Help with setting up a new enclosure I built for my BP's!

[Tat&Tu]

I recently built a wooden enclosure for my two BP's. Its significantly larger than the enclosure they are in right nowbut they r always slithering around like they are mad or sad that they have no space to roam or explore! So I built them the LAST enclosure they will ever need! It is exactly 4ft long by 2ft wide and 2ft high. I am thinking I will order some flexwatt heat tape, the largest I have seen is 11". But how much of the bottom floor should I cover with the tape and should I put something on top of the flexwatt other than the substrate to prevent burning the snakes (I will have the flexwatt plugged into my thermostat.)? Here are some pics of the enclosure:

Acrylic is used as see thru glass for top and front






Just to help you see the size in comparison to something you may know the size of off hand, that is a ten gallon tank on top of the enclosure........

So what do u think is the best heating elements to use, any advice is welcomed! Thanks

Here is one of my BP's!

[Gloryhound]

Next thing you need to do is build a second enclosure for the second ball Python. They generally should not be housed together. You may be able to cut that one in half (across the center so it is a double stack as BP's are not climbers) as your guys are pretty small. It still may be too big for them. Get some index card boxes and cut a hole in the face of each that they can crawl into and hide. BP's like tight places to feel safe and secure.

[Tat&Tu]

Yeah I was thinkin about Putting a board directly down into the middle so separate them..... one is almost 3ft and the male Tu' is over 3ft (he's not shown in the pics)! They have hides but when I put the flexwatt down should I put something over it to prevent burning? I've heard of people building racks and putting down flexwatt with pegboard over the flexwatt!

[Gloryhound]

vynil flooring works good! We did it on a recommendation from a web member here and it turned out to be the best improvement besides switching from rheostat to thermostat (Helix) for heat control.

[ChrisBowsman]

It seems like you'd almost be better off making it two levels, each 1' high. BPs like ground space, not air space.

That is a nice looking enclosure. I like the color you stained the wood.

[Tat&Tu]

Thanks and Yeah you are right it would make more space to move horizontally which is better! I will work on that! WHere would I purchase vinyll flooring at though? and does it need to be any particular thickness? and does the flexwatt go above or below the vinyll?

[dalvers63]

You want to be careful with Flexwatt if you're putting it inside the cage. Because the wires can be exposed to moisture, you take the chance of shocking the snakes if they get too much water/urates/etc on the floor. I'd suggest you go with Radiant heat panels instead. You can get two smaller ones if you're going to split the tank and mount them on the ends of the tank on the inside.

Another choice would be something like a small pig blanket (sealed heater that is used with pigs) to put inside the tank. These stay at a low temp and have been used for years for large burms and retics.

[starmom]

Or a RHP for the lower and flexwatt (covered) for the upper.....

[Gloryhound]

I would use the regular Zoo-Med under the tank heaters and hook them up to a proportional thermistat like a Helix DBS-1000 or the Herpstat II (could go pro as it has 4 different inputs/outputs). Get the sheet vinyl flooring at Home Depot and just make sure you heavily sanitize it before using it. (We actually dipped and let ours soak for about 15 minutes in a chlorine solution, then Rinsed and soaked in a pure water solution for 10 minutes then rinse and scrubbed, then used one of those reptile disinfectants they sell at pet stores.) Put the vinyl over the UTH and tape the probe down directly on top the vinyl flooring using clear packing tape. (make sure no sticky surfaces are left exposed.) Put some blank news paper print down on top and then your hides and water dishes. Make sure nothing sits directly over the temp probe from the thermostat as it will throw off your readings.

Here is mine, but we swapped out the bark for the blank newspaper print quick when we figured how much of a pain it was to keep the bark sanitary.



Mine isn't too fancy, but the legless kids seem to like it!

[GirDance]

If you silicone down a piece of either acrylic or glass so that you can slide the flex watt under it from the back or the side, that will keep all moisture out you should be fine to use flex watt.

I would also recommend adding a 'shelf' as opposed to splitting the length. Looks great though!