Fire Prevention

After what just happened to Pro Exotics as well as what happened to Bob Clark recently, I thought it might be good to start a thread on what we can do to minimize the likelihood of a fire. Before I give my personal tips, let me be very clear here - this thread is NOT about what Pro Exotics or Bob Clark could have or should have done to prevent it. Sometimes bad things just happen. Here are a few of my suggestions:
1) Use as low wattage heat tape as you can get away with. Mine are only 8 watts and do fine keeping the hot side of the tubs 88 degrees with ambient temps in the upper 70's and they are capable of going hotter. There is no need to go with higher wattage for racks unless you keep your ambient temps much lower which I wouldn't recommend anyway. If you need a larger basking spot, consider wiring two low wattage heat strips rather than one larger, higher wattage one (you really won't need to unless you keep large snakes).
2) Use a good thermostat. Personally I consider this the most important piece of equipment I own. Do not trust your snakes to a cheap, bottom line thermostat, period. That's the last place you want to try and save money.
3) Use the dual thermostat method. This is where you plug your main proportional thermostat into an on/off thermostat set to a slightly higher temperature and put both probes next to each other. The on/off thermostat is going to be much cheaper. This will likely be something in the range of $25 so it's a no brainer. If your primary fails, the secondary will shut it off before it gets much hotter. Cheapest insurance you can buy.
4) Make sure you have GFI outlets for everything you plug in. These are those outlets that have the little breaker built in. These are more sensitive than your main breakers in your breaker box and will trip quickly if something that is plugged into them shorts out. They are very inexpensive but if you do not know what you're doing, please hire an electrician. Not worth killing yourself to save a buck.
5) Never allow your tubs to rub on exposed heat strips. Always cover them completely with aluminum tape. Otherwise the protective plastic covering can rub off over time.
6) Use the plastic coverings over the heat strip clips. This prevents anything that conducts electricity from being exposed.
7) Secure your probes VERY well. I tape mine down with a ton of aluminum tape where they will not move, period. This tape is very heat resistant so it doesn't lose adhesiveness.
This is by no means an exhaustive list so let's hear the rest of your tips. We can not be too careful so my hope is that this thread can help prevent this from happening to another one of us.

great thread

Lance

I just got a few things, 1 ) very good thread 2) what happened to Bob Clark? 3) if people have a larger collection ( Where it takes a separate building to house them) I would purchase a sprinkler system. I don't know if they had one or not. But it won't prevent the fire but could help put it out....

Sprinklers 100%. Also I know you can get alarms that if a fire sensor goes off it txts or calls the alarm company or you. I'm looking into this if we ever get through the house buying process arg. And just be safe. Don't over work the outlets. Make sure you update the powerstrips those get old and fail too.


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Bob Clark recently lost a good potion of his collection due to a fire at his facility. Btw


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I did not know that but it is so sad these people have thousands of thousands of snakes. It kinda stinks, like what happened to BHB a few years ago ( I think) a storm flooded their building thankfully if I remember no animals died.
Could be wrong though

There are arc fault beakers available, only slightly more expensive. They would replace a breaker in your box.

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Great thread! I saw on my facebook news feed a few days ago a post by NERD suggesting that everyone consider the things they do that could be dangerous. They also commented something along the lines of how not to put heat tape on a wooden rack and that metal doesn't burn. So it made me start thinking about whether going with a metal rack (eg ARS/Freedom Breeder) over plastic (eg RBI/Animal Plastics) would be a good idea from a fire prevention standpoint. I have such a small collection that I am currently using RBI & AP, but it made think about my future plans. I am not even close to being an expert in any of these matters, so I was wondering what other people thought?

PVCx is a natural fire retardant, metal can cause arcing and shorts To be honest I don't think it matters about the rack material, inspecting every piece of heating every wire and connection every few months is likely a great way to prevent problems. Yes it is a ton of work but...

