i need experienced keepers' opinions

I have the opportunity to trade a rack I will build for a pair of pastel 100% het pieds one male one female. I am able to build another shelf on my rack to hold 2 more snakes but here is the problem, I am already using a good amount of heat tape for my current snakes and I can't add any more or it will skyrocket my electricity bill.
But, I do have a space heater with a thermostat so it would be easy to set the ambient temp to a specific temperature then I would remove the heat tape, because I have heard numerous stories of people having success with their snakes by just using the ambient temperature. If I do this my only worry is that my snakes now have had heat tape their whole lives, would they adjust to only having ambient temp and no heat tape? Or would it be too drastic of a change for them to adjust? I'm just thinking "out loud" here trying to think what i should do because I am being offered a great deal.

What do you guys think?

Heat tape uses so little electricity. My PC using more than all my racks combined. Your bill will certainly not skyrocket because of one more rack. And that space heater will use more electricity than the heat tape.

The thing is, you need ambient heat AND belly heat... ambient air temps of 78-85 or so, and a hot spot for belly heat at 90-92. No heat tape = no thermal gradient = no thermoregulation = poor digestion.

I too have heard from a few ppl who use only ambient temps successfully. I personally don't think I'll ever play with it, it just worries me that they won't be capable of thermoregulation in one room of the same temp. In a heated room they have no way of cooling down and I do feel like belly heat aides in digestion. In nature there would be belly heat, as the ground would provide it and lots of different heat gradients. If they get hot they can go underground, etc.

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Sounds like a terrible idea. A foot of flexwatt uses 20 watts, a light bulb uses 100, a space heater uses up to 1500 watts. Your question doesn't make sense to me. They need basking temps as well as a stable ambient temp. Proper husbandry should always take priority with responsible pet ownership.

An extra few feet of flexwatt would skyrocket your electricity bill? No it wouldnt lol

It's possible to keep them at just ambient temps. I'm not sure of your experience level though so i wouldn't recommend it unless you really are in tune to the animals and know what you're doing.

Heat tape doesn't use as much as you think.

They do not NEED belly heat, we just think they do. I know of several collections within 20 miles of my house that only use ambient without any problems what so ever, then again do you think the big breeders have belly heat in their warehouses??

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Originally Posted by DestinyLynette

The thing is, you need ambient heat AND belly heat... ambient air temps of 78-85 or so, and a hot spot for belly heat at 90-92. No heat tape = no thermal gradient = no thermoregulation = poor digestion.

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No you don't lol. Just because you read a few care sheets that say that doesn't mean thats how it has to be done.

Not to mention the room being just plain uncomfortable to be in. That would mean keeping a full room at 80* minimum, and while some people's reptile rooms are thermoregulated that way, it's always with HVAC ducting and ventilation, not a space heater pushing stagnant air around.

Overall, it would cause more problems.

That's why I love my back heated and dual sided radiant heated racks. 73-75 degree apartment, perfect gradients for the snakes at a fraction of the wattage, typically only running at 50-60% power.

I once did the math, my RBI 4-tub 32qt tub rack is only costing me $1.66/mo to power. And that is holding five snakes (with the pvc dividers).

I feel like heating the whole room would cost MORE than an extra strip or even a few strips of heat tape...?

It's plenty *possible* to keep snakes successfully in a heated room, yes, but in this case I feel like it's kind of defeatist.

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Yeah I've figured I'm just gonna add the extra heat tape. :oops:

Sorry when i typed this I had just been giving the deal and hadn't really thought it through lol and I just remembered that heat tape only uses 20watts. Soooo I know what I'm doing now. Thanks everyone!

I've had snakes die on me after eating when I didn't notice that their heat tape was off even though my snake room is plenty warm. In my opinion they DO need that hot spot.

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Originally Posted by MarkS

I've had snakes die on me after eating when I didn't notice that their heat tape was off even though my snake room is plenty warm. In my opinion they DO need that hot spot.

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What type of snake, how big of a meal, and how warm was the room?

(Not arguing, i believe you, i just like to know for my own personal knowledge.)

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Originally Posted by Archimedes

Not to mention the room being just plain uncomfortable to be in. That would mean keeping a full room at 80* minimum, and while some people's reptile rooms are thermoregulated that way, it's always with HVAC ducting and ventilation, not a space heater pushing stagnant air around.

