Cobra Heat Mats & Using Them Inside The Cage

Undertank heat pads in tank under substrate? Ok?

I built a cage out of melamine. Can I put an UTH in the cage under the outfoor carpet? I think the only get to around 100-115 deg. ?????

 

I wouldnt put anything like that inside of the cage. You could route out a spot on the bottom of the cage.

 

Only 110-115? Should never get higher than 90-92. Second off, never put something electrical in a cage where it can get wet, or urinated on. Your snake will be in for a shocking experience.

If you looking for belly heat for your cage, get some flexwatt from www.beanfarm.com wire it up with a rheostat to control the temps. THEN get some thin tile board, that you use for a shower surround. Sandwich the flexwatt between the melamine and the tire board and silicone down and seal the tile board so no moisture can get to the flexwatt.

You will have to file down some of the melamine to make a resee for the flexwatt clamps and the power cord so they wont get pinched and cause a fire.

 

Ok thanks. I'll do one of those ideas instead. The radiant panels you can put on the inside walls though right? T-Rex ect. Those are basically like the flexwatt aren't they?
Also, I have a zoo med UTH on my 38 gal tank now and when I lazer the bottom of the cage it's between 100-120 deg. The pad is under tank, and the temp reading is on top of the outdoor carpet. My Ball lays over that spot often.??????

 

Oh, and if I route out a space in the floor of the melamine cage and put in some plexi glass to mount the UTH pad to there wouldn't be a problem with the plexi being too warm would there?? The stuff I have is .10 thickness.

 

I think Big Apple Herps has some inexpensive pads designed for this. Check out their Dragon's Lair pads. I'll be testing a couple of these soon.

And I'd always suggest using a thermostat, just to be safe.

-Imp

 

It's alright to use the pad under the cage but I really think you may want to get a rheostat to better monitor those temps because temps reading 100-120 are way too hot for pythons they don't need over 90.

 

100-120 is only the surface temp above the heating pad, the air temp is 89-91 on the hot side and 78-82 on the cool side.

 

Anyone use cobra heat mats inside cages?

I built a cage out of Melamine and wanted to mount a cobra heat mat inside on one wall and I'm going to route out the floor for a zoo med UTH pad. They say for use inside or outside of terrarium and that they only get to 100deg.

 

My UTH said only 100 deg max as well, but I can tell by just feeling it that it's not--definitely hotter. So if you use it inside the tank, definitely hook up a rheostat to it so you can make sure it's at 100 or lower (preferably lower since the animal can come into direct contact with it). Ideally, however, it's best if you can avoid putting a heating device inside the cage.

 

Actually, ball pythons do better when kept at temperatures of 83-85 on the cool side, and 94-95 on the warm side. These are surface temps. Ambient temps should be in the 80s. Never should the temps drop into the 70s, you are asking for trouble. These are the reasons why these snakes go off feed. They feel that they won't be getting optimum temps to digest, so they refuse and wait until temps resume back to normal.

Please do not place any sort of heating device inside the cage. If the surface temps in the cage are already 100-120, either get a dimmer to turn down the power to the heating element, or raise the enclosure up off of the heating device. Burns happen very quickly when temps aren't regulated, and with these snakes who have very slow metabolisms, they heal incredibly slowly. They rely on you to keep their enclosure at optimum temperatures and humidity.

Downhillbikin, I would use a radiant heat panel for the enclosure you are building. They are safe to touch, so your snake won't get burned, and you can mount them to the ceiling of the enclosure to create a nice temperature gradient. Heat panels are NOT flexwatt, but they both need to be controlled by a good-quality thermostat, not one that you would find in a petstore(zoo-med, alife, etc).

Hope that helped you a bit. Please get the temperature down in your snake's current enclosure. He/She is very liable to being burned, and the vet bills alone can set you back quite a bit.

 

Ok, Thanks. What brand of radiant heat pannel do you reccomend? Cobras are radiant right?

 

It seems like there is a significant difference between a radiant heat panel and a UTH. The RHPs should be producing more heat - you'd never want to put one of those under a tank. As I understand it, it is ok for a panel on the side or top of a tank to get up around 120+, since the snake won't be resting right on top of it. A little bit of contact as the snake is cruising around shouldn't hurt. But if your UTH gets that hot, then a snake resting on top will get cooked.

So yeah, I guess basically you shouldn't use a UTH as a side/top panel, and likewise you shouldn't use a RHP under the tank. If you go to Big Apple Herp, you will see that the pads and panels look nearly identical, but the wattages and heat output are different. And no matter what you use, a thermostat is a good idea.