Fail safe thermostats. My belief is that any and every thermostat can and will fail eventually. A fail safe protects the animals in the event of a failure and protects against over heating of the flexwatt and enclosures as well. I don't believe it is something that should be over looked. that is the best use of a hydrofarm to my mind it is almost made for it.

To Kitedemon: you mention a Hydrofarm - what is this?? Can you explain it for me please.

Thanks

My best advice would be to not cheap out on thermostats

Use double thermostats and use the good ones like Ranco or Johnson Controls on room heaters. Use Proportional on Flexwatt, whether they be the Spyder Robotics or the Helix.

Limit use of extension cords and power strips

Watch placement of oil filled heaters

Also, just keep everything up to date if possible

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Originally Posted by Hypnotic Exotic

5) Never allow your tubs to rub on exposed heat strips. Always cover them completely with aluminum tape. Otherwise the protective plastic covering can rub off over time.
6) Use the plastic coverings over the heat strip clips. This prevents anything that conducts electricity from being exposed.
7) Secure your probes VERY well. I tape mine down with a ton of aluminum tape where they will not move, period. This tape is very heat resistant so it doesn't lose adhesiveness.

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When making my racks, I tape in a wooden shim (Lowes or HomeDepot sell them for leveling doors and windows)This serves as a backstop for my tubs. They wont come in contact with the connector clips or push on the temp probes either. I also lay 3 layers of aluminum tape in the front and sides of my flex-a-watt so I have a "wear" surface.

http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h1...-55-29_291.jpg

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Originally Posted by Chris633

They also commented something along the lines of how not to put heat tape on a wooden rack and that metal doesn't burn. So it made me start thinking about whether going with a metal rack (eg ARS/Freedom Breeder) over plastic (eg RBI/Animal Plastics) would be a good idea from a fire prevention standpoint.

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The tubs are still plastic and can burn and melt;)



I have been thinking for the past couple days on a sprinkler system for a snake/reptile room.
My worry with a sprinkler system is the potential to drown some of the collection. But if you have a "mini" roof over the racks then you could now be protecting the fire:confused:
Maybe design a rack with a built in system with nozzles directed away from the tubs. Then what would the costs be for such a system and how many people would install them due to cost??

Hydrofarm is a thermostat that is designed for seedling mats made by hydrofarm. It is a simple on off thermostat. it runs a relay system similar to ranco and johnson. There probe accuracy is very poor but they are contestant. It is not my first choice for a primary thermostat but it makes a good failsafe or back up thermostat. It is quite inexpensive (I feed more money in rats every week) so it is not cost prohibitive to have just being a back up.



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I agree that a good t-stat is worth its weight in gold. I personally feel that purpose made ones are best as they are designed to do what you expect them to. That is not really part of this debate. A failsafe thermostat additional protection cannot be under rated. The issues that make a cheap thermostat poor are not so critical as a back up if it isn't as accurate as it could be and if it tends to swing temps isn't very critical as a failsafe it will do until the primary can be replaced. I'd suspect an breeder of size has a spare T-stat or two sitting on a shelf waiting to be needed.

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Originally Posted by PitOnTheProwl

I have been thinking for the past couple days on a sprinkler system for a snake/reptile room.
My worry with a sprinkler system is the potential to drown some of the collection. But if you have a "mini" roof over the racks then you could now be protecting the fire:confused:
Maybe design a rack with a built in system with nozzles directed away from the tubs. Then what would the costs be for such a system and how many people would install them due to cost??

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Just a thought in a rack it would get the full flow of a sprinkler so a few lower holes in every tub might be enough to clear much of the water out. I know sprinklers toss a monster amount of water but a covered rack would stop a fair bit. It might be enough to keep them from completely filling up.

This is an excellent thread topic. I agree that a using high quality proportional thermostats in conjunction with surge protected power strips is an invaluable part of fire prevention. Periodic inspections and preventative maintenance of all equipment is also essential. Anyone with a large breeding facility should consider a fire detection system and sprinklers. For most people who have converted a spare bedroom into a snake room, installing a smoke detector and having a readily available fire extinguisher should be adequate. Hopefully this recent tragedy at Pro Exotics can serve as a wake-up call that we all need to be vigilant.

