Warning against heat rocks GRAPHIC

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The problem is heat rocks are most often the thing recommended by pet-shop sales staff because they have absolutely no idea the dangers of them and are usually the stock that they have been told to market more as they do not get sold nearly as much as heat mats and globes.
 
So Mods, can this become a sticky?

Best to put this sort of request in via the support center. I will however also take it to the other Mods and the Admins for their thoughts.
 
Best to put this sort of request in via the support center. I will however also take it to the other Mods and the Admins for their thoughts.

Thanks

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Do we know what brand it is and if it came from a pet shop? My guess would be a $10 ebay one!

No this was bought from a pet shop, I am not going to name them here though.
I am unsure of the brand, I will try and find out.
 
ooh, thats nasty,...great idea making it a sticky so its easy to find when i see people recommending heat rocks cos theirs has never malfunctioned,....
 
not disagreeing with you hear but what exactly makes them so dangerous compared to say a heat matt or heat cord

The answer is the inconsistency of the heating element laid within the rock itself. If the element is laid unevenly with more concentration in a certain area or in an area where the thickness of the rock surface is thin then you can get hot spots which are the problem. Whether you buy the most expensive brand name one you can afford or the cheapest one you can find you can never be sure that the element inside has been laid evenly which is why most reptile specialists don't sell them - and those that do would give appropriate warnings I would hope. The thermostatic controls on these sorts of items can be misleading as they are not accurate and will only kick in when the current is adequate which leaves a lag and a temp variation. Heat mats and heat cords by their very nature have an even heat distribution which is why you don't see the sorts of problems with them that you see with heat rocks. The problems you see with heat mats are almost always the result of misuse with the main problem being lack of appropriate ventilation which in effect cooks the product rather than the product failing.
 
poor thing.



sadly my only option is heat rocks cause my dad doesnt like the price of thermostats.

is there any way i can use them to heat it without putting it in and putting them at risk??
 
Damn that is nasty... Poor Diamond :(

Heat rocks and those green bags of death that were passed off as heat mats should be avoided like the plague.

By 'green bags of death' do you mean the URS style heat mats or something else? Cause' I have one of those and I've never had a problem with it. It's even been through 3 or so power outages and still works as it should.

Same goes for an ebay heat mat and an Exo Terra one, no problems at all.
Although they are all hooked up to a thermostat which would help a lot in keeping them functioning correctly, I'd imagine.

poor thing.

sadly my only option is heat rocks cause my dad doesnt like the price of thermostats.

is there any way i can use them to heat it without putting it in and putting them at risk??

You can get a thermostat ($20) and heat mat or cord ($15) for around $35 if you look hard enough. And I'd say that twenty dollars is a good investment if it saves you from accidently burning your beloved pet (or burning the house down).

Failing that, you could get a heat cord and a thermometer for around $20-25 and just tighten or loosen the heat cord until you achive the desired temperatures.
 
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By 'green bags of death' do you mean the URS style heat mats or something else? Cause' I have one of those and I've never had a problem with it. It's even been through 3 or so power outages and still works as it should.

Same goes for an ebay heat mat and an Exo Terra one, no problems at all.
Although they are all hooked up to a thermostat which would help a lot in keeping them functioning correctly, I'd imagine.

Well if you're happy with it, no amount of advise from me will change your mind.

Perhaps do a little bit of research on them.
 
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Heat rocks cause problems because when the inbuilt thermostats fail they just keep heating and heating, there are ones now which when fail turn off
 
I have had a few reptile keeper friends who have had the exact same thing happen. I do know that a majority of the brands were Reptile One, but either way i would never buy one no matter what the brand.
 
Although we do not sell heat rocks we do have them available for sale (if that makes sense!). We only sell the Exo Terra ones. Having sold probably more than 100 over 10 years I have never heard of one over heating! We have had some back that have stopped working but for no other reason. Agree with the majority though that a GOOD quality heat pad or heat cord with a thermostat is a much better option.
 
I really hope that the Diamond is okay, poor thing.
I do agree with people, it is a shame that pet shops actually sell this however I got recommended one by a reputable reptile vet in my area, pretty weird, huh?
 
I have never liked hot rocks, and stopped using them about 14 years ago. The main problem is that a snakes ventral surface isn't very sensitive to hot surfaces, so they will sit on something that is slowly burning them and not know it.

Hot rocks will also quickly dry out the shedding oils if a snake coils on it for long periods. This causes the new skin to be pulled off with the old, thus causing nasty damaged to the ventral scales, leading to severe scarring.

As nasty as the photo looks, it will heal okay with successive sheds. All the scabs will come away with the next shed, leaving raw flesh exposed. But this will dry, and get better with the following shed. In time it will look much better, but scars will remain.
 
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I have never liked hot rocks, and stopped using them about 14 years ago. The main problem is that a snakes ventral surface isn't very sensitive to hot surfaces, so they will sit on something that is slowly burning them and not know it.

Hot rocks will also quickly dry out the shedding oils if a snake coils on it for long periods. This causes the new skin to be pulled off with the old, thus causing nasty damaged to the ventral scales, leading to severe scarring.

As nasty as the photo looks, it will heal okay with successive sheds. All the scabs will come away with the next shed, leaving raw flesh exposed. But this will dry, and get better with the following shed. In time it will look much better, but scars will remain.

Interesting.

I personally don't use hotrocks inb my tanks, how ever I have a click clack that I throw my snakes in overnight sometimes if say, their globe blows or I feel that I will have too many visitors and the snake will stress out. This click clack uses a ReptileOne heat rock.

On the shedding oils comment, I had both my little jungles shed at the same time for their first shed, at this stage I had one enclosure set up and was setting up the second, so unfortunately one of the snakes had to spend its shed in the click clack with the hotrock, while the other got the full enclosure.

Interestingly the one in the full enclosure had a patchy shed and I was forced to aid it by hand, however the click clack snake had a perfect shed.

Eitherway, I'll be looking to set up a hotrock-free temporary enclosure in the near future.
 
Well if you're happy with it, no amount of advise from me will change your mind.

Perhaps do a little bit of research on them.

Actually I just checked the urs heat mat and it has slightly burnt through the foam bottom of a urs enclosure. Despite being hooked up to a thermostat. And only being around 3 months old. Bummer. No problems with the other heat mats though.
 
Although we do not sell heat rocks we do have them available for sale (if that makes sense!). We only sell the Exo Terra ones. Having sold probably more than 100 over 10 years I have never heard of one over heating! We have had some back that have stopped working but for no other reason. Agree with the majority though that a GOOD quality heat pad or heat cord with a thermostat is a much better option.

I am sorry for saying pet shops in general give bad advice about equipment such as these, your establishment in my experience has always given out first rate advice, I have edited my comment.
 
No offence taken. I was more interested in the brand as all the heat pads and rocks I have heard of and seen catching on fire have been the cheapo Ebay ones.
 
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