Enclosure questions for a Stimmie - heating, lighting and type

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Dahlia

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Hi All

We need to move my son's Stimmie, Ramen, into a larger enclosure as he is rapidly growing out of it. We are in Adelaide. Just wondering what heating we need - he currently just has a heat pad and has been feeding well. Also do we need light? He hasn't had any for the past year. And also tossing up between a wooden Reptile One or a URS glass one. I have heard the wooden enclosures are better for heat retention (which makes sense!).

Any advice on what to include would be great. I have done a search however can't seem to find answers to the specific questions I had.
Cheers
Tara
 
Heating mats work well when set up right so I'd stick with that, the general rule of thumb is you get one that is large enough to cover 1/3 of the enclosure. I think artificial light is better, if you set a light up on a timer you can maintain a consistent day/night cycle which in theory will help reduce stress and/or encourage more natural behaviours. Beyond that I think one of the biggest benefits of having light is the heat the bulb will give off, I use just a normal 60W R80 Phillips bulb from Bunnings and I find it gets hot enough to help bump up that ambient temperature, while not getting so hot that I have to worry about hooking it up to a thermostat, unlike some specialised reptile heat lamps. If you choose to install a light in your enclosure just make sure you provide some form of protection to prevent the snake from getting too close and burning itself, eg a light cage. Wooden enclosures are commonly considered the gold standard for the reason you noted, I would definitely go with the wooden enclosure over the glass if you're tossing up between the two. I also find wooden enclosures are easy to customise, eg installing lights/heating elements, adding more vents, mounting decorations and climbing spots - the only downside I can see is the heating mat situation can be a bit finicky as its generally not recommended you stick it to the bottom of the enclosure like you would with glass or plastic. What many people do, including myself, is create a heating tile (basically a heat mat sandwiched in between two ceramic tiles) and place that inside of the enclosure. There are quite a few ways of doing this and a few considerations to keep in mind depending on your set up so I'd look into it more to see what would work for you.
 

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