Heating

So after reading several threads on here and combining my knowledge already for the new permanent habitat that is finished for the most part (we just have to mount the doors) I wanted to get an opinion the 4x2x2 enclosure that will house each girl (yes each has her own habitat) will be fairly cluttered with miscellaneous decorations to be removed as they grow. My home temp stays around 68 occasionally it gets up to 70 and often at night drops to the low 60's (we like it cold) we have set up the new habitats to have 2 heat lamps for ambient temp as well as a 50 watt halogen as one of them for the hot side we also are considering running heat tape over the entire bottom with a sheet of plexiglass over it connected to a thermostat set at 80 to ensure belly heat stays a minimum 78-80 the substrate is a aspen and coco husk combo 75%coco husk and 25% aspen to keep humidity up only about 1 - 1 1/2 in thick

The structure itself is constructed of solid birch 3/4in sheets and 1x2 in trim and frame support the roof is perforated mdf to allow ventilation front and doors is trimmed plexiglassthermometers and hydro meters there are three thermometers one each side with a probe mounted at the lowest possible point and one in the center mounted near the top just for ambient temps. hydro meters one on each side mounted about half way up the structure on the warm side is where the feeding box is so that the basking spot under the 50w halogen is only 14 in from the light which is maintaining a keen 91 degrees for more than 24 hours now on the hot side underneath the basking spot also is only reaching around 70 the cool side heat lamp is only heat the ambient air the floor area is also at about 70 degrees which is why we are considering the heat tape all the way across the enclosure

so with that said and as much information I can think of that will be needed for assessment let me know what you think of running the heat tape all the way across the bottom on an 80 degree thermostat

recommendations, gripes, criticisms, and overall 2 cents all welcome this will be the first habitat I have built myself and plan to build many more in the future so all input is welcome We hope to move our girls to their new homes by the end of the week after a 48 hr full set up temp check

First off, I wouldn't mix aspen and co-co husk, that is just asking for mold issues.

If your substrate layer is that thick don't bother with the heat tape idea. Heat tape can't heat through substrate layers that thick safely. You need to keep substrate layers no thicker than 1/2" when using UTH's.

I honestly would look into a radiant heat panel, or making the cage shorter. All of that internal volume is very difficult to heat.

You said that the cage is 24" tall but the heat lamp is only 14" from the basking site. Is the heat lamp actually inside the cage? If so have you screened it off so the snakes can't come into direct contact with the bulb?

My only criticism would be that it's way, way, way, too big of an enclosure for a ball python, maybe get a boa or retic or other large species of monitor? :P

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Originally Posted by The Serpent Merchant

First off, I wouldn't mix aspen and co-co husk, that is just asking for mold issues.

If your substrate layer is that thick don't bother with the heat tape idea. Heat tape can't heat through substrate layers that thick safely. You need to keep substrate layers no thicker than 1/2" when using UTH's.

I honestly would look into a radiant heat panel, or making the cage shorter. All of that internal volume is very difficult to heat.

You said that the cage is 24" tall but the heat lamp is only 14" from the basking site. Is the heat lamp actually inside the cage? If so have you screened it off so the snakes can't come into direct contact with the bulb?

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we can definitely look at thinning out the substrate and not mixing it those are easy fixes
the basking spot is a mounted platform 14 in from the roof the heat tape would be mounted inside the cage between 2 sheet of plexiglass and substrate placed over it
radiant heat panel?? mounted inside the habitat and where?

To the ceiling of the cage:

http://www.reptilebasics.com/rbi-radiant-heat-panels

So are the heat bulbs inside or outside of the cage?

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Originally Posted by snakesRkewl

My only criticism would be that it's way, way, way, too big of an enclosure for a ball python, maybe get a boa or retic or other large species of monitor? :P

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other than height how is it to big for a female ball python full grown and is there a such thing as too big other than just more for me to clean will it damage them in any way to have a larger home sorry if I do not sound grateful for the advice as I am even criticisms but to say it is too big and then not give me reasons health or security wise that it is not ok to have a large enclosure seems a lil unfair

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Originally Posted by The Serpent Merchant

To the ceiling of the cage:

http://www.reptilebasics.com/rbi-radiant-heat-panels

So are the heat bulbs inside or outside of the cage?

