Solid tops?

[catawhat75]

Does anyone else here use solid wood tops for their tanks? I love the fact that they keep the humidity at a perfect level and the snakes can't escape but even though it hasn't happened, I worry about them getting burned since the light is in the tank. Can't wait until I get everyone switched to racks, hate having aquariums all over the house, plus racks must be soooo much easier to clean!

[frankykeno]

Couple of problems come immediately to mind.

No snake should ever have direct phyical access to a heat source, especially a hot bulb like that. This is the result. This female carries massive dorsal scarring that our herp vet surmises was from a heat lamp burn when she was much younger (there's actually more scarring than even this pic shows). Our vet was actually quite surprised that she survived this amount of damage as she must have lost a huge amount of the skin down her back at the time. We got her as an adult and though the scar does not interfere with her life, it's sad she has to be so badly disfigured from what amount to a bad decision by her human keeper.



Also a totally covered tank will allow for no real fresh air movement unless it's had a fair few holes drilled in it. As well you'd have to treat the wood with some sort of herp safe preservative as the high humidity/temps are going to cause it to warp eventually or perhaps even rot (wood being highly porous stuff).