Thanks for the response on metal vs PVC. Another question I have is this. When I was first researching probe placement on this and other forums, I read differing advice on using packing tape vs aluminum tape to secure the probe to the flexwatt. Aluminum tape seemed to make the most sense to me going in, but I read that having it on the flexwatt could cause problems. Proper placement of probes is so critical (especially having them not fall off), I just wonder which is the best/safest way to secure it on flexwatt heat tape?

Here is one of the threads that talked about this:

http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...=1#post1554536

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Originally Posted by MoonlightBoas

having a readily available fire extinguisher should be adequate.

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Dont know IF you have ever had to use one before??
In a small room like most of our reptile rooms are, they will remove almost all of the oxygen out of the room. Also I dont know how safe the dry chemicals would be, I know they will irritate my skin (sadly I dont have any allergies either)

I know its a hard idea with me saying bad idea BUT you could save all of your hardware but might kill everything living.:confused:

Fire extinguishers do remove much of the oxygen, but reptiles have much lower metabolic rates than humans or other mammals. Snakes at least are capable of surviving with very little oxygen for quite a while, then they bounce back just fine. I can't vouch for the chemicals, but O2 content shouldn't be an issue, especially considering how much oxygen a FIRE removes from the air. I would think that an extinguisher would cause much more harm to a feeder colony of mice or rats than the the snakes themselves, though I could be completely off base. I like to have them around, especially near the snakes and the kitchen.

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Originally Posted by PitOnTheProwl

Dont know IF you have ever had to use one before??
In a small room like most of our reptile rooms are, they will remove almost all of the oxygen out of the room. Also I dont know how safe the dry chemicals would be, I know they will irritate my skin (sadly I dont have any allergies either)

I know its a hard idea with me saying bad idea BUT you could save all of your hardware but might kill everything living.:confused:

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I have to disagree with you on this one. Anything you can do to prevent a fire to begin with or knock one down in the early stages of it is a good idea.
Dry chemical extinguishers are typically filled with sodium bicarbionate or monoammonium phosphate which are both non-toxic but may cause some skin and lung irritation. Yes they may displace some of the oxygen in a small room, but a fire is going to consume that same oxygen much more quickly and destroy everything.

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Originally Posted by kitedemon

Just a thought in a rack it would get the full flow of a sprinkler so a few lower holes in every tub might be enough to clear much of the water out. I know sprinklers toss a monster amount of water but a covered rack would stop a fair bit. It might be enough to keep them from completely filling up.

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Actually sprinkler systems use a rather small amount of water usually 10-20 gpm's per sprinkler head, compared to 250 gpm's once the fire department arrives. But I do agree that adding a few holes lower in the tubs to prevent them from completely filling up definitely wouldn't hurt.

A nice piece of inexpensive equipment which may be helpful is TemperatureGuard made by Microtechnologies Inc. You can set it to let you know if the temperature goes outside a certain range. If it does, the device is hooked up to a phone line and it calls you.

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Originally Posted by PitOnTheProwl

Dont know IF you have ever had to use one before??
In a small room like most of our reptile rooms are, they will remove almost all of the oxygen out of the room. Also I dont know how safe the dry chemicals would be, I know they will irritate my skin (sadly I dont have any allergies either)

I know its a hard idea with me saying bad idea BUT you could save all of your hardware but might kill everything living.:confused:

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By no means am I an expert on fire extinguishers, but I did a few minutes of research before writing this response. The most common types of fire extinguishers fight fires by restricting access to oxygen by coating burning objects with a fire retardant foam or powder. When it breaks down at high enough temperatures, carbon dioxide is released which displaces the oxygen around a fire. These are non-toxic, but are often mildly corrosive and can irritate the skin.

