Heating a wooden viv.

[RubyFox89]

Thread point: I can't heat my wooden vivs by placing thermostated heatmats underneath like I currently do with their RUBs.

Possible solution 1:
Putting heat mats inside the viv attached to thermostats. I personally don't like this as even with thermostat attached I'm worried about burns, especially for the older ones.

Possible solution 2:
Ceramic heat emitters with thermostats and cages. I have a few of these ready but I'm worried about the lack of belly heat, and whether or not I can truly have a warm hide when being heated from above.

Possible solution 3:
Somehow lowering the heatmats into the floor of the vivs and providing plastic (or similar) covering. Or providing some sort of raised plastic (or similar) platform above the heat mats on the viv floor. This seems to me to be the best option but I'm not entirely sure I trust myself to be able to set this up properly/ and whether or not I can maintain ambient temps used just mats in a viv.

[Felidae]

You can put heat mats under one or two layer (depends thickness) of PVC flooring. I have a melamine display cage system with that method, and works perfectly.

[RubyFox89]

After hearing lots of advice I've chosen to go with ceramics and try to establish a good ambient and gradient. If I find that it isn't enough to provide a good warm hide/etc then I'll probably do just the above and use the PVC flooring.

[RubyFox89]

Next question. Are normal stats a safe stand in for dimming/pulse thermostats for the short term? I know that they'll have a much shorter life etc, but it's going to take a couple of weeks to source enough dimming ones for each viv. If a normal one is safe, just not as efficient, I'm leaning towards hooking the bulbs up to them to get the royals settled in quicker.