space heater?

[watsmyusernameagain?]

hello everyone,

I was thinking about puting a space heater in my snake room to try to help bump up the ambient temps in my rack. ive got a animal plastics economy rack and dont feel its holding temps quite as well as i would like. so my question to those who use a space heater in their snake room what is good and what do you use. thanks

[Stewart_Reptiles]

Something like this http://www.homedepot.com/p/Pelonis-1...218H/202295910 and a reliable external thermostat http://www.reptilebasics.com/thermos...stat-prewired/

I have been using that setup for years.

There are oil filled heaters with digital thermostat however that is the first part that will fail so I would stay away from those.

[Velrys]

I just use a GE space heater i found at target, tall black one, I don't use it to heat the room to ambient temps just to keep the room at least at 78 so that the UTHs can do their jobs properly.

[DennisM]

Something like this http://www.homedepot.com/p/Pelonis-1...218H/202295910 and a reliable external thermostat http://www.reptilebasics.com/thermos...stat-prewired/

I have been using that setup for years.

There are oil filled heaters with digital thermostat however that is the first part that will fail so I would stay away from those.

Agreed, I use the same type of heater. They don't have a real thermostat, but can be hooked up to one. But be careful that the thermostat can handle the wattage of the heater. My heater has two switches, one has 600 watts and the other 900 watts. My VE-300 thermostat has max output of 700 watts, so I never switch on the 900 watts.

[DennisM]

And keep the heater away from the cages as much as possible!

[jplehmann]

Related but more general question -- do breeders who have large rack setups always tend to heating the entire room in order to control ambient temps like this?

They also still have to provide a hotspot on each one of the tubs though, right?

[200xth]

Related but more general question -- do breeders who have large rack setups always tend to heating the entire room in order to control ambient temps like this?

They also still have to provide a hotspot on each one of the tubs though, right?

I don't think they do hotspots. I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure I remember either reading an article or watching a video where it was said a few of the big breeders just do ambient temps in the snake rooms of 84 to 85 with no hotspots. I can't find it now, though, so I could be mistaken.

[Eric Alan]

Both methods can be used effectively with enough husbandry experience. The most common way, however, is to provide a hot spot for proper thermoregulation.

[watsmyusernameagain?]

great stuff guys I appreciate all the help

[jplehmann]

I watched a BHB video yesterday, I think this one, and they do 84 like you said and a 95 deg. hotspot: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-itUA4UYtFw. So I guess at least some do both. They modify the ambient and hotspots during the year to induce breeding.