R. Eventide
So say we all!
Been wondering about this for a while, but I figured it wouldn't hurt to get some other opinions.
I use 4" Flexwatt (belly heat) on my racks, which are not enclosed on any side. Now, normally, I use Sani-Chips for substrate, but for babies, I use moist paper towel until their first shed and dry paper towel after that. (I switch 'em to Sani-Chips whenever I think they're ready, like after they've had a few meals.)
Something I found out last year with the heat cable on my temporary quarantine rack was that over the course of a few days to a week, the heat cable will slowly scorch the paper towel