Personally, I'd rather take the chance of causing mild irritation to my snakes than let them burn to death. Also, if you catch the fire quickly enough you may be able to prevent it from getting out of control and burning your house down.

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Originally Posted by AtlasStrike

Fire extinguishers do remove much of the oxygen, but reptiles have much lower metabolic rates than humans or other mammals. Snakes at least are capable of surviving with very little oxygen for quite a while, then they bounce back just fine. I can't vouch for the chemicals, but O2 content shouldn't be an issue, especially considering how much oxygen a FIRE removes from the air.

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I agree with you. Because of a snake's slow metabolism, I believe they could survive a limited amount of time without air while you're fighting a fire. I've seen a snake hold its breath in its water bowl for 5 minutes, and a friend told me he's seen one completely submerged for 30 minutes.

I'm only speaking from personal experience from what I have used and seen.
We had a fire in a 3 car garage, one of the guys was welding up a new cross member.
I saw it and was heading that way with a bucket of water but one of the guys beat me with a 25lb extinguisher. When he lit it off the whole shop turned white quick, it was rather funny.
It did put the fire out quick but my lungs were burning for a couple days after that and I wanst in there more than 45-60 seconds.
We spent weeks finding that stuff everywhere:rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl:
Even had to pay to detail a customers car that was on the other side of the shop.

Dave thanks!
I'm glad someone knew what that technology was called I've been looking for it for a bit now. The guy who I was taking to about it couldn't remember what it was called. Well be installing this in our new house when we get one for sure!


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I have been on the end of a dry chemical extinguisher it isn't fun but I also have been in a space that sprinklers went off in and that isn't either. The best is not to need either and check for faults before fire starts. Inspection, fail safes, GFIs.

The other thing I though of is not to use lamp cord with flexwatt it simply is not made to take the loads that flexwatt can draw. I use heater cord it is easier to work with and has much higher ratings.

I have seen old tech info from Calorique that stated flexwatt should not be run for prolong periods at over 95ºF I don't know if that still applies or not. But I personally have always followed that and never set it higher.

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Originally Posted by kitedemon

The best is not to need either and check for faults before fire starts. Inspection, fail safes, GFIs.

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This is true............how many people are actually around when "the fire" started?? Usually none:confused:

I used to have a monitored fire alarm in my building but it was constantly false alarming. Had techs out multiple times and couldn't figure it out. They thought it might be getting dust in it from when I change out bedding (aspen dust goes everywhere) but not once when it false alarmed was it dusty at all. It was wireless and I thought the signal was somehow getting blocked but they said once it was detected, it should be fine from then on. We checked batteries, everything. I have a wireless burglar alarm on the door and that works fine but the fire alarm was constantly malfunctioning. Any ideas? I feel I need to do something to have it monitored but I could just not have this thing malfunctioning all the time. Sometimes it would go months and then just randomly go off.

I can't tell you anything about burglar alarms but the ecozone controller has provisions for email/text messaging for over and under temp alarms. Plus the most features on any of the proportional controllers (and costly)

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Originally Posted by AZmorphedballs

Actually sprinkler systems use a rather small amount of water usually 10-20 gpm's per sprinkler head, compared to 250 gpm's once the fire department arrives. But I do agree that adding a few holes lower in the tubs to prevent them from completely filling up definitely wouldn't hurt.

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10 to 20 gallons per min per head figure a small room 8 foot by 12 foot has at least 3 (my 8x12 office actually has 4) so 30-60 gallons in one minute seems like a lot of water to me. Unless my math is failing me in ten minutes that is almost 12 inches of water on my office floor if it stayed in there. :O

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Originally Posted by kitedemon

10 to 20 gallons per min per head figure a small room 8 foot by 12 foot has at least 3 (my 8x12 office actually has 4) so 30-60 gallons in one minute seems like a lot of water to me. Unless my math is failing me in ten minutes that is almost 12 inches of water on my office floor if it stayed in there. :O

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I don't want to start a huge arguement with regards to this but a small room
8x12, 10x10, 10x12 should only need a single springler head. Especially if we are talking residential such as if you were using a spare bedroom as your snake room.
Also the sprinkler head rating based on a light fire load is .1 gpm per square foot, So a 10x12 room would only need a 12 gpm sprinkler head.