Overall, it would cause more problems.

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you know snakebytes TV, the youtube show from BHB reptiles?

now you know why they always run around in t-shirt or topless.

it can be done. of course you need to have the air circulating. maybe use a ceiling fan, or some smaller ones in the right places, use the tempgun to check that its the right temperature everywhere, from the lowest tub to the highest.

about the energy consumption: with all devices hooked to a thermostat it depends on how much heat is lost and how hard the heaters have to work to keep the temps where they should be. In a cool room heat tape can consume quite a lot of energy. If the room is just slightly below the optimum, the heat tape will require almost no energy because most of the time it isnt heating.

but still, if you go from electric tub heating to electric room heating, energy consumption will of course go up. when it comes to turning electricity into heat, there really is no "more effective" or "less effective". the electricity consumed is equal to the heat produced, unless something else like light is produced alongside. Heating the room means heating all the air, the walls, and not just the tubs.

When it comes to energy costs, there is only one reason why heating the whole room is more effective: You dont use electricity. You use oil or natural gas or hot water delivered via pipe from a nearby powerstation or wood pellets or geothermal, whatever is most effective given the infrastructure on site. If you take that out of the equation, and consider heating the room using electricity, it would only save some maintenance, and the cost to buy heat tape, things like that, but the electricity bill will go up.

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I've had snakes die on me after eating when I didn't notice that their heat tape was off even though my snake room is plenty warm. In my opinion they DO need that hot spot.

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BHB reptiles is the biggest breeder in the american continents and doesnt use heat tape or hotspots or anything. they have their giant ball python room at one temp, their giant coloubrid room at a different temp, their incubator room at incubator temps, and some smaller rooms that have the right temps for some other species. Do it right and it works.

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Originally Posted by MarkS

I've had snakes die on me after eating when I didn't notice that their heat tape was off even though my snake room is plenty warm. In my opinion they DO need that hot spot.

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That is a whole different debate.
Was it the meal, the lack of heat, OR something else??

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Originally Posted by Mike41793

What type of snake, how big of a meal, and how warm was the room?

(Not arguing, i believe you, i just like to know for my own personal knowledge.)

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It's actually happened to me several times. My room is typically around the high 70's to low 80's (degrees farenheit), rarely dropping below the mid 70's One was a subadult female hypo who ate a small rat, the GFI on the outlet had been tripped. Another time was an adult male albino who also ate a small rat. The Ranco thermostat had stopped working. (I've actually lost a few other snakes due to ranco thermostats that quit working, which is why I'll never buy another ranco thermostat) Both snakes meals were pretty typical for them and they had eaten meals that size before with no problems. Other snakes in the rack did not appear to have any problems digesting their meals. I'm not sure why some snakes would die and the rest were fine, but the only thing I was able to find that was different then usual was that the heat had been off.

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Originally Posted by MarkS

It's actually happened to me several times. My room is typically around the high 70's to low 80's (degrees farenheit), rarely dropping below the mid 70's One was a subadult female hypo who ate a small rat, the GFI on the outlet had been tripped. Another time was an adult male albino who also ate a small rat. The Ranco thermostat had stopped working. (I've actually lost a few other snakes due to ranco thermostats that quit working, which is why I'll never buy another ranco thermostat) Both snakes meals were pretty typical for them and they had eaten meals that size before with no problems. Other snakes in the rack did not appear to have any problems digesting their meals. I'm not sure why some snakes would die and the rest were fine, but the only thing I was able to find that was different then usual was that the heat had been off.

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That sucks. I've taken to keeping a probed Accurite in at *least* the lowest and highest tubs of my racks, I always know at a glance what my hotspot is at, this story makes me glad I got I that practice. Scary.

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Coleslaw, I'm paranoid about my temps too. I have an acurite in my top and bottom rack, along with a temp gun AND my herpstat lol

Haha same.

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Originally Posted by Coleslaw007

Haha same.

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I've never been OCD about anything, but snake temps....yup.

"Oh it's 79 in there? Gotta bump it up to 80" :rolleye2: 80 is my magic number lol

Would very much love to see the pickups after the trade takes place :)

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Originally Posted by galequin

Would very much love to see the pickups after the trade takes place :)

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Will do :) I will either be getting a male and female pastel het pied, or, a male super pastel het pied and a female pastel het pied for an extra rack. So I feel like im getting an awesome deal.