New fella with an age old question.

Aussie Pythons & Snakes Forum

Help Support Aussie Pythons & Snakes Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Daikaiju

New Member
Joined
Sep 13, 2020
Messages
10
Reaction score
6
Hey guys and girls hope you are all doing okay in this time of pure covid chaos.

Ive recently gotten back into the reptile game after years of being out and well i cant seem to stop getting new animals.

My question is as old as time itself.
How can i maximize my heating to multiple enclosures whilst keeping the electricity bill *kinda* modest.
I know the bill will always be somewhat high but i dont want it to go ape **** ahaha.

Are heat mats and cords a viable solution instead of running globes 12/7
and if you have photos of your set ups that you are willing to share that would be appreciated more then words.

*Im not into racks and tubs just yet, i do wish to breed in the future but im pretty sure the lass will kill me if i start breeding snakes before i have a human kid first*

cheers guys and girls.
An old picture of my current girl is added (i think)

Jacob.

snek.jpg

[doublepost=1599922391,1599922152][/doublepost]And i do apologize i can only guess this question has been asked a multitude of times so if there is already a thread that answers this question you are more then welcome to send it to me and tell me to piss off :)
 
Hi Daikaiju , and welcome back,,,,
Personaly i only have 3 carpet pythons , but i do try to keep my enclosures as simple and efficient as possible while providing my animals with everything they need to keep healthy and hopfully happy. I live down south were its much to cold for carpet pythons , so my home made enclosures are well insulated to start with. I run heat cord through a light dimmer switch under about 1/2 the floor space in each enclosure 24/7 for ambiant heat. But a good thermostat would be even better. I have an ordinary 60watt incandecent bulb, run through a timer and another dimmer switch in each enclosure for aditional daytime heat. I find the bulbs last much longer if you don't run them on full power. Hope that is of some help to you, good luck.
 
+1 to heat cord being your friend.

Much more energy efficient and better to work with than globes for various reasons - efficient with electricity, more reliable (don't blow like globes), cheaper and easier to install, don't make unnecessary light, floor heat is more natural and better for nocturnal pythons, snakes won't wrap around them potentially burning themselves or breaking them, and many others. In the 90s like everyone else I was using globes for everything, even including incubators, but that was just because back then we didn't know better. These days the only globes I'd consider using are spotlights, which I'd generally not use for snakes, especially pythons other than Diamonds or maybe bredli if I had some form of stroke leaving me deranged enough to not only keep but also pamper a bredli. For something like a Woma or pretty much any other python I'd only use heat cords. There are many different ways to set them up, this largely comes down to personal preference.
 
Appreciate all the feedback guys thank you!
For now ill keep running the globe but once i build these new enclosures ill run cords and mats,
thank you!
 
Can i ask why heat mats wouldnt work well on timber in lieu of cords? Ive seen people router out the timber with cords which is a nice idea but the mats are an issue on timber for what reason?
 
Your all right , cords are the go, but i have used small heat mats under timber floors with no problems , i just stick a layer of aluminium tape to the underside of the floor between the timber and the heat mat. It was only a 5watt mat , so didn't get very hot anyway.
 
The problem is that sitting the mat on a roughish surface such as wood can cause scratching on the film or damage to the connection which can cause damage to wood touch the exposed area = a fire risk

where with a cord, you reallllly have to try to cut it (without using scissors) or strip the outer layers
 
I prefer cords, but in years gone by I used heat mats under melamine enclosures with no problems. With any amount of common sense (which admittedly is absent with disturbing frequency) they can be used safely under a wooden enclosure.
 
I cannot imagine using a low wattage mat under some wood.... Is the heat really penetrating through? I think wood is kinda insulating..... No clue
So far i kept chondros, so i've no experience with mats and cords because of using heat panels.
Soon i'll build some enclosures for Antaresia and will use cords for the first time.
I will make some routes in the bottom panel or attach the cord directly on top of the wood with some aluminiumtape.
Then placing a tile over it.
Will see how it works....
 
Hi Kaiwei
Yep , the timber floor was 6mm thick marine ply , and it worked perfectly. Now all my floors are 6mm glass , so very little chance of fire.
I cannot imagine using a low wattage mat under some wood.... Is the heat really penetrating through? I think wood is kinda insulating..... No clue
So far i kept chondros, so i've no experience with mats and cords because of using heat panels.
Soon i'll build some enclosures for Antaresia and will use cords for the first time.
I will make some routes in the bottom panel or attach the cord directly on top of the wood with some aluminiumtape.
Then placing a tile over it.
Will see how it works....
 
I cannot imagine using a low wattage mat under some wood.... Is the heat really penetrating through? I think wood is kinda insulating..... No clue
So far i kept chondros, so i've no experience with mats and cords because of using heat panels.
Soon i'll build some enclosures for Antaresia and will use cords for the first time.
I will make some routes in the bottom panel or attach the cord directly on top of the wood with some aluminiumtape.
Then placing a tile over it.
Will see how it works....

Never, ever use adhesive tape inside a reptile enclosure, especially not ever.
 
I get it! BUT : there will be a tile on top to cover it.
So that'll be not dangerous i guess

Keep tape away full stop trust. just use the tile and grooves and some selleys, or add a wooden divider between hot and cool end and have a perfect size tile to fit in the hot end and then use selleys to fill the gaps so no liquids ruin everything by getting in
 
Last edited:
I get it! BUT : there will be a tile on top to cover it.
So that'll be not dangerous i guess

I can't count the number of times I've heard people say similar things then later 'HELP!!! My snake has a patch of skin ripped off and the tape is still attached!'. There have been a few cases of that here on APS over the years.

I can't force your hand, it's your choice, but I recommend not ever ever having tape in a snake enclosure. When I was 15 years old in the mid 90s, a friend had a snake get stuck on tape, it was horrible and I learned the easy way not to ever use it. Since then I've seen examples of it every year to remind me, and quite a few of them from people who had previously said 'I know it's dangerous, but it's okay in this case because I'll be doing XYZ'.

I'm relaxed enough about things that I don't care when people cohabit pythons or refreeze rats, I'm really laid back about things most herpers are uptight about, but I strongly recommend against having tape in an enclosure. But, again, hey, your snake your choice.
 
I can't count the number of times I've heard people say similar things then later 'HELP!!! My snake has a patch of skin ripped off and the tape is still attached!'. There have been a few cases of that here on APS over the years.

I can't force your hand, it's your choice, but I recommend not ever ever having tape in a snake enclosure. When I was 15 years old in the mid 90s, a friend had a snake get stuck on tape, it was horrible and I learned the easy way not to ever use it. Since then I've seen examples of it every year to remind me, and quite a few of them from people who had previously said 'I know it's dangerous, but it's okay in this case because I'll be doing XYZ'.

I'm relaxed enough about things that I don't care when people cohabit pythons or refreeze rats, I'm really laid back about things most herpers are uptight about, but I strongly recommend against having tape in an enclosure. But, again, hey, your snake your choice.

I made the mistake of having tape in my enclosure to hold probe down because I didn’t think my snake would run along the corner of enclosure... woops

Luckily it was paper tape, so it dissolved whilst washing off, but if it were god forbid alluminium tape, there’s no way it’ll come off with out tearing scales off
 

Latest posts

Back
Top