Second RHP or heat tape for BCI

[Forgotten]

I have a 72" x 22" x 12" pvc cage currently being heated by a radiant heat panel and housing my boa. The hot side floor is 86 - 89 and the ambient temperature is 80, humidity sits around 50% without misting or moss.
The cool side of the tank sits around 72 on the floor and the ambient is similar.

72 seems a little low, if I should do something to raise the temperature, I have the option to add either heat tape or a RHP easily but would like to know which is better before making holes in the pvc.

I find RHP's dry the tank more, meaning a second one would likely drop the humidity below 50% so is ambient temperature or belly heat more important?

[Sauzo]

Well the temps look good to me. I personally have never actually checked the floor on the cool side of my cages. I keep all my cages with a 86-88F hot spot from flexwatt and the ambient is just room temp which varies from 77-79F. I wouldnt worry too much about the cool side floor temp. If the snake is never there and treats it like lava, then maybe look into adding a second heat tape set low on a t-stat.

[dakski]

I have a 72X24X12 Boaphile setup for my BCI.

The cage (it's actually an apartment/condo for all my reptiles - 5 tanks high) is in a finished basement. In the summer, it's 72-76F and humid. In the winter, much less humid and 67-70F.

I have about 87-89F on the hot side, but use both heat tape and a RHP to maintain that and 79-81F ambient temps. Both those devices run off the same thermostat on the hot side (left side). On the right side/cool side, I have a smaller heat tape zone, running off another thermostat.

To raise/maintain humidity, I keep Behira's (my Ivory Ghost BCI) bowl over the heat tape on the cool side, where it is still 78-80F consistently. The cage stays about 20-30% above room humidity that way. When it's around 20-30% in the basement, and about 50% in the tank, I mist (with warm water) 1X daily (I do this for my BP too). When ready to shed, I soak and/or mist 2X daily.

To use Boaphile Plastics (Jeff Ronne) terminology, I have 2X heat tape on the left side (with the RHP - 16X11" and 50 watt) and 1.5X heat tape on the right side. I believe Jeff uses Flexwatt, but I think you get the idea. Lower wattage and smaller size on the right side vs. larger and higher wattage on the left.

Again, my room gets cold in the winter, and I only have one RHP, so I doubt you need another one. Further, if your ambient temps are good, and you just need to warm up the cool side, I would consider your heat tape option.

Finally, I mentioned that I run the warm side off one thermostat and the cool side off another.

There is another (possible option).

My corn snake, Figment, is in one of the 5 tanks. It has the exact same setup as my BCI, BP, etc. 2X Flexwatt and RHP left side and 1.5X flexwatt right side. HOWEVER, he needs lower temps than the boids (who all run off the same thermostats - one for left side for BP and BCI and one for right side for BP and BCI).

SO, I run one thermostat for Figment's entire tank.

I keep it 84-86F on the hot side, where the thermostat probe is, but plug all 3 heating devices (2X Flexwatt, RHP, and 1.5X flexwatt) all into the same thermostat. This keeps the hot side 84-86F, the ambient about 75-77F, and the cool side around 76-77F.

This might be an option for you as well, assuming your thermostat can handle another device and you keep the probe on the hot side, which seems to be maintaining temp and keeping the ambient temps ok.

[Forgotten]

My cool side ambient stays around 72 and I have yet to see her use the cool side hides, she tends to stay in the middle or under the RHP on the right.

I will try adding some heat tape for now to bring the cool side up and see if she starts using that side of the tank. If she continues to avoid it I will try adding the extra RHP.

How big are your boas around 2 years old? I recently picked this girl up off of kijiji and her previous owner said she's 2 but she seems rather skinny and looks more like a round corn snake than a square boa.

[Dutti]

My cool side ambient stays around 72 and I have yet to see her use the cool side hides, she tends to stay in the middle or under the RHP on the right.

I will try adding some heat tape for now to bring the cool side up and see if she starts using that side of the tank. If she continues to avoid it I will try adding the extra RHP.

How big are your boas around 2 years old? I recently picked this girl up off of kijiji and her previous owner said she's 2 but she seems rather skinny and looks more like a round corn snake than a square boa.

My 20 months old male BCI is a bit over 5 feet now. So if your girl is skinny and looks like a corn snake you need to improve her diet in my opinion

[Sauzo]

If your boa never uses the cool side, then i would probably throw heat tape on that side. Not sure how you have your t-stat probe set up but you can put it on the cool side and set the t-stat to 77F and see how hot it makes the hot side. When i used to use RHPs, that how i used to set up and i believe Bob at Pro Products recommends that way too. I use only flexwatt now and after reading your post, i temp gunned my cool side floor as like i said, i never have done it lol. It is 76F and all my snakes spend 80% or so of their time on that side haha.

As to answer your question on boas after 2 years, my hypo male will be 2 years old this march and he is almost 3 feet and fairly square. I feed him an adult mouse every 2 weeks.


And my BCL male who will be 2 years old this july is almost 3 feet too and also on adult mice every 2 weeks.



And finally, for my smaller boas, this is my suriname female who will be 2 years old this August and she is just over 2 feet and on adult mice every 2 weeks as well but kind of hard to compare a BCC too BCI as BCC grow slower than paint dries.

[Forgotten]

Your surinames tail is gorgeous!





She never stops moving but this was the best photo I could get of her, she's probably getting close to three feet or a bit more and looks a little skinny but I have no experience with boas.




I moved the probe from above a hide just out of sight on the right to down on the cool side about an two inches off the ground. She's currently coiled up inside the cork log and usually doesn't go any further to the cold side unless exploring

[Forgotten]

As it warms up with the new probe placement the herpstat is running on full and I've got a few hot spots of 99 - 103. I'll keep an eye on it and she's still in her log which isn't directly under the RHP but I assume she can't burn herself on 103 so its okay to let it run and warm up?

[dakski]

As it warms up with the new probe placement the herpstat is running on full and I've got a few hot spots of 99 - 103. I'll keep an eye on it and she's still in her log which isn't directly under the RHP but I assume she can't burn herself on 103 so its okay to let it run and warm up?

That's getting up there.

I hope the temps are down now. Not sure if she can burn herself at those temps, but it probably isn't very comfortable for her.

It's unlikely you will have the same temp everywhere, so a little gyration is ok. My hot spot is 86-91, but most is about 88-89, with only a few spots, literally spots, that get a little hotter or cooler.

[Forgotten]

The temps remained rather high and the herpstat didn't come off full power so I set the temp down to 75.7

Ambient temp on the hot side was up to 87 and floor temp was between 90 and 103 while the cool side went up to 75 - 76 which was better but not in conjunction with the hot side.

With the temp lowered I am going to add the heat tape on the cold side and aim to keep ambient around 80