Heating Cage

At my pet store the man who sold them to me said that they need more heat during the day about 95 F. And since they come from the desert I believed him. Now, I was reading some care sheets and they said that the tems should be about 88. [On the hot side] is this at night and is the 95 during the day alright I do lower the temp to 85 at night.

90 tops on the hotside during the day... I keep the same temps 24 hours a day.. Most pet shop guys dont know a snake from a lizard...

88 on the hot side MAX during the day. 24 hour heat is OK for these guys, but if you choose to let it cool at night (especially if you plan on breeding them), room temperature (70 F) overnight isn't going to hurt them at all.

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Most pet shop guys dont know a snake from a lizard...

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Should have seen me a while ago when I walked into our local store and saw they were keeping a blood python on Desert Blend!

They didn't care for me much after I tried to "explain" the problem with that hehe.

I worked at a petshop while i was in college..lol.. Got fired real quick..lol

I didn't want to start another "Heating" thread, so I figured I'd bump this one on up.

Anyway, I've made the decision to set my tank up with paper towels instead of calci-sand or carpet, but I started thinking about how to heat the tank. Originally, I was going to use the ZooMed UTH that's already stuck to the bottom of the tank, which would have been fine were there sand on top of it. Now, I notice how HOT the glass gets directly above the UTH without a thick layer of substrate to disipate it - how am I going to do this with paper towels without scorching the Leo's belly? Would an overhead lamp be better, or am I overreacting to the heat's possible effects on the paper towels? I haven't measured the temp directly on the glass, though it's too hot to leave my bare hand on for too long.

You have to use a thermostat even if you used sand. The pads will get hot enough to kill your leo...

Any experience with the ZooMed Repti-Temp 500R Thermostat?

they work pretty well. if you don't want to spend the money on a herpstat (which is what i use for everything now) then that is the thermostat i would recommend. from my experience it seems to keep more consistent temps than some of the other lower end t-stats.

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Originally Posted by mlededee

they work pretty well. if you don't want to spend the money on a herpstat (which is what i use for everything now) then that is the thermostat i would recommend. from my experience it seems to keep more consistent temps than some of the other lower end t-stats.

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Are there any thermostats that can manage multiple heat-sources? From what I've seen, only 1 or 2 devices can be controlled per t-stat - certainly there's something more appropriate for those of you with several enclosures and even more herps, or do you seriously have to purchase a new t-stat for each new enclosure?

Perhaps a link to something at MGReptiles that would operate several units?

the zoomed 500r has two ports to plug into and the herpstat has 3. you can also plug your heating devices into a power strip and plug the strip into the thermostat--just check the max wattage that the thermostat can handle and make sure you stay below it with whatever combination you are using. i'm sure matt can help you out there if you tell him what you want to plug into which t-stat.

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Originally Posted by mlededee

the zoomed 500r has two ports to plug into and the herpstat has 3. you can also plug your heating devices into a power strip and plug the strip into the thermostat--just check the max wattage that the thermostat can handle and make sure you stay below it with whatever combination you are using.

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Oh, wow! I didnt' realize that would be possible. That makes it much easier! Thanks Emily, very helpful!

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Originally Posted by IamKaervek

Are there any thermostats that can manage multiple heat-sources? From what I've seen, only 1 or 2 devices can be controlled per t-stat - certainly there's something more appropriate for those of you with several enclosures and even more herps, or do you seriously have to purchase a new t-stat for each new enclosure?

Perhaps a link to something at MGReptiles that would operate several units?

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As long as your heating elements are the same you can plug in as many heating element as the wattage limitations will allow. Now that being said it is alwyas better to limit the number of cages on one thermostat to say 4-5 large cages or rack systems. Say you have a Johnson Controls that allows 1500 watts to be used, now it will control and handle all that power but the temps in some of the cages might flux.. If your looking to control 2 different types of heating element or 2 different temps then you woudl have to us different thermostats or a thermostat with mulitiple probes...

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Originally Posted by IamKaervek

Any experience with the ZooMed Repti-Temp 500R Thermostat?

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The only thing that I don't like about them is it doesn't have actual numbers to set the temp to, but you can use a thermometer to get it to the desired temp and then leave it there (the thermostat temp, not nescissarily the thermometer). But over all, I like it.

I hear ya there.. I am a sucker for a digital display:)