2 urgent heat tape questions

How exactly do you have it set up? A 55 watt should be fine for a 24x24x16 cage.

Are you using a temp gun to check the floor? The top of the hide?

Snakes dont need belly heat if they got warm enough ambient on the hot side. You really have 2 choices. I use the cooler ambient temps with a single hot spot via belly heat. The other method is heat the whole cage and just give them a warm spot. The RHP will do that if you use something like a hide under it or a piece of slate or flagstone, anything the RHP can heat up under itself which in turn will radiate heat off the item to warm the air.

Also try to plug the RHP straight into the wall and bypass the t-stat to see if it heats up more. Try a different outlet too. These are all the things Bob at Pro Products told me can affect a RHP. Also put something under the cage to insulate like a piece of plywood.

And I'm not really sure where the 90F hot spot idea came from but none of my snakes like it that hot. I give them a hot spot of 86-88F and the rest of the cage sits around 77-80F depending on the room temp. Most of the time they spend on the cool side or just stretched out in the cage.

But anyways, first thing i would do would be plug the RHP straight in the wall, shove a hide under it and let it run full power for an hour. Then temp gun the top of the hide and look at your temp gauges and see what the ambient temp is on the cool side. Ideally, i would shoot for a 86F or so temp around the RHP with a 78F or so temp on the cool end of the cage. Can be work since you are using a fairly short cage so you dont have much room for a gradient.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Bogertophis

Sounds like maybe your ambient room temperature is lower than the seller anticipated. That makes a big difference in how hard the RHP or UTH have to work
at raising the temperature in a cage. Maybe you can exchange it for a higher wattage? You might talk to him??? Since you're in a hurry, ship the larger one
right away, & have yours credited back once he receives it?

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Thank you - I was very honest about having a low ambient room temp and the seller thought he was sending me one that could more than handle my situation.
I am just waiting to hear back from him to see what my options are, super dissapointed this didn't work out as planned :(

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Sauzo

How exactly do you have it set up? A 55 watt should be fine for a 24x24x16 cage.

Are you using a temp gun to check the floor? The top of the hide?

Snakes dont need belly heat if they got warm enough ambient on the hot side. You really have 2 choices. I use the cooler ambient temps with a single hot spot via belly heat. The other method is heat the whole cage and just give them a warm spot. The RHP will do that if you use something like a hide under it or a piece of slate or flagstone, anything the RHP can heat up under itself which in turn will radiate heat off the item to warm the air.

Also try to plug the RHP straight into the wall and bypass the t-stat to see if it heats up more. Try a different outlet too. These are all the things Bob at Pro Products told me can affect a RHP. Also put something under the cage to insulate like a piece of plywood.

And I'm not really sure where the 90F hot spot idea came from but none of my snakes like it that hot. I give them a hot spot of 86-88F and the rest of the cage sits around 77-80F depending on the room temp. Most of the time they spend on the cool side or just stretched out in the cage.

But anyways, first thing i would do would be plug the RHP straight in the wall, shove a hide under it and let it run full power for an hour. Then temp gun the top of the hide and look at your temp gauges and see what the ambient temp is on the cool side. Ideally, i would shoot for a 86F or so temp around the RHP with a 78F or so temp on the cool end of the cage. Can be work since you are using a fairly short cage so you dont have much room for a gradient.

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Thank you for your reply, I am unsure what you mean when you say how do I have it set up. I have attached it to one side of the top of the cage as instructed.
Yes - I am using a temp gun to check the floor and the top of the hide. Highest temps I got are 83 and 87. Even though the top of the hide is a little higher, the temp underneath is not.
I understand the hide is absorbing more of the heat but the substrate underneath is still not hot enough.

I do have the cage on plywood. I did speak to Bob and I have had the panel plugged directly into the wall and bypassing the thermostat for over 24 hours - not getting any hotter.

You keep your enclosure cooler than all the care sheets I have read recommend. It's so hard when there are so many people who do things differently. I just want to make sure things and the best I can do for my little guy and I feel like I am failing so far. I wanted to get a bigger enclosure but was told it would likely be too big for him to feel safe.
I will have to do the best I can with this one and wait to see what Bob's next suggestion is about the heat panel.

I don't think you mentioned just how low the ambient air temperatures are in your house or room where the snake cage is, but you might also have to consider
insulating the cage itself...to help keep the heat in. And you really picked a challenge in choosing a BP, a species that needs higher temperatures than many other
possibilities, like a corn snake, that not only require less heat but are more "forgiving" because they hibernate in the wild. Just saying...

As far as insulating the cage, you still need air-flow of course, but it might help? Many things can be used (ie. cut to fit & taped to the cage), such as foam board,
corrugated cardboard, cork or styro-foam, stick-on carpet tiles, packing 'bubbles' (also used w/ foil covering to insulate hot water heaters, though not attractively,
lol). You could try one of these options, installed temporarily (if you like?) & if it works, you might seriously be better off with a cabinet around your snake cage...
wood insulates pretty well too. Best of luck sorting this out.

I agree it's a challenge when "so many people...do things differently", but that's because our conditions & needs vary too. Having a forum for "thinking outside
the box" is what it's all about here. "Where there's a will, there's a way"! Actually, one of the things I like about keeping snakes for many years is that it has
required so much creativity on my part. Boids, colubrids & hots all demand different things from us to be successful...keeps you on your toes.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Bogertophis

I don't think you mentioned just how low the ambient air temperatures are in your house or room where the snake cage is, but you might also have to consider
insulating the cage itself...to help keep the heat in. And you really picked a challenge in choosing a BP, a species that needs higher temperatures than many other
possibilities, like a corn snake, that not only require less heat but are more "forgiving" because they hibernate in the wild. Just saying...

As far as insulating the cage, you still need air-flow of course, but it might help? Many things can be used (ie. cut to fit & taped to the cage), such as foam board,
corrugated cardboard, cork or styro-foam, stick-on carpet tiles, packing 'bubbles' (also used w/ foil covering to insulate hot water heaters, though not attractively,
lol). You could try one of these options, installed temporarily (if you like?) & if it works, you might seriously be better off with a cabinet around your snake cage...
wood insulates pretty well too. Best of luck sorting this out.

I agree it's a challenge when "so many people...do things differently", but that's because our conditions & needs vary too. Having a forum for "thinking outside
the box" is what it's all about here. "Where there's a will, there's a way"! Actually, one of the things I like about keeping snakes for many years is that it has
required so much creativity on my part. Boids, colubrids & hots all demand different things from us to be successful...keeps you on your toes.

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LOL - that's ok, it was always going to be a ball python and I knew the requirements ahead of time which is why I did go with what I thought was a better set up than my previous bp in a glass tank with a heat lamp.
I went out of my way to research the best enclosure available here and call the pro for rhp's.
I thought I was doing it right based on all the info I have.
I even bought some heat tape just incase.
Now I just need to know the best way to improve what has obviously not been as easy as I was led to believe.

Thank you for the tips about insulating!! My ambient room temp seems to be holding around 68 F right now even though it's warming up here in Ontario.

I am speaking with Pro-Products to see about getting a stronger rhp and will be picking up another thermostat today so I still think I can do this :)