Heat lamps vs.undertank heaters????

Hi everyone,
I ahave read so much about heatand knowing how important it is to my pythons wellbeing I was wondering what everyone recommends. I use heat lamps one day and one night lamp for 12 hours each. I have no problems with humidity. But everyone seems to be using the undertank heaters. But my problem with that is houdini has a habit of burrowing down and laying on the glass under his hide box and i am afraid he will get burned. He has always done very well with the lamps. Just wondering. What does everyone else use?
Thank you
Kristy

i have both, undertank on all the time, and a red heat lamp which is on all the time to, my cage gets indirect sunlight, so he knows night from day, also my room gets the proper temp. drops at night which makes his cage good temp.s

If you use the UTH on a thermostat, with the probe firmly attached to the area directly over the UTH, there is no reason he should get burned, it will get no warmer than the temperature you have the thermostat set at. I always have a hide box on both the warm end and the cool end of the enclosure, allowing them to thermoregulate, if they only have a hide on one side or the other, they may not want to leave the security of the hides and either get too warm or too cool to digest their food properly.
I have a couple snakes that are still in glass tanks, and I will sometimes use a ceramic heat emitter overhead with them supplementing the UTH to help keep temps up, as they don't hold heat nearly as well as my Boaphile cages (I have a new Rhino Raxx on order, yay! No more tanks!) and I find that especially in the winter I have problems keeping the humidity as high as I would like for Ball Pythons when using any overhead heat in them.

Cathy:

Glad to hear the feedback on boaphile plastics. I've checked out their site and the product looks to be of excellent design and quality.

I'm actually acquiring my first ball tomorrow (NERD line Lemon female) and for the immediate future am going to use an aquarium (until I save up the coin for a boaphile setup). The tank is going to be in my basement, so I'm not as worried about humidity as I am temp. My thought is to use an under tank heater set to around 88 F on the end w/the hidebox and a ceramic heat element on the "cool" end set at 70 F

One thing that has been impressed upon me in my research is the need for a quality thermostat.

What would you reccomend?

-Scott Ashton

Thanks in advance for the advice.

Originally Posted by shavemycoinpurse

Cathy:

Glad to hear the feedback on boaphile plastics. I've checked out their site and the product looks to be of excellent design and quality.

I'm actually acquiring my first ball tomorrow (NERD line Lemon female) and for the immediate future am going to use an aquarium (until I save up the coin for a boaphile setup). The tank is going to be in my basement, so I'm not as worried about humidity as I am temp. My thought is to use an under tank heater set to around 88 F on the end w/the hidebox and a ceramic heat element on the "cool" end set at 70 F

One thing that has been impressed upon me in my research is the need for a quality thermostat.

What would you reccomend?

-Scott Ashton

Thanks in advance for the advice.

Hi Scott,

Check out Matt's G. (justcage) website at mgreptiles. I have 3 different kinds of thermostat I use. I have Ranco, Herpstat and a Helix. On his website he has a side by side comparison so you can weigh the pros and cons. What you plan on doing as far as breeding etc will depend on which one you will want.

Thanks Bill.

I've checked out MG's site and Matt has a top notch reputation, so I wouldn't hesitate to do business with him.

My goal is eventually to breed, but that is goal that is going to take awhile to achieve.

I noticed in a BOI thread hat Cathy just picked up the Johnson Controls unit that Matt just started to carry.

I'm definitely familiar with their products and know they are a leader in environmental controls. I'll be interested to read Cathy's comments once she has had a chance to put it to the test.

-Scott

I'm in the process of doing my own Ranco vs. Johnsons test....I think they are both very good...the Rancos are a bit "bulkier", and have less "features" than the Johnsons....but then if you're a bit "technologically challenged" like me, a couple less features isn't necessarily a bad thing, lol....

Like Bill said, check out Matt Graybeal's website....he's got them all, and probably the best prices....and you can get them pre-wired and all ready to go from him.

And yes, I LOVE Boaphile's stuff, it is VERY good quality stuff, and the prices include shipping and everything. You may have to be a bit patient in getting your items though....I think the average wait time for me has been 5 weeks after order.

After looking over Matt's site I think I'm going to go with the Herpstat II.

I'll update this thread with observations once I get her up and running.

-Scott