Newb question on caging

If you put the time and effort in now, you will reap the benefits later, when you have stable temperatures and humidity. Having a cage that regulates itself 90% of the time actually lets you enjoy your pet!

That was my thought. I always think that I am over thinking things. I just want to make sure I have everything setup and ready so that when I get him/her I won't be introducing new things like thermostats. If I can have it ready before I will. Humidity will be the last challenge after all this but I have no base line yet so that will be some playing around I am sure.

Thanks again.

On sad note my beardie Freddie passed away this weekend. I just did a thorough clean and disinfect on the cage. I put a 75 Watt and a 50 Watt bulb in to see how close I can get the temps. I had to turn off the 50 Watt on the cool side because ambient temp was 85.6.

Right now here is where my temps are at with one 75 watt red heat lamp and my 36" fluorescent (day use only). I only have the ceramic tile in there too no sobstrate yet. The aspen shavings may keep more heat in.

Hot spot = 86.7
Middle of the cage is ~83
Cool side = 80-81

So I am now going to wait for the new reptile shop to open up because they just got approval from Spyder Robotics and asked what model(s) I was interested in. They wanted to carry one of everything but wanted to make sure they got the one(s) I was looking at . I am looking at the Herpstat 1 or 1 Basic. I haven't quite decided yet but I would like one of those.

As for the probe kitedemon brought up some good points regarding the probe placement. He highly recommended that I change the floor to a pvc floor and i am considering this as well. He also didn't like the idea of the snake being able to get between the probe and the heat source. I am just brainstorming and taking everybody's input and trying to come up with what will be best for me. The temps are pretty close I just need to raise the hotspot a few degrees and figure out where I will mount the T-Stat probe.

I was thinking of making a bracket the goes under the substrate and mounts the T-stat probe straight up about 2" off of the substrate. That should help keep the snake from laying on top of it I think. Or suspending it off of the wire lamp guard.

I like the bracket idea because it will not move then. Any thoughts... does anybody have a good t-stat setup with a red heat lamp?
Thanks to kitedemon and Serpent Merchant for all the brainstorming and help.

I would use a piece of small diameter PVC pipe mounted a few inches above the substrate to hold the thermostat probe in place.

That is a good idea.

Given what my temps are should I try and get a UTH mounted to a piece of acrylic into the cage or just a 75-100watt bulb on a T-stat?

I am toying with the idea of putting some flexwatt on the underside of an acrylic sheet and putting that on a T-stat and use a lower wattage heat lamp to keep the ambient .

I want to keep things as simple as possible but I am nervous that the snake won't get enough belly heat. If I should have a a UTH then I will find a way to make it happen but the cage is holding the heat pretty good as it is. I think by tomorrow it will be a stable 90 in the hot area. (ceramic tiles take a while to heat up. Not sure how aspen shavings will affect the temps.

heat lamps will provide all the heat you need, but are hard on humidity. If you can maintain humidity then there is no need to switch to a UTH... but if you find that humidity is impossible to keep then you might need to use a UTH.

Not to complicate things further, but a Radiant Heat Panel might be a better choice than heat lamps or UTH's

RHP's look like a good option as well. First thing I guess now is getting the humidity measured with a large water bowl and that will determine if I need to add or switch heat sources.

Thanks again. I need to get a humidity gauge tomorrow. I put a decent size water bowl in the middle of the cage to get it started.

In my glass tank I switched to a night heat, no light 100watt and have had no issues with humidity, although I do mist once to twice a day. Just the drift wood.

I maintain

91-94 hot side
80-82 mid tank
73-76 cool side

50-60% humidity cool side
35-45 hot side.

But after reading this thread I'm going to be looking into a pvc box :Day and using the glass tank I have now for future QT

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ExotixTowing

In my glass tank I switched to a night heat, no light 100watt and have had no issues with humidity, although I do mist once to twice a day. Just the drift wood.

I maintain

91-94 hot side
80-82 mid tank
73-76 cool side

50-60% humidity cool side
35-45 hot side.

But after reading this thread I'm going to be looking into a pvc box :Day and using the glass tank I have now for future QT

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If you are looking into PVC cages check out this thread: http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...With-Pictures!

This has turned into a setup log lol..

Well my heat is very stable at 90-91 on the hot side and 80-81 on the cool.

I am measuring temps about 1-2 inches off the substrate is this correct? Or shod I be measuring 90-92 as a surface temp? I don't actually have the substrate yet because I wanted temps and humidity readings first because that may impact substrate choice. Hope that makes sense.

If these readings are good for temps I am on to humidity tests tomorrow.

BTW the tps are using a 100watt red heat bulb at full power.

It would be best to check temps in both the air and surface at this point. Once everything is set up the surface temps are more important.

Thanks! I think that I am pretty close on temps and I will try and get humidity checked over the next couple days and go from there. I just don't want to go and buy substrate intol I get both heat an humidity really close. After that I am going to buy the thermostat and get it setup. I don't think I am going to keep the cool side fixture in there because if anything I am worried it will be a little warm.

ok well with no substrate and temps correct I have a humudity of only 35% with a largish water bowl. Should I go with a aspen bedding or cypress mulch? I wanted to go with aspen because of easy cleanup and it is apparently better for the environment. Any thoughts?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by whispersinmyhead

ok well with no substrate and temps correct I have a humudity of only 35% with a largish water bowl. Should I go with a aspen bedding or cypress mulch? I wanted to go with aspen because of easy cleanup and it is apparently better for the environment. Any thoughts?

