Questions about Animal Plastics Racks

Well just doing some dreaming for the future and a question came up. Animal Plastics has these racks that hold Sterlite tubs and offer heating in 3 ways....back heat, belly heat and indirect belly heat. The first two I understand but what is "indirect belly heat" and what sort of reptile would require that?

Also wondering if you use these sorts of racks which are solid black do you still put a hide in each tub as the rack is in effect kind of like a huge hide isn't it? I know Markus Jayne in Ontario, Canada says on their website that they do not use hides in any of their racks so I was just wondering.


~~Joanna~~

I saw the AP racks today at the Constrictors expo, they are very nice. I'm not sure what they mean by indirect heat I just asked about the back heat and the belly heat. The racks are solid and not to bad to look at. I also picked up my T3 enclosures today which I must say are absolutly awsome.

Indirect belly heat is where the heat cable is directly behind the boxes instead of underneath them, so it provides a bit of a warmer ambient temp if necessary. AP generally recommends it for their smallest hatchling racks, since baby boxes are usually too small to allow for a big thermal gradient so going with direct belly heat may provide too much warmth.

I have several AP racks & would go with direct belly heat unless you're getting a hatchling rack.

Just my $.02

K~

Your .02 cents is worth a lot more than that Kara. Thank you so much for responding. Since when we are ready to purchase we will be looking for racks for our sub-adults we'll go with the belly heat then.

We're looking at a number of rack manufacturers.....Animal Plastics....Boaphile....Nature's Spirit....but since a rack is a future purchase for us we've lots of time to decide.

Any input is always appreciated.


~~Joanna & Mike~~