I am going to convert my 4-shelf wire bakers rack into a snake rack. I am planning on covering each wire shelf with a sheet of Formica board and use heat tape and a thermostat to regulate the warm end of the snake tubs. Each shelf is 4 feet long and 24 inches wide
My questions are:

  1. What type of heat tape do I use?
  2. How big (wide) should the heat tape be?
  3. Do I need a thermostat for each shelf or will one work for all 4 shelves?
  4. Assuming I use only one thermostat and I daisy-chain the heat tape together, how long can the heat tape be and still work?
  5. I will eventually expand to another shelving unit. Should the second shelving unit be entirely seperate from the first? ie seperate thermostats, heat tape etc.?


I know there are a lot of variables here and a lot of questions, but I want to do this right the first time and I would appreciate everyone’s input and suggestions. Is there something I'm not considering? Something I should think about?

Right now the racks will hold mostly juvenile Ball Pythons and a few adults. The juveniles will, of course, grow up and I will need to expand to more racks.
I am currently keeping the room at 85F and all the snakes are happy, but I want to give them the perfect setup.

Andy-