Heating a wooden cage?

Ok I know it has probably been asked before, but here I go. I am building a 4'x20"x20" wooden cage and I am curious what is the best way to heat the bottom. I have been reading about melamine wood and I plan to use a 11"x17" peice of flexwatt. The question is do I put some acrylic over the top of the heat pad so as though the snake does not come in direct contact with the heat source? Will a single heat source be sufficient or should I use lighting to supplement? If anybody has good advice I would love it. Thanks for the help. :confused:

I put the flexwatt down then put a piece of vinyl flooring on top. The flooring covers the bottom of the cage. It is cheap at Home Depot and comes in many colors. Also is makes keeping the bottom of the cage clean very easy.

you will also need to create a proper ambient temp. the heat tape will create a hot spot but the ambient temp inside the enclosure will be whatever the room temperature is.

I have a three feet by two feet enclosure with 18" flexwatt and the flexwatt heated the warm side to 90 and the cool side is 81.

im thinking about making a wooden cage and heating it with a waterbed heater, i have it hooked up under a tub right now with a thstat and it works great

You should never put flexwatt inside the cage...Or any other heat pad...

The vinyl sounds like a good idea for the bottom, but there are some differing ideas so far on this thread. Would anybody happen to have a definite answer? Please keep the advice coming, I really appreciate it.

I was on a site that builds their own wooden cages. They had a slit in the back that the flexwatt went into (made it easier to replace if damaged) and it was in a little pocket, the top was a piece of plexiglass about 2-3 inches off the bottom (little wooden peg feet inside holding it up) and then sealed with silicone for waterproofing, making a little basking shelf that got warmed up, but kept the snake away.
I'll do some searching in my favorites and see if I can find the webpage.

R:sunny:

Cool, thanks for the help. I will be looking for the webpages.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by sweety314

I was on a site that builds their own wooden cages. They had a slit in the back that the flexwatt went into (made it easier to replace if damaged) and it was in a little pocket, the top was a piece of plexiglass about 2-3 inches off the bottom (little wooden peg feet inside holding it up) and then sealed with silicone for waterproofing, making a little basking shelf that got warmed up, but kept the snake away.
I'll do some searching in my favorites and see if I can find the webpage.

R:sunny:

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Agreed. Best way to make it. I know its possible to put the flex directally under the cage which will work fine too.

I guess another possibly stupid question would be, can I use a piece of flex watt directly underneath the substrate? Granted it would be used with a thermostat. Would it hurt the snake at all? This is the last issue I need to solve before I start building. Thanks all.

HC,


I can't find the right site's bookmark.:oops: :mad: As for putting the flex UNDER the cage on the outside, yes, it's safer for the snake, but the wood would be too much insulation, and the inside won't get enough heat.

I had that problem with Freddie's tank. It's a big acrylic 65+ gallon that came with him. For him, I got one of the Scotland made waterproofed UTHs and using the aluminum tape (yes, it CAN come free and hurt the snake if you're not diligent) and taped it to the bottom. the wire cord is up and out of the tank. If you make a wooden one, you can still slit near the bottom, and then the cord doesn't have to be inside the cage at all.

I've taped the thermostat probe right on top of the UTH, in order to keep it from getting too hot and burning. There's aspen bedding about 3/4" thick in the tank. That helps insulate too. He uses both hides, so I know he's thermoregulating and I handle him often enough and check for any redness, just to be safe.

He's large enough and his own personality is such that he DOESN'T burrow in the bedding, but every time I clean and change bedding, I do a careful inspection of the probe, UTH/tape to make sure there aren't any spots that could hurt Freddie.

If I find the link, then I'll send it on along. I'll keep searching, but I've hit so many in the past months, it may be one I "hopped" to, and forgot to bookmark. :rolleye2:


RuLyn :sunny:

Thanks, great advice. Sounds like I will be building soon.