Heating a single large plastic tote

Hello everyone,


I had a few questions about how to heat a single plastic tote for one larger snake. I'm not interested in making a rack, as I only have one larger snake, but the tote/bin would have to sit on the floor due to it's size and my floor is carpet so putting a heat source directly against it makes me nervous. Any ideas?

How big of a tote are we talking?

The dimensions of it are 42.7 x 24.4 x 18.0

In a pinch I used a heat lamp to heat an underbed tub. It worked fine but you have to make sure the light stays far enough from the plastic so it doesn't melt it. I used a lamp on a lamp stand and it worked great. I was able to create a hotspot and proper ambient temps by adjusting the distance the light was from the tub.

Get a ultratherm UTH, tape it to a piece of plywood and put your tub above it and of course do not forget to buy a reliable thermostat.

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Using a heavy duty 'Useful Box' because they have a great locking lid (big problem with a tub with no rack is most snakes can just pop the lid off a rubbermaid). I got a UTH heater that only goes to 90, put a thermostat on it anyway, got a piece of glass that came with four styrofoam corners which I left on, drilled a few holes in the bottom of the tub to allow for excess heat to escape, placed the UTH on the glass, put the glass in the tub, secured it around the edges with metal tape, covered that with a thin layer of aquarium sealant (messy part) for waterproof/easy clean. Drilled holes for air, drillied hole to pass through the temp prob, cut a notch in the top to run the UTH cord (secured it to the side of the tub with metal tape).

Perhaps more work than it needed to be, but it's been perfect for over a year now.

I went to all the trouble to put it in the tank because the bottom of the Useful Box is thick and has ridges, I worried about the heat not transferring very effectively.

This brand is my fav: http://www.reptilebasics.com/ultrath...ater-uth-6-x11

1) What Deb said.
2) With a long tub like that get some non-elastic nylon luggage straps (about $7/pair) to secure the lid to the tub. Even if the tub has handles that latch down the lid, the center edges of the lid can flex enough to let your snake escape. I caught one sneaky critter in the act...

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Originally Posted by bcr229

1) What Deb said.
2) With a long tub like that get some non-elastic nylon luggage straps (about $7/pair) to secure the lid to the tub. Even if the tub has handles that latch down the lid, the center edges of the lid can flex enough to let your snake escape. I caught one sneaky critter in the act...

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I use binder clips to secure mine. They've worked pretty good so far, although I did have to upgrade in size a few weeks ago and Strudel managed to pop one off.

You can also drill some holes through the lip of the lid and the lip of the container and pass some 'U's made of armature wire through them.

Do not put your UTH in the Tub and DO NOT use tape in your tub.

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