-Imp

 

I think the side or top of the tank will not necessarily reach 120 degrees but instead those heaters produce radiant heat that heats objects in the tank instead of the air. The heat panel will not be hot unless there is something that is trapping the heat against it. With one on the top or sides the snake will not be making enough contact to build the heat up to that level. If you were to place a radiant heat panel on the side or ceiling of the enclosure and there was a decent amount of insulating material on the back side of the panel or if the wall was made out of something like thick wood then that would be trapping the heat and make the panel hot.

I was stupid once and used one of those radiant heat panels on the outside of my BP's tank and covered it with the bubble type reflective insulation material and it ended up melting the plastic somewhat.

The reason you don't put them under the tank is because your substrate(if thick enough) along with the surface the tank is sitting on would be considered as insulation material and trap the heat and cause the panel to get hot.

 

Do you know if the T-rex cobra mats/pannels are radient? Or are those just for UTH? I'm just not sure how to tell the difference except for the zoo-med because that one is more mat like, the exoterra and t-rex are like an element sandwiched between clear plastic. thanks.

 

I know where you're coming from because I'm a little confused about the whole thing as well. Supposedly all of the higher quality ones are radiant but I think maybe either the wavelengths are a little different or the mat is just more powerful with mats that indicate they can be placed inside the tank. In fact the only brand I've ever seen that says it can be placed inside the tank is from Big Apple so I guess if it were me(now) I'd just forget either the Dragons Lair or the Desert Heat (I think that's their names), whichever one says it's supposedly this great new thing that can be placed inside the tank. I'd go with what has been proven to work well and just stick with something like the Cobra from Trex. I wouldn't use the Zoomed for a couple of reasons, one being the fact you have to adhere it to something and two, I just don't think the quality is as good.

 

The pads/panels from Big Apple have been sealed in platic and are waterproof. This, as I understand it, is why they are advertised as being ok to use inside a cage.

As I said before, the panels put out more heat than the pads. Other than that they seem nearly identical. And while you don't want your snake coiling up on top of a 120+ degree surface, having that on the side or top of the tank shouldn't hurt the snake if it brushes up against it. And YES, the panels get that hot pretty easily.

Also, you are supposed to insulate one side of the panels. The instructions make that pretty clear, and give you detailed information on how to do that. Basically you put a layer of styrofoam over the outside of the panel.

My only issue now is trying to decide where to put the thermostat probe. I currently have the probes inside the enclosures, over the UTH (both have the UTH underneath the tank, not inside it). I have a desert ray panel on the back wall (again on the outside). Both the panel and pad are plugged in to the single thermostat. The panels seem to raise the ambient temp fairly well. The probes are on the side closest to the panels, but they seem to be mainly picking up the UTH. I spot check the temps once in a while, and the hottest points are still the ones on the ground, so I gues the setup is working well enough.

This is all sort of an ongoing experiment. Both of my current enclosures are tanks. The ambient temps in the room run around 66-70 during the colder months, and I'm finding that it's a PITA to keep a propper temp gradiant in these things. I'll be trying out rubbermaids and custom PVC enclosures next.

-Imp

 

Believe me I know where you're coming from. FWIW, when I set up a tank it usually takes a minimum of about 36 hours before the temps will get to their highest and lowest points accurately. I keep my place fairly cool as well and I think we are in the minority because I don't hear of many others having problems getting their tanks up to temp. FYI, in my experience it doesn't change much with rubbermaids or the PVC enclosures. I use all three types and have about the same issues with temps. in all of them. I'd have say out of the three the PVC type probably has done the best.

 

Look, I made a crappy drawing of one of my enclosures:

http://admin3.imaginationatwork.com/Launch...lscid=184982417



I forgot to add it, but there is a layer of styrofoam all along the back wall (behind the heat pannel). I also have another piece of styromfoam that covers about 90% of the screen top.

-Imp

 

Ok, cool thanks. I assume you would mount the heat pannels on the walls at the same end as the ceramic heating element/bulb and day lamp.?? Is it ok to not have an under tank heater than? My cage is 4' long 2' wide and 18" tall. I'll so far, have a 150W zoo med CHE above on the right side along with a 100 watt day bulb next to it, and below those on the right side wall, a radiant heat pannel (cobra). Maybe a pannel on the back wall near the side wall pannel. So he has a heat corner. Maybe I should put a small pannel on the cool side also near his cool hide, just so it isn't too cool over there. ??? I suppose it all depends on what my abient air temps are. My mian question is, if my air temps are ok, and I have more than sufficeint heat with lamps and pannels on one side, do I need heat from under (UTH) also?