I'm looking at the temperature guards. If you can get a phone line dropped in, then it's only about $300 and you don't have the monthly fee you have with the cell service one so not bad. I'm calling ADT tomorrow to discuss other options since the fire alarm wouldn't ever work right. I think they have temperature monitors too and I'd rather it be through them if I can get something that won't false alarm since it will contact the fire department directly.

<----- semi active firefighter. the sprinklers work best and the dry chems are your best back up fora non sprinler building.. ( don't count me as expert here either only been in fire house since 1996) The 1 draw back to sprinkler is the temps needed to activate them ( about 150 degrees if I remember my school back then) but only work if the system activated.and are also know to fail/ go off for no reason ( specailly if id a dry kept system and freeze if a place gets too cold in winter.) the dry chem portable exst( sorry brain not wanting to spell tonight) are great but require you or someone to be there to use them plus they can loose pressure after a time so needto be checked ( and most can't be recharged)
Now I agree with the gfi, the dual tstats, and the covering of the flexwatt, I also have have wooden racks and have had heat tape melt( burnnig the floor and the cage as it did so) the best trick I seen and like outside of the inspecting of parts was the designing of racks were the heat tape will sit inside a groove and not make much actual contact with the tubs.
I will aslo point out thata gfi can go bad too ( replaced 2 in the almost 20 years My mother had her trailer. )

I don't really know anything about sprinklers I know my office is 8x12 ish and has 3 heads in it. I don't think I would have been given more than code so I can only assume that is code. I have been in a large room when a sprinkler was set off accidentally (filmset) and all I can tell you is I was dry then soaked to the skin faster than I could get out of the room with the door ten feet away it is whatever the flow rate lots of water.

I don't think the casual keeper is likely going to invest in a sprinkler system. Fail safes and checking every connection and using wiring heavy enough to carry the max load (plus 20% more at least) is the realistic way for most. Personally I'd remove the old insulation from my place before I installed a sprinkler system.

I was talking to a friend the other night and mentioned the fire and he has 2x 2l pop bottles filled with water and sand (old school) behind every tub in his rack (it is the biggest rack I have ever seen but aside from that..) he thinks that if there is a massive problem the heat will melt the pop bottle (it is on the flexwatt to help with ambient temps apparently) and spill water tripping a breaker and hopefully putting out the fire. No idea if it would work but hey it can't hurt.

I called ADT about the heat sensor and am getting one installed in the next few weeks (soonest I could get a tech out). I asked about the false alarms with the smoke detector and finally got a straight answer. They are VERY sensitive to dust and if a spider decides to spin a web on one overnight, that will wreak havoc too. REALLY!?!? When changing bedding (which I explained), dust is going to fly a bit. I don't remember whether the false alarms were the day after changing bedding or not but either way, not the best for that situation. Heat detectors aren't my favorite option but they at least protect my house if something happens.

Bottom line - prevention is key. Once you have a fire, unless you have a sprinkler system, the fire department isn't making it out there in time. I would like to know more about these pop bottles though. Sounds like it just might work. I figure with GFI outlets, once something starts to meltdown or short, power is going to get cut so if they would put out the fire quickly before it has time to spread, that just might work. One last thing, does anyone know how hot melamine can stand?

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Originally Posted by kitedemon

I was talking to a friend the other night and mentioned the fire and he has 2x 2l pop bottles filled with water and sand (old school) behind every tub in his rack (it is the biggest rack I have ever seen but aside from that..) he thinks that if there is a massive problem the heat will melt the pop bottle (it is on the flexwatt to help with ambient temps apparently) and spill water tripping a breaker and hopefully putting out the fire. No idea if it would work but hey it can't hurt.

