Help choosing new AP enclosure for ball.

[rtman26]

So I'm in the process of purchasing a new home for Wasabi and I'm a little torn over what to get. I was going to build him something but decided buying something from Animal Plastics was a much better (read:easier) idea.

He does a bit of climbing so I want something with some vertical space for him to explore--anything taller than 18" would be annoying to heat. I've narrowed it down to the T5 (36x24x24...a little too tall), T10 (48x24x15), and T11 (48x24x18....leaning towards this one). I think I'm just going to go for the latter, because I will NEVER have to buy him another one. It's a bit large for now..but I'll just clutter it up with rocks and sticks and stuff so he can hide all over the place.

I'm not one of those "whats the least amount of stuff I can put in an enclosure to keep a snake alive" people so please don't tell me I'm wasting time and money and to just get a plastic tote.

Next question: Heating. I want to heat it entirely from below, and I'm thinking of using 12" THG tape. Not that I think I will need to but for reference sake...can you wire this stuff in series? And do you HAVE to buy the rivet tool....meaning can I just trim back some of the protective coating and solder it? I'm not a moron and understand that it would need to be covered so I don't start a fire....I was just wondering.

OK, that's enough for now. Please feel free to add insight and, as usual, thanks in advance!

[led-zep]

What I do on the heat tape is melt the plastic down to the copper with my soldering iron, in the area I'm gonna solder the wires on the heat tape. Then I dab a tiny amount of flux on that area, then "pretin" the area with solder. I also strip and "pretin" the wire I am soldering to the heat tape. Once that is done the wire solders to the heat tape almost instantly and very easily.

After soldering I use liguid electric tape, around 3 coats and call it good. I use flux to insure the wire bonds to the tape. After I'm done, the heat tape might rip. But the solder joint wont break. Hope this helps you.


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[The Serpent Merchant]

So I'm in the process of purchasing a new home for Wasabi and I'm a little torn over what to get. I was going to build him something but decided buying something from Animal Plastics was a much better (read:easier) idea.

He does a bit of climbing so I want something with some vertical space for him to explore--anything taller than 18" would be annoying to heat. I've narrowed it down to the T5 (36x24x24...a little too tall), T10 (48x24x15), and T11 (48x24x18....leaning towards this one). I think I'm just going to go for the latter, because I will NEVER have to buy him another one. It's a bit large for now..but I'll just clutter it up with rocks and sticks and stuff so he can hide all over the place.

I'm not one of those "whats the least amount of stuff I can put in an enclosure to keep a snake alive" people so please don't tell me I'm wasting time and money and to just get a plastic tote.

Next question: Heating. I want to heat it entirely from below, and I'm thinking of using 12" THG tape. Not that I think I will need to but for reference sake...can you wire this stuff in series? And do you HAVE to buy the rivet tool....meaning can I just trim back some of the protective coating and solder it? I'm not a moron and understand that it would need to be covered so I don't start a fire....I was just wondering.

OK, that's enough for now. Please feel free to add insight and, as usual, thanks in advance!

Yes you can wire heat tape in series.

If you are buying heat tape from reptile basics just have them wire it for you, they do it for free (when you buy the wire kit)

I have a number of AP cages. The first one I got was a T12. This is a great cage, but BP's aren't going to make use of the 24" height. I now use that cage for my carpet python. I also have a T11 that currently houses my Dumeril's boa. All of my BP's are housed in T8's. And that is what I would recommend, there is some vertical room for the BP to explore. BP's really are ground dwelling snakes and too much extra height just makes the cage harder to maintain. T8's are by far the cheapest AP cage, and are "quick ship" items. This means your T8 will ship from the factory in 7-10 days from ordering. All of the other cages you listed aren't quick ship items, and will take on average 6-8 weeks to get. (though it depends AP's current load)

[rtman26]

I think the T8, for $150, is going to be the way to go. Hell if I really wanted I could get two T8s and stack them on top of each other, then cut out access between the two and sandwich some heat tape in between. It would still be cheaper than a T12. But that's getting ahead of myself.

I'm not exactly sure how I'm going to lay out the heat tape so I'd rather just wire it myself. "The Serpent Merchant"- What heating do you use?

[led-zep]

Im not the serpant merchant but I use flexwatt from reptile basics. It's been working great for me so far!


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[The Serpent Merchant]

I think the T8, for $150, is going to be the way to go. Hell if I really wanted I could get two T8s and stack them on top of each other, then cut out access between the two and sandwich some heat tape in between. It would still be cheaper than a T12. But that's getting ahead of myself.

I'm not exactly sure how I'm going to lay out the heat tape so I'd rather just wire it myself. "The Serpent Merchant"- What heating do you use?

On my T8's I use 48 inches of 12" THG Heat tape from reptile basics. I run the heat tape longways across the back half of the bottom of the cage.

I wrote up this thread awhile back, it covers how I setup these cages (though I used a slightly different heat tape setup back then)

http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...With-Pictures!

[rtman26]

I've seen the setup thread, just never associated the name.

That's pretty much what I was thinking. Thank you!