Heating question

[Cendalla]

I want to get my little guy some belly heat. The problem is is that I have a custom wood terrarium and can't do the under the tank kind. I'm using a ceramic heat emitter and with a bit of tweaking was able to work out the humidity but I would like to provide bottom heat. The terrarium is 52gal 36Lx14hx24d. What would you do? I'm tempted to just switch to the tubs but this is a really nice terrarium that I payed money for.

P.S. I was looking for options in the pet store (large chain that I won't name) and the idiot that was their 'knowledgeable' herp guy wanted to sell me a hot rock. I politely explained to him why they were utter crap and tried not to strangle the 'expert' when he said that's what he uses. Arrrrgh!

[blushingball419]

Haha I know, I can't stand it when people still try to recommend hot rocks, or especially when I see pet stores that still use them for their snakes. It's just the "old school wisdom" I guess

Anyway, as for your question, I believe I've seen others recommend putting an UTH in the terrarium (controlled by a thermostat of course), and then laying a ceramic tile down over it. That way the snake has belly heat, but doesn't come in direct contact with the UTH.

[Skittles1101]

+1 blushing. I was gonna say the same thing. You can easily put a UTH inside the enclosure and lay ceramic tiles on top of it. And be sure you have a thermostat or dimmer to control it, you don't want it getting too hot.

[kitedemon]

Typical store answer... some reptile guys are good some not so good and some just don't have the character to say "I don't know..."

If you do chose to place a mat inside I'd look at Kane mats as they are waterproof and often used inside enclosures (with a proportional T-stat)