Belly heat

[hunterr24]

Setting up a new cage and I'm wondering what temperature should be maintained with the uth? I'm at 85 where my BP will lay in the hide.

[PitOnTheProwl]

No hotter than 95 ON THE GLASS or under the substrate.

[Deluge]

I have my thermostat set to 90, but it only gets up to ~88 on the warm side, but my BP seems happy with that. Generally, you want to shoot for 90 but if it's off by a few degrees that's ok. It also depends what type of substrate you're using and how thick it is. I'm using newspaper.

[Skeletor]

I started using only my radiant heat panel in my PVC cage no UTH . His hide is about 88 and out in front of it it's 90. My thermostat is set to 85 probe reads 85. My temps across the cage from far corner are 76 and get up to 90 on the other side. In my glass cage I ran a uth and made. The hot spot 88, the other end was a ceramic heat bulb and it was like 78 at the thermostat probe. The snake didn't seem to care for temps 90 or more. He wouldn't stay in the hide during the day. At lower temps, he did. Same as my PVC cage. My BP is young still. I don't feel he needs heat up at a solid 90.

[Skeletor]

In a natural habitat, where does this under the belly heat come from ? The only heat that they can get is off an object that the sun has heated up. So I only use the RHP on the roof of my 12 inch tall cage that heats up the floor and the top of his hide. As he gets farther from the panel he can get to a spot that is 76.

[kitedemon]

hunterr24 the temp should match the snake. I am guessing you have a baby ball python? I use a hot spot of 88ºF for babies. Adults get a bit hotter I use 90ºF for them. The temperature should be regulated somehow I would suggest a thermostat (unless you room temp is 100% stable then a rheostat can be used) if you have a heavy (dense) material for the enclosure you can choose an on/off stat as the inevitable spikes are mollified by the mass of the enclosure. If the material is light weight or has a low density a proportional unit should be used. I actually recommend a proportional stat, even more so a herpstat *with* the 'safety relay* function is my #1 recommendation. It offers the best price for the highest safety. (lower need of a fail safe).

Skeletor I am going to disagree. An enclosure is not a natural environment, it is a captive environment. An RHP simulates what the sun does when it is up. A UTH simulates what the natural environment is like after the sun sets. The type RHP and UTH are basically the exact same they both are radiant heat the face of the RHP and the floor of the enclosure become convection sources. Practically speaking they are the same but for the higher operational costs and the higher purchase price.

[Skeletor]

Great info kitedemon....I am still learning things myself and have been in a gray area for a while on the subject. I spoke with my resident expert on BP cage heating and what I gathered from the conversation was.......... their preferred method of heating a PVC display for a BP was to only use a radiant heat panel located at the back rear corner (I've got several different opinions from several different people, which is normal). In your opinion, do you feel that a RHP only is ok as long as good temps are met ? Yes...the price of the RHP was a considerable chunk of change compared to heat tape. With heat tape under my PVC cage, I have to run it at 105 just to reach 88 above the paper towel floor....it did nothing to heat the cage but it did great to add humidity with a water bowl over it. I can run both tape and RHP but now I'm not. As of now, my RHP on 85 heats up the hot area to 90 and the temps drop down as you cross to the other side. Some people say the belly heat really isn't needed and from laying on a device that provides a constant, steady heat....snakes trap heat and it builds up. I know this is not a big deal because I started out doing that in my glass cage. How does a belly heating pad simulate what happens in a natural setting if it's staying hot from under the so called ground ? I look at my RHP panel only set up as the snake hiding in a hole with the sun heating it from the top....I can program my Vivarium VE-300 to drop the temp at night to simulate the sun going down. His hide is still heated from the top and holding heat in like a rat hole in the wild. Now if he feels like basking on a 90 degree hot spot, he can lay on top of his hide that is closer to the roof of the cage. What are your thoughts on my way of thinking. Thanks in advance kitedemon.

[hunterr24]

What I have now is a pvc cage with heat tape on 1/3 of the tank where the hide will be. I have a ITC-100F temperature controller. I'm running the controller at 100 degrees high with a 2 degree drop off. Which achieves a constant 85.9 degree at the top of the reptile carpet ( think it was called). Thought that was better than paper towel without the hassle of wood chips. Also the controller has a shut off it the circuit is shorted or opened. The cold side is 79 degrees during the day. I can play with the room temp if that's to cold.

[Deluge]

My cool side is at 80, so that's fine. If they need more heat, they'll just move to the warm side. You really want to measure the temp under the carpet, though and see where that's at. I was using Reptibark before I switched to newspaper, and I had the same issue. The bark wasn't transferring heat efficiently, as there was a ~6 degree difference between the surface of the tub and the top of the substrate. If I wanted the top of the substrate to be around 90, I would've had to run the heat source dangerously high. It was losing battle.

[Skeletor]

Hey hunter24, I rather use the reptile carpet also.... I'll have to get some. Just wanted to add some more info. I feel a RHP has more horsepower than heat tape to provide a good temperature range inside a PVC cage. Running at 85, it lays down some nice heat. It's inside material can handle 1000 degrees, it has a thermal cut off and the snake can't lay on it. If you put a ceramic tile under it, that tile, once heated, stays nice and toasty for a while. The directions of my THG heat tape say not to get the tape above 105. So I was pushing some limits just to maybe see 88 on top. My cage is 3/8 thick. The stand under it was wide open also. The air gap may add to helping heat the bottom with tape I did close off my bottom and got a little extra out of it. I gave up on the tape for now, I'll give it some time to watch and observe the snake. So far after a week he is acting like a BP.