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That is a good idea, I might have to start saving some water bottles;)

I don't know if it would work but the idea is interesting. I have no idea if it would work and there is no real way to test it. It might help might not. Prevention is the key.

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Originally Posted by kitedemon

Just a thought in a rack it would get the full flow of a sprinkler so a few lower holes in every tub might be enough to clear much of the water out. I know sprinklers toss a monster amount of water but a covered rack would stop a fair bit. It might be enough to keep them from completely filling up.

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Exactly what I was thinking, Or maybe like a slanted thing above the rack so water slides away from tubs... But that may be counter active.

We were discussing on another forum and something else came up. With the exception of wood racks (which I would recommend you don't use), most racks including melamine are somewhat fire resistant. The issue is if you have Flexwatt or heat cable overheat or short and it starts arcing, you don't want anything flammable near it. We all probably have something VERY flammable we keep in our snake rooms - bedding. I know I keep a large bag of aspen back there all the time. It doesn't take much to light shredded aspen, just a few sparks. Plus it's packaged in a paper sack. I'm going to start storing it in a metal trash can with the lid on.

I don't know if dumping water on an electrical arc with a melted two liter is a good idea. The principal is good but if it doesn't trip the breaker or the plug it may cause more arching in other areas increasing the problem. I'm pretty sure sprinkler systems have a electrical disconnect installed incase they are activated. Sorry to repeat this part but the AFCI (Arc fault circuit interrupt) type breakers are designed to trip with non normal arcing. (normal arc is like flipping a light switch or plugging something in)



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If you were to be concerned about fire retardant racks I think you have to steer clear of melamine it take a bit higher temp to burn than wood but not tons higher Pure melamine is quite high but backed melamine with particle board is slightly higher than the wood its self about 300-350ºC. PVCx are in the 550-570ºC range If you were to be looking at fire retardant racks metal or PVCx. The notion of substrate is a great one, I myself have not looked at the plastic container of it the same way since.

I actually don't know what water and sand would do with an electrical fire. I just know my friend does this and it is an interesting idea. GFIs AFCI or the rest of the similar breaker products are a relatively cheap and easy defence. I would look first to replacing the breakers with one of these types before I spend any money on anything else.

SPRINKLER SYSTEMS

I had the opportunity to talk to a local fire chief, and we got on the topic of sprinkler systems in homes. They aren't prohibitively expensive, especially considering the cost of some of your snake collections.

If I ever build my own home, I'm definitely putting a sprinkler system in it.. too bad I'm just renting right now.

I just talked to Tracy Barker at the Houston expo and she said something that may make many of these tips irrelevant. She does not provide belly heat at all except for ovulating females. She keeps the ambient at 81 degrees and they are fine. She even said she doesn't have females hitting the "wall" and refuse to keep eating and thinks that's due to them not being kept as hot as most keepers keep them. She does this with both ball pythons and boa constrictors (not sure about her bloods since she didn't mention those). Obviously the absence of Flexwatt or heat cable means there is no more fire risk than what's in the rest of your house unless you have to use space heaters to get it to 81 degees. What's everybody's thoughts on this? Since I can keep my reptile room at 81 degrees without a space heater (it has a window unit that has heat), I think I'm going to try it but I'm going to lower the belly heat slowly rather than just cutting it off abruptly. Tracy's been breeding longer than pretty much anybody so I trust her take on this. She's obviously doing something right.

Very interesting thread, I'm a bit of a worrier so this has been on my mind a lot lately.

I'm looking into building my first rack and using flexwatt for the first time. The current plan is to wire up a strip of heat tape for each shelf separately using a cut-off extension cord for each strip. Then plug all of the cords into a power strip, power strip into the thermostat, and thermostat into my hydrofarm as a backup. Is that too many plugs plugged into too many things?

It seems easier to me than running the tape in parallel, but does adding that powerstrip into my "line" of plugs make things more dangerous? I know next to -nothing- about this sort of stuff. XD

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Originally Posted by ShockBunny

Very interesting thread, I'm a bit of a worrier so this has been on my mind a lot lately.

I'm looking into building my first rack and using flexwatt for the first time. The current plan is to wire up a strip of heat tape for each shelf separately using a cut-off extension cord for each strip. Then plug all of the cords into a power strip, power strip into the thermostat, and thermostat into my hydrofarm as a backup. Is that too many plugs plugged into too many things?

It seems easier to me than running the tape in parallel, but does adding that powerstrip into my "line" of plugs make things more dangerous? I know next to -nothing- about this sort of stuff. XD

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Mine are wired in parallel. I would not want that many plugs myself. Make sure you get the plastic clips to go over the metal Flexwatt connectors, electrical tape on the opposite end to avoid exposed connections and cover with aluminum tape. Personally I am looking to abandon belly heat but I have a dedicated building I can control and prior experience keeping snakes this way.

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Originally Posted by Hypnotic Exotic

Mine are wired in parallel. I would not want that many plugs myself. Make sure you get the plastic clips to go over the metal Flexwatt connectors, electrical tape on the opposite end to avoid exposed connections and cover with aluminum tape. Personally I am looking to abandon belly heat but I have a dedicated building I can control and prior experience keeping snakes this way.

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Ah, ok. So if I wire in parallel, what type of wire should I be looking for? Also, my boyfriend was going to solder the connections and cover them with electrical tape, will that word as well as the clips?

Thanks for the help! I definitely want to get this 100% figured out before I buy anything.

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Originally Posted by ShockBunny

Ah, ok. So if I wire in parallel, what type of wire should I be looking for? Also, my boyfriend was going to solder the connections and cover them with electrical tape, will that word as well as the clips?

Thanks for the help! I definitely want to get this 100% figured out before I buy anything.

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The clips and plastic covers are cheap. I would use those. You can get them at. Bean Farm online along with Flexwatt. I used electric cord and just cut it into pieces. There are lots of places online that show how to wire it. The issue I have with electric tape covering solder is it coming loose. The plastic covers snap over the connectors.

Alrighty, thanks. :)

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Originally Posted by Hypnotic Exotic

I just talked to Tracy Barker at the Houston expo and she said something that may make many of these tips irrelevant. She does not provide belly heat at all except for ovulating females. She keeps the ambient at 81 degrees and they are fine. She even said she doesn't have females hitting the "wall" and refuse to keep eating and thinks that's due to them not being kept as hot as most keepers keep them. She does this with both ball pythons and boa constrictors (not sure about her bloods since she didn't mention those). Obviously the absence of Flexwatt or heat cable means there is no more fire risk than what's in the rest of your house unless you have to use space heaters to get it to 81 degees. What's everybody's thoughts on this? Since I can keep my reptile room at 81 degrees without a space heater (it has a window unit that has heat), I think I'm going to try it but I'm going to lower the belly heat slowly rather than just cutting it off abruptly. Tracy's been breeding longer than pretty much anybody so I trust her take on this. She's obviously doing something right.

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That's basically what I do with my corn. I keep my room in the lower to mid 80s, since that's comfortable for me. Besides a UTH on one side, my snake has no heat. She stays entirely on the cool side and is active in a proper amount (she comes out in the evening and wanders around a bit before hanging out at the front of the tank). I have absolutely no issues with her. She eats properly, has never gotten sick, etc.

On the topic of fire prevention. Everyone mentions equipment, but rarely what to plug into. Extension cords are obviously something to stay away from. However, if they must be used, use heavy duty cords. Stuff that's designed to take a big load. The same goes for strip bar plugins.

I don't know if this has been addressed yet, but if you're using heat lamps on screen lids (for the species they work for, of course), don't let the lamp touch the plastic edges of the lid or enclosure. I've melted lids before, thankfully only to the point of warping and not dripping, but it's still not a pretty thought.