What can go inside my homemade ball python enclosure that provides heat?

Im making a new enclosure for my ball python. I made it out of wood thus meaning a heat pad wont work so what can go inside that will provide heat other than a heat lamp?

Radiant Heat Panels

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

RHP info: http://www.reptilebasics.com/radiant-panel-faq

Heating pad work okay on wood, it just takes a while for them to heat up. But I agree with the radiant heat panel idea.

Any cheap alterantives and the reason i cant use heat pads with the enclosure are that the walls roof and floor are made of polystyrene and will melt


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Polystyrene? Isn't that the stuff that disposable coffee cups are made of? I would think that if it could hold a nearly boiling hot liquid it could withstand other heat sources. After all you don't want your heat to be much higher then the 90 degrees F anyway.

Polystyrene is "Styrofoam" and thats a good point


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Ya know, I just googled that and it seems to me that it does have a rather low melting point for plastics, it's also supposed to be highly flamable. Personally I'm not sure I'd want to use that for caging material myself unless it was some kind of high temperature flame retardant variety.

Im using the r10 insulation sold at home depot


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Plywood and styrofoam? I don't mean to offend, but maybe you should have done this research BEFORE constructing a fire hazard?

Who said its plywood? And i did research it ! How is it a fire hazzard ? Whats gonna catch ot on fire?


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The foam is fire retardant as well


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Originally Posted by dillymann

Who said its plywood? And i did research it ! How is it a fire hazzard ? Whats gonna catch ot on fire?


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I am gonna guess that since you said it was wood, and plywood is the best choice for this application as it doesn't warp and crack in the same manner as solid wood boards and, it doesn't swell to 3X's its normal size when it gets wet like particle board or MDF that an assumption was made.
Particle board and MDF also off-gas formadahyde, ply wood may ​but in much smaller amounts as there is far less glue to give off the formaldahyde gases.

Although it is pricier I would suggest either X-PVC board or sheet ABS for durable easy to care for enclosures. Both can be chemically welded since few people have the forms industry uses to vacuum form components just laying around.

I used spruce 1x2's to build the frame and am using r10 fire retardant insulation foam for the walls floor and roof and then putting vinyl flooring on top of that


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http://img.tapatalk.com/d/13/09/04/e8u9a2av.jpg this is what i copied


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:bolt:

Why would you build an enclosure you had no idea how to heat?

http://www.reptilebasics.com/ultratherm-heat-pads

This about the only thing I can think of that *might* work.

It says it can go inside the cage... no firsthand knowledge.

good luck:please:

I have a heat lamp in it just wondering if i was gonna be able to put a heat pad in


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I use these intellitemp reptile heat mats to heat my burm cages, they're waterproof and easy to regulate with a thermostat and have held up really well over the years. They're about the only heat mat that I feel safe putting inside a cage.

http://www.bigappleherp.com/core/med...7850ec0b742e7c

Also, I really don't like the use of hardware cloth on a snake cage. It's too easy for them to rub their noses raw.

What on earth did you build for the snake? You can use a plastic tub for now until you get the enclosure figured out. You definitely need to build something that isn't a fire hazard. To heat the enclosure you do have to use electricity which can fail and get way too hot or spark.

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Originally Posted by MarkS

I use these intellitemp reptile heat mats to heat my burm cages, they're waterproof and easy to regulate with a thermostat and have held up really well over the years. They're about the only heat mat that I feel safe putting inside a cage.

http://www.bigappleherp.com/core/med...7850ec0b742e7c

Also, I really don't like the use of hardware cloth on a snake cage. It's too easy for them to rub their noses raw.

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Link doesn't work, but if you go to the main page it's easy enough to navigate to that product.

BTW thanks for the recommendation, we just picked up two Monster 32"x18"x96" enclosures (fortunately nothing needs to go into them- yet!) but they didn't come with heat, so I've been exploring options.

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Originally Posted by bcr229

Link doesn't work, but if you go to the main page it's easy enough to navigate to that product.

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Sorry about that, hopefully here is a better link. (I was just trying to link the picture before)
http://www.bigappleherp.com/Intellit...=2&category=14

Question is newspaper bad for substrate? And if not is it bad if its wet?


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Newspaper is fine but some people report that it gets ink on the snake if it gets wet.

Wood burns, spruce is an especially dry and flammable wood.

Styrofoam is made from oil. It's EXTREMELY flammable. It's actually illegal to burn in some states because of the noxious nature of the smoke that it releases. Very nasty stuff when it burns or melts. Just because people put hot coffee in it does not mean it stands up against sparks or extreme heat.

I suppose you could mitigate the risks by using a fire retardant and covering it with something else, but I personally couldn't advocate it. This seems like when it's all said and done it might be more expensive than buying a vision cage or something. Is there a specific reason you are going for the custom route or just enjoying the tinkering and building element?
GL

Its been a lot cheaper that a tank from the reptile store and we got lots of materials for free from my dads work! And the foam that I'm going to be using is fire retardant foam insulation (r10 insulation) and it wont be exposed to high heat because ive opted not to use any heating other than and infrared bulb a lamp fixture


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