ball and a corn both in T8's with 40 watt RHP's. The thought of flexwatt doesnt sit easy with me (slightly scared of fire hazards and all) but both my snakes do very well and the RHP's are more then sufficient in heating my room even when its 60 some degrees.