Tub / Rack heat options

We now have three BP's and are considering a rack system from animal plastics.

They seem to like the side radiant heat for the Iris racks, my questions is which work best or poor and why.

Also wanted to see numbers of users, thus the poll.

Belly heat is the best option IMO because it aids in digestion.

Back heat all the way. I use it in every single one of my racks. ( 5 At the moment)

Go with belly heat. Ball pythons are ground dwelling snakes and bell heat works the best for them. Radiant heat works better for arboreal snakes.

I have two Animal Plastics racks and both have the side radiant heat. I have not had any issues at all. Temps are good, no problems with keeping humidity and have not had any issues with digestion.

it would all depend on your room temps and also which rack you are talking about

Belly heat is the best choice for a Ball,

Daniel

I've been thinking about designing a rack myself. I feel heat method really depends on how the rack is designed. If it has open sides/back then you have to go with belly heat. I intend on designing an enclosed rack system and am opting for back heat for a couple of reasons.

First, every time I've heard of snakes dying because of malfunctioning equipment and heat spikes they have always had belly heat in place. I'm not saying that back heat has never killed snakes. But all the issues I've heard have been with belly heat.

Second, the wiring is simpler, easier and imo safer as less soddering and connecting is needed in setting up the heat tape.

Like I said, back heat will work for me because of my design. Should you opt for an open concept rack then it will be a different call.

Good luck with your decision.

I say belly heat.

And sorry to derail for a bit, but what do you guys use for the tubs? uth?

I've got several animal plastics racks with the radient side heat. It works better then the back heat however I think I still like the belly heat better. The radient side heat does a good job of raising the ambient temperature in the bin, but belly heat puts the heat where it's needed for digestion. And don't go with heat cable for belly heat, go with the widest heat tape you can get.

I have the AP three tub sterilite series rack with belly heat and am extremely happy with it. Life is so much easier since switching to racks from aquariums and let me tell you i definately think my snakes are way more relaxed and the feeding response is even more tremendous. My temps are dead on along with my humidity. I run a herpstat with my rack also. Hope you'll be as happy as i am with mine! Good luck whaat ever your choice.

It really depends, sometimes back heat is a lot easyer then belly heat, but if your room is cold then use belly heat, but if you have a warm room all yr long then back heat will be ok

Belly heat all the way :)

I have racks with both back and belly heat. yes back heat is safer as the tub is not in as much contact. I keep most of my males in the back heat racks. breeding females, I have more success in the belly heated racks. I also have a snakeroom where these racks are kept and it's heat and humidity controlled.I know of breeders who use back heat even for breeding and have success with it. he just recently had a mishap using a helix that was over 10 years old and with backheat lost a rack of snakes. but most of the big breeders I know use belly heat. Buy quality equipment and check your equipment to lower the chances of a mishap.

RBI has some pretty nice racks, if you wanted to know more about them, we wrote a little article over at the reptile blog, Herp Daily

This is all just my opinion as I am not a biologist. This just works for me!

All 7 of our racks have belly heat and all of our displays have belly heat. We tried a back heat configuration and it works, but we were not happy with how the heat the tub saw depended on room temps. A room temp difference of 5 degrees F would cause up to 3 degrees F change in the "hot Spot" of the tub.

On a side note very few manufacturers of baby racks offer belly heat and those that do generally charge significantly more for the option. Unfortunately I think babies may need the most help with digestion, and thus, I definately pay a little extra to make sure my baby racks are a belly heat configuration.

I've got Cornel's World(Calgary, Alberta Canada, made by Greg West) PVCX Racks, CB70 and 2 MCB-L's, all with belly heat. perfect humidty, holds a perfect ambient, no digestion problems.

belly is the best for balls.

i personally think belly heat is the best

Ball pythons benefit from belly heat because they have higher temperature requirements. Belly heat uses the natural tendency of heat to rise PLUS conduction allows for the most efficent heat transfer possible. Since flex watt heat tape should not be used above 95 degrees (per manufacturer specs), you can not achieve a 95 degree ambient "hot spot" with back heat UNLESS your room is already above 92 degrees. Back heat can ONLY produce a ambient or a "wall" temperature, unlike belly heat that heats floor and air.(and of course snake)

this thread started over a year ago....