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You could divide the substrate 50-50 In my Lessers tank I am using Bark 50% then Aspen. In My Normals Tank 100% Aspen, I am just trying different things to find a happy Medium

Thanks everyone for all the help on this cage conversion! It has worked out great and saved me a ton of trial an error. I constantly worry about things and become very indecisive. Everyone here has been so friendly and helpful in the threads and all my lengthy and scatter-brained PM's.

Thanks again and here is the pics of the cage! (My new 7month old female pastel just got delivered last night. She was earlier than expected but the breeder had a ways to drive and happened to be coming this way was nice enough to deliver and gave me a great price. I didn't want him to have to make a special trip just for me so I rushed a little to get the substrate in and decorate.)

Here are a few pics of the cage. Gella is in her hide. She was out a little late last night and explored.

Thanks again you helped make my first snake setup a ton easier.

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7062/6...62a45d4a2f.jpg
IMG_0049 by Whispersinmyhead, on Flickr

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7187/6...d189e2f7fa.jpg
IMG_0052 by Whispersinmyhead, on Flickr

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7201/6...2694a503a7.jpg
IMG_0054 by Whispersinmyhead, on Flickr

I put moved the dimmer and electrical switches to the cabinet underneath. Just waiting for my Herpstat or VE which was is on order at a local shop but the breeder said he can get me a way better price. For now the temps are stable. I wanted to get the herpstat before but now I can get the bracket to hold the probe made. (Vitals: Hot side is 90-91.5, cool side 79-81, humidity was at 61% this morning. It was at 72% last night but the mulch was fresh).

Thanks
Jim

Wow that looks great, very professional looking. I really like how the light cages are just cable tied together so changing the bulb should be super easy.

Cypress is the best for humidity. Make sure its grade a cypress not a blend. Do not under any circumstance mixed cypress with aspen. Aspen will mold. I run a himidifier in my snake rooms that is connected to the thermostat that controls my room heat. It stays 84 degrees with 60% humidity in the rooms and my racks and caging are all cypress. I do use paper in the fall on some of my girls that have to be temp dropped but most of my girls dont temp drop

Pretty happy with it! I just need to get a herpstat now and prep for her first feeding!

The cypress is 100% cypress zoomed brand.

The zoomed cypress is good stuff. Its way to pricey if you need alot of it but if you are just doing a couple enclosures its great. I get my cypress by the pallets. I usually use kambark but if i cant get it then i get florida gold double milled grade a cypress from corbitt

This is my first snake and if it becomes and addiction LOL then it will be racks for the rest with this being my display cage. I didn't want to chance getting bugs or anything from hardware store cypress so I didn't really look around. The big bag was $28 but I still have 1/4 left for spot cleaning. I spend $30 on worse things during a month I am sure. I stopped drinking coffee at coffee shops (no more Timmies) so that covers my substrate expense LOL. With the heat bulb as the primary heat source I had a humidity level of only 32% and the room was at 40-45%. I knew I would need more humidity and thanks to all the advice/info here it led me to cypress. That will battle the humidity sucking red bulb and allows me to reuse this enclosure.

The zoomed cypress is the best you can buy for sure. It is so fine almost like shredded aspen. The only issue i get from big bagged bulk cypress is its chunkier and sometimes i get a chunk that looks like a 2x4 lol

Quote:

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Originally Posted by snake lab

The zoomed cypress is the best you can buy for sure. It is so fine almost like shredded aspen. The only issue i get from big bagged bulk cypress is its chunkier and sometimes i get a chunk that looks like a 2x4 lol

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This stuff is really nice consistency and seems easy to spot clean. I really like it even the smell is nice.

Do you have to bake the bulk stuff or anything. Bugs? I think for one enclosure I don't mind getting the zoomed for now unless I see something that works the same for a little less. I don't like to take too many chances. Especially because I will have enough stress over switching her from live to F/T. That is the next challenge I think. The T-Stat is coming so that will be nice and I will put it in once she is acclimated so I don't disturb her.

No the stuff i get rarely has any bugs in it and if i ever see any ill just spray with reptile relief but it is very rare i see any bugs in it.

Well I think I have everything nailed down on this cage except the T-Stat and that is coming. I also am building a mount for the probe. For safety reasons I am keeping the heat bulb wattage as close as possible to the maximum wattage needed. This way if something fails it won't be able to get to ridiculous temps but just keep everything fairly even. This is the hopes.

My Temps on my hot side (on top of the hide which is a half log under the heat lamp) is 92 as a surface temp. 78-82 is the range on the cool side. I think one small corner dips down to 75. I hope this makes sense to those of you who read this. My girl spends a lot of time on the cool side except at night she seems to go and soak up some heat and explore.

My question is: What should the temp inside the hot hide be?

The temp inside the hide is not 92 because it is a half log and it seems to be low 80's in there. Is that enough or should I switch my hides? Both are identical (or close to).

Thanks
Jim