Illustrated BP Housing Tutorial.....

[JLC]

To answer your other question, you need to raise the enclosure off the heatpad. Not by much...just 1/8" to 1/4"...enough for air to move between them. If it rests directly on the pad, the heat is trapped and could potentially build up to dangerous levels.

[DBacker65]

I have seen set ups where the pad is actually inside the enclosure.
I am guessing after reading this post that the pad goes under the container itself. Lets say the container will be kept on the floor. What is the best way to set things up? Should I place 4 checkers under each corner and place the pad under the container?

I am switching from a 20 gallon glass tank to the rubbermaid style and want to do this 100 % correct.

[Wizill]

that will do fine. just as long as you arent smothering the heating pad and it isn't covering the entire bottom of the enclosure.

[DBacker65]

I have also seen this type of setup with a ceramic heat lamp on top. A square is cut in the lid and covered with mesh.
This looks easier because no hole needs to be cut in the lid and there is no need for a ceramic heat lamp which can dry out the cage.

I may do this for my baby redtail boa until my new boaphile cage arrives.

What are everyone's thoughts?

[Smulkin]

You hit the nail on the head as far as drying the cage out with overheads - its hard to go wrong with this setup.

[DBacker65]

Right on! Thanks Smulkin. I left for work this morning with my heat pad set to Medium. The settings are low, medium and high.
The warm side temp was 89 with 60% humidity. I am not sure how long it takes to heat fully on any given setting so I left it on medium. I did raise the cage a bit to allow for air under it. Also is it ok to keep the cage this way on a carpeted floor?
Thanks. I will post pics by Friday.
My new setup for my baby redtail boa is as follows.

66QT Rubbermaid snap top home made cage.
I have aspen mulch for substrate and have a human heat pad under one half of the cage. The cage is slightly raised up to allow for ventilation under cage between heat pad. I have a large reptile water bowl inside as well as 2 hides, one on each side and am monitoring temp and humidity with a digital unit from Walmart. As of this morning the temp. was about 89 on the warm side with humidity about 60%
I have the heat pad set to medium(high is the next and last setting)
I was affraid to use high and come home to an enclosure that was too warm.
Tonight I will try high and see what the temps are after a few hours.

The breeder said my current setup is fine and a ceramic heat lamp would be too hot and dry out the enclosure.

This will be a temp setup for about 3 weeks until my new boaphile cage arrives.

Thanks,

Kevin

[DBacker65]

I have a problem. I bought a heat pad with auto shut off, the dam thing shut off and my temp fell to 82.
Should I buy one without auto shut off or am I missing something? I can understand why this feature is there but for our purposes it is not going to work as this is my only source of heat.

[Smulkin]

Yeah see if they will take a return or exchange - worth a shot. The ones without the auto-shut-off are usually the cheapest on the shelf.

[DBacker65]

swapped it out, I should have noticed the auto-shut off when I bought the first one.

[str33tsk8rx]

what about light? will a sterlite container need a flourescent light or will the natural light in the room be enough to stimulate the photoperiod?