Upgrading BP to PVC enclosure - advice?

[Luvyna]

My 2 year old ball python Noodle has grown up fast and his 32" x 16" x 12" tub is now too small for him. I am looking to upgrade him to a PVC enclosure which will hopefully last him the rest of his life. I'm thinking of getting him a 4' x 2' x 2' PVC cage with hinged glass doors from Cornel's World but if anyone knows of any reputable Canadian PVC cage sellers please let me know!

My questions are:

1) Should I order an enclosure with both heat panels and heat tape? My house temperatures get as low as 68-70F in the winter and my tub currently has a 100W heat lamp on wire mesh on the lid on the cool side of the enclosure and a medium Zoomed heat pad on the warm side. This is what has been necessary for me to maintain an ambient temperature of ~78F in the enclosure and a warm spot of 89F. Does this mean I will also need overhead heating for ambient temps and under tank heating for a warm spot in a PVC cage?

2) Given the temperatures in my home and size of the enclosure, should I get a 40 or 80 watt heat panel?

3) Where does the thermostat probe go for a heat panel? (Tried checking the pinned thread for this info but the images are no longer showing :c )

4) Would you recommend adding lighting to a PVC cage? I don't care about the visual/display appeal because I think my BP would be more comfortable without it and is sensitive to light especially as an albino. However I wonder if it might be helpful to have when cleaning.

5) Does anyone have a good system for organizing the absurd amount of wires coming out of snake enclosures and keeping them off the floor lol?

[Waterman]

Rhp is all you need. 80 watt should work. My probes dangle from the ceiling, just behind the panel, in the center, down 3-5 inches. Probe reads air temp so use a temp gun until you get the floor temp you desire and adjust thermostat accordingly. Ie I’m aiming for a 91 degree floor temp so my thermostat is set to 87. Lighting is up to you. I don’t use any. I just stuff my wires behind the cage. Out of sight out of mind lol

[jmcrook]

Waterman nailed it on the head with that response. I do exactly the same, except, I’m a little ocd so I zip tie corresponding cords/probes together and bundle any slack in them.
Makes life a lot easier any time you need to do some housekeeping or reconfigure a stack of enclosures. To keep them from dangling I use zip tie mounts on the back of the cages and zip the bundles to those mounts.


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[Mr. Misha]

That's really exciting! I'd try Animal Plastics. I believe they do ship to Canada but I'd double check with Ali (super nice). Personally recommend their T10 terrarium.

In regards to the RHP, I'm in agreement with others who already touched base on this subject. With that said, I would highly recommend investing in a proportional thermostat if you haven't done so. Herpstats are my favorite but can get a little pricey. I bought 2 of 3 of mine second hand at half the price .

I keep my probe almost at the bottom of the terrarium and set an ambient temp of 82. I have an accurate gauge that shows temp and humidity, sitting on the bottom of the terrarium so I can quickly double check the temps. It seems like the consensus on temps range from 80-86 from larger breeders who just heat their rooms/buildings and don't provide any additional supplemental heat. I've been finagling with temps for quite a few years and it seems like 82 is the magic number for my BPs. I also live in Southern California so our "harshest" winter temperature is in the 40s.

Now for lighting... I got a little excited about this one because I get to bring up thread that I did regarding LED lighting quite some years ago. The lighting is still working great and it's definitely great for cleaning and feeding at night. It also gives my office/game room a nice ambiance. Here's a link to my zombie thread: https://ball-pythons.net/forums/show...up-in-a-AP-T12

For the wires, I before assembling the enclosure I made a U hole and fed all the wires through there. Then used zip ties to keep them neat. I have 3 different enclosures so wiring needs to be kept in check.

Good luck! Definitely exciting times on the horizon! Keeping BPs in a PVC enclosure is soo easy! Don't really have to worry about temps or humidity so keeping becomes simple and you get to focus to observing these your snakes instead of freaking out about the temps and humidity.

[SquirmyPug]

Now for lighting... I got a little excited about this one because I get to bring up thread that I did regarding LED lighting quite some years ago. The lighting is still working great and it's definitely great for cleaning and feeding at night. It also gives my office/game room a nice ambiance. Here's a link to my zombie thread: https://ball-pythons.net/forums/show...up-in-a-AP-T12

For the wires, I before assembling the enclosure I made a U hole and fed all the wires through there. Then used zip ties to keep them neat. I have 3 different enclosures so wiring needs to be kept in check.

Good luck! Definitely exciting times on the horizon! Keeping BPs in a PVC enclosure is soo easy! Don't really have to worry about temps or humidity so keeping becomes simple and you get to focus to observing these your snakes instead of freaking out about the temps and humidity.

I've been using "under cabinet led lights" for a while also... I just bought one of the led strips to try out, it's long enough that I can cut it and use it for multiple terrariums. You can bend it or cut it and use right angle connectors. It's almost flat and it's cheap... and you can get it in white or "RGB" which has lots of colors to choose from. Oh and lots of them have remotes to control the lights and some can even be controlled from your phone. I think it's going to work really well for me, thought I would share here since OP will probably be looking at lights.

[Ookoodoocoo]

1) I don't know
2) I don't know
3) I don't know
4) I personally like an under counter LED strip in my cage. Mainly for my own visual pleasure, but it also helps me to see into the cage for anything that needs attention (cleaning, snake soaking in water, etc)
5) Amazon sells Fastening Cable Ties that are made of velcro and come in multiple colors. Or you can go to your local auto parts store and buy the black plastic tubing that's split (split wire loom tubing is what Amazon calls it), allowing you to tuck all the wires inside then place a few wraps of electrical tape and you got one big black cable with everything inside.

[GoingPostal]

I live in northern MN and I have RHP and flexwatt in almost all my PVC cages with Herpstats controlling them. It never hurts to have a second heat source just in case in a cold climate and during warm weather you can run belly heat only. My thermostats are on top of the cages and wires/probes in order of the stack, then zip tied together.