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outside mounted on top of the roof with screened holes cut through the roof

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Originally Posted by Dark Lady Kat

other than height how is it to big for a female ball python full grown and is there a such thing as too big other than just more for me to clean will it damage them in any way to have a larger home sorry if I do not sound grateful for the advice as I am even criticisms but to say it is too big and then not give me reasons health or security wise that it is not ok to have a large enclosure seems a lil unfair

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Ball pythons live in small holes in the ground, I doubt you'll find any of those holes 4x2x2 in size, so it's unnaturally large for the species.
Good luck heating it appropriately and keeping humidity over 50%

I understand the ideal of more is better, but it's not with ball pythons

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Originally Posted by snakesRkewl

Ball pythons live in small holes in the ground, I doubt you'll find any of those holes 4x2x2 in size, so it's unnaturally large for the species.
Good luck heating it appropriately and keeping humidity over 50%

I understand the ideal of more is better, but it's not with ball pythons

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I do understand that it is unnaturally large from their hole in the ground however they also naturally live wild and free to roam where they choose. On humidity I have that taken care of with the ultrasonic mister that is set to go off every 4 hours for 30 secs and it works beautifully in a 40 gal breeder tank and its set to go off every 8 hours for 30 secs in that and maintains 56% humidity on a constant basis
Along with multiple hides and shorter climbing objects which my girls are quite fond of atm the habitat also includes a feeder section secluded from the rest of the cage that is 1x2x1 for feeding her in although it sounds like a lot in the end I will post pictures it is going to be less space than you think a 40 gal breeder tank is recommended for an adult ball python and those are 3/1.5/1.5 approx so the overall area being added isnt much larger than that especially when you take into account the sectioned off 1x2x1 feeder area

Quote:

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Originally Posted by The Serpent Merchant

To the ceiling of the cage:

http://www.reptilebasics.com/rbi-radiant-heat-panels

So are the heat bulbs inside or outside of the cage?

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I actually hadn't heard of the heat panels but I will look into buying those in the near future as that would probably be the more permanent solution. Do they emit light or just heat I didn't find any info on that. Also would that be enough to keep the belly heat up as well as ambient the other thing we where looking at was intillemats it is a substrate heater designed to go inside wood habitats or under glass water resistant and can be thermostat controlled

Ultimately would it be wise to heat the overall substrate and bottom area of the habitat as well seeing as I like to keep my house cold

RHPs don't emit light, just heat.

I have one in my bps tank, along with a row of flexwat. It keeps my temps stable.

If you're using a cage that big super clutter it with a lot of pretty decorations! For both you and the snake :D IMO and my breeder's opinion the humidity should be at 60-65% as rat burrows in the tropical savanna have relatively high humidity.
For humidity I would put a water container directly under the heat source too

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Originally Posted by barbie.dragon

If you're using a cage that big super clutter it with a lot of pretty decorations! For both you and the snake :D IMO and my breeder's opinion the humidity should be at 60-65% as rat burrows in the tropical savanna have relatively high humidity.
For humidity I would put a water container directly under the heat source too

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humidity issues are what sparked the build of this cage because of how cool we keep the house the ambient humidity in my house is max 30% but usually sits closer to 20 which is why we went with a wood habitat it will hold the heat and humidity better than the 40 gal breeder they are in. we thought about tubs but we are not to a breeding stage and our girls are for us and to look pretty lol so we wanted to be able to see into the cage

we may in a few years consider breeding once our girls reach adult hood and weight but for now they are just pets

It sounds like a great enclosure, hope you post some pics of it. This forum has a lot of good advice but some of the members can become quite upset when discussing enclosures. There was a recent arguementative thread that went on for several pages of bickering. Many keepers/breeders keep thier bps in tubs and justify it because the bps tend to live in burrowed out holes. Of course that does not mean that they live all thier life in the same hole and do move from one place to another outside of a hole. My understanding is that there have been some observations of bps in trees appearing to hunt birds on occasion. In addition, villagers supposedly think a bp going through the village was a good omen and would not disturb them. So if it works for you and you are meeting the husbandry essentials for caring for your bp then good on you and I am looking forward to see the sectioned off feeding area. :)

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Originally Posted by ewaldrep

It sounds like a great enclosure, hope you post some pics of it. This forum has a lot of good advice but some of the members can become quite upset when discussing enclosures. There was a recent arguementative thread that went on for several pages of bickering. Many keepers/breeders keep thier bps in tubs and justify it because the bps tend to live in burrowed out holes. Of course that does not mean that they live all thier life in the same hole and do move from one place to another outside of a hole. My understanding is that there have been some observations of bps in trees appearing to hunt birds on occasion. In addition, villagers supposedly think a bp going through the village was a good omen and would not disturb them. So if it works for you and you are meeting the husbandry essentials for caring for your bp then good on you and I am looking forward to see the sectioned off feeding area. :)

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Here are some pictures of the habitat being built please remember these are not the final photos so try to not be to critical it is the first habitat I have built myself all of the edges are sanded and rounded off now we have not decided on a substrate for the top of the feeder which is where the basking area is. We are considering using repticarpet with full velcro to hold it in place not sure yet on how we like that idea so any recommendations are welcome

this one is when we had just started getting things built
http://ball-pythons.net/gallery/file...118_231212.jpg

picture of roof
http://ball-pythons.net/gallery/file...3/100_0420.jpg

view from outside entry into the feeder box
http://ball-pythons.net/gallery/file...3/100_0413.jpg

view of inside of the habitat and inside entry into the feeder
http://ball-pythons.net/gallery/file...3/100_0412.jpg

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Originally Posted by Dark Lady Kat

Here are some pictures of the habitat being built please remember these are not the final photos so try to not be to critical it is the first habitat I have built myself all of the edges are sanded and rounded off now we have not decided on a substrate for the top of the feeder which is where the basking area is. We are considering using repticarpet with full velcro to hold it in place not sure yet on how we like that idea so any recommendations are welcome

this one is when we had just started getting things built
http://ball-pythons.net/gallery/file...118_231212.jpg

picture of roof
http://ball-pythons.net/gallery/file...3/100_0420.jpg

view from outside entry into the feeder box
http://ball-pythons.net/gallery/file...3/100_0413.jpg

view of inside of the habitat and inside entry into the feeder
http://ball-pythons.net/gallery/file...3/100_0412.jpg

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Maybe your first habitat but looks like you have worked with wood before :) From what I see I like! As long as your husbandry is correct and you balls have secure hides, looks good. Please post final pics once your done.

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Originally Posted by martin82531

Maybe your first habitat but looks like you have worked with wood before :) From what I see I like! As long as your husbandry is correct and you balls have secure hides, looks good. Please post final pics once your done.

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I will post final pics and I have worked with wood before but on a much smaller or larger scale my grandmother owned a ranch so I have built barns and kennels and fences and that side of the larger scale and then on the smaller bird houses and sand boxes just never ventured into habitats so I am excited to see the final product as well the only thing I would change so far is that I haven't worked with plexiglass before so I will be rebuilding my doors and finding a better way to frame them screwing trough the plexiglass caused a couple of small cracks in the corners it barely came above the line of trim and is internal so there is no exposed edge but I know once the girls get older they will have enough weight on them to make that crack spread and fully crack out so I will be re building the doors (recommendations welcome on best framing methods there)

Also we decided to turn this first box into a split habitat this morning so each side will be 2x2x2 (our rottie had a hand in that decision when she came barreling through the house playing with her sister and didn't see my second sheet of plexiglass already scored sitting in the door way and so one side of the sheet was toast, since we are not buying any more building supplies until after Christmas the girls will have this one box split then if we get into breeding we will have a display for babies lol )

That and with the introduction of myself to radiant heat panels I want to build a solid roof with radiant heat panels but my kids might kill me in my sleep if I spend all the Christmas budget on building snake cages lol (I would to if I didn't tell myself no) (pets behave better than children)

With that all said any and all recommendations are welcome since I will be building more and I also would like to know if any of you know what dimensions are best for a full grown red tail boas male

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Dark Lady Kat

I will post final pics and I have worked with wood before but on a much smaller or larger scale my grandmother owned a ranch so I have built barns and kennels and fences and that side of the larger scale and then on the smaller bird houses and sand boxes just never ventured into habitats so I am excited to see the final product as well the only thing I would change so far is that I haven't worked with plexiglass before so I will be rebuilding my doors and finding a better way to frame them screwing trough the plexiglass caused a couple of small cracks in the corners it barely came above the line of trim and is internal so there is no exposed edge but I know once the girls get older they will have enough weight on them to make that crack spread and fully crack out so I will be re building the doors (recommendations welcome on best framing methods there)

Also we decided to turn this first box into a split habitat this morning so each side will be 2x2x2 (our rottie had a hand in that decision when she came barreling through the house playing with her sister and didn't see my second sheet of plexiglass already scored sitting in the door way and so one side of the sheet was toast, since we are not buying any more building supplies until after Christmas the girls will have this one box split then if we get into breeding we will have a display for babies lol )

That and with the introduction of myself to radiant heat panels I want to build a solid roof with radiant heat panels but my kids might kill me in my sleep if I spend all the Christmas budget on building snake cages lol (I would to if I didn't tell myself no) (pets behave better than children)

With that all said any and all recommendations are welcome since I will be building more and I also would like to know if any of you know what dimensions are best for a full grown red tail boas male

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I think this has already been recommend but I would go with the RHP's from reptile basics. The nice thing about RHP's is they don't need to be ran with a proportional thermostat you can use an off/on style like the hydrofarm ones.

I have been looking into getting a RTB once I have my balls setup perfected. (husbandry is perfect, in the process upgrading from glass to pvc). From my understanding though they need an enclosure that can support their full size so hey can stretch completely out. Depending on your RTB you will probably need something 5-6 feet in length I'm assuming.

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yes it was in this thread that I was introduced to RHP my current design wouldnt support one though so I will be building a new one yay I like my power tools sometime my hubby gets jealous of my power tools