Building my own cage

[Bucko]

I have done a search and did not come up with any luck, so i am turning to making a thread for help. I am making a wooden cage for my snake, because my viv looses too much humidy with my heat lamp on it. Going to use contact paper so the wood does not rot. My question is can I use and UTH? If i can do i just put it next to the Wood? Also can a snake cage be too big. I know that the bigger the cage gets the more hides you need and the harder it is to keep the temperature in. Also if you have any plans that you are willing to share with me for my snake cage that would be great also.
Thank you very much.

[Zinger333]

Building your own cage is fine and dandy...but from what i have read it is not suggested to put a UTH on wood. the chance is to great that it could catch fire. however if you were to use say...plexie glass you can put it right on there. but yes the bigger the cage the badder it is for the snake. you don't have to build one that's gigantic...you just need one that is baiscally the snakes lenght.


well the length and the width should egual more than the snakes length. you can leave room for it to grow...but you don't want to get to caried away. sorry if i don't make a lot of sence i can't sleep...but some other peepes on here will pipe in to let you know what's up.

Zinger

[daniel1983]

Building your own cage is fine and dandy...but from what i have read it is not suggested to put a UTH on wood. the chance is to great that it could catch fire.

The chance that a strip of flexwatt or any other UTH will catch wood on fire is very slim. Most UTHs don't get warm enough to ignite wood. If a fire were to occur, it would probably happen no matter what the UTH is in contact with since most problems with heating elements results from improper wiring and overloading.

Since water will be in your enclosure, you do not want the water to come in contact with the UTH for any reason. I would suggest recessing the UTH in the floor of the wooden enclosure, then sealing a small sheet of plexiglass on top of it. Make sure to leave a little air space between the UTH and the plexi because direct contact can possibly cause hot spots.

Since you are going to use an UTH, I would also suggest getting a thermostat. This will allow you to keep more consistant temperatures in the enclosure.

Here is a Flexwatt FAQ:
http://www.mgreptiles.com/FLEXFAQ.html

If you have any other questions on what would be best to buy etc., send Matt at MG Reptiles an email and he can help you out.

[Bucko]

Thank you so much to the both of you guys.