Retic cage thoughts

Had an epiphany looking at pics of a FB friend’s snake room... connect three or four Milwaukee furniture dollys with two 1”x4”x8’ whitewood boards to make a cart for the cage. Would be way cheaper and faster than my severely over engineered designs. That may be the answer. Non locking casters but I could swap two of them out for a locking pair.


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Pro Products got back to me about panels for the new cage. Woof, gonna be a pricey one. Either one 190watt panel for $250 or two 100watt panels, one for both sides, for $120 each. Will have to think on this for a min. One panel would get he job done but he says it may get a little hot directly under it and create a very large temp gradient. Two panels would spread the power across the cage more evenly but then I’d also need another thermostat to control the big cages. Hrmmm...


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What would any of y’all do with this size cage and with the heat panel recommendations? One big panel or two smaller?


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Alternatively I could use a 160watt Reptile Basics panel and it would be half the price and free shipping. I do feel a loyalty to Pro Products though as all of my other cages have their panels and the 10 year warranty is nice... 2-3 weeks to build and ship the pro products panel, a week to shop the RBI panel.
Anyone care to weigh in on this?


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I personally would use 2 panels and a Herpstat 2 of I was in your situation, but that is purely based on my gut instinct with no basis on experience

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Originally Posted by Avsha531

I personally would use 2 panels and a Herpstat 2 of I was in your situation, but that is purely based on my gut instinct with no basis on experience

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Thank you! I ended up deciding to go with the single larger panel. My reasoning is that my retic seems to enjoy a wider temperature gradient and using two panels would make for a more narrow gradient. I’ve got two herpstat 2, one channel currently not used. If I went with two panels I’d have to get at least another herpstat 1, adding another $150 to this cage build which is already setting me back about $1100.
Larger panel will also cover about a tad less than 1/3 the length of the cage which is my ideal hot spot size.


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Originally Posted by jmcrook

Thank you! I ended up deciding to go with the single larger panel. My reasoning is that my retic seems to enjoy a wider temperature gradient and using two panels would make for a more narrow gradient. I’ve got two herpstat 2, one channel currently not used. If I went with two panels I’d have to get at least another herpstat 1, adding another $150 to this cage build which is already setting me back about $1100.
Larger panel will also cover about a tad less than 1/3 the length of the cage which is my ideal hot spot size.


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Ok makes sense. Been following this thread, can't wait to see the finished product!

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by jmcrook

Thank you! I ended up deciding to go with the single larger panel. My reasoning is that my retic seems to enjoy a wider temperature gradient and using two panels would make for a more narrow gradient. I’ve got two herpstat 2, one channel currently not used. If I went with two panels I’d have to get at least another herpstat 1, adding another $150 to this cage build which is already setting me back about $1100.
Larger panel will also cover about a tad less than 1/3 the length of the cage which is my ideal hot spot size.


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I couldn't agree more. Plus the Herpstat can be set for a night drop. I do it with all of my cages. Even if your hot spot, dead center was 100 degrees at certain stages, she's got another 4 feet to work with on the cool side.

The night drop allows for an even further range of temps for 8-12 hours.

You are getting dialed in!

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Originally Posted by Gio

I couldn't agree more. Plus the Herpstat can be set for a night drop. I do it with all of my cages. Even if your hot spot, dead center was 100 degrees at certain stages, she's got another 4 feet to work with on the cool side.

The night drop allows for an even further range of temps for 8-12 hours.

You are getting dialed in!

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Yep! One of my herpstats also has a setting to limit the max % of power provided to the heating element. I could send the other back to be reprogrammed but it does just fine controlling the smaller panels in my 4’ cages, never goes over 60%. The bigger panel will go up to a 70-80-90% depending on the set temps so I programmed it to not use more than 65% power. It will run the panel for longer periods of time but a more consistent and gentle heat and it stabilized the temps a good deal. Getting super pumped to put this all together. My snake room will be a bit more cramped but not bad. Looking forward to two small walls of snakes to enjoy observing. Next I need a comfier chair to enjoy my “entertainment center” from at night lol


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Giant Pro Products RHP arrived today. Cage should be shipping next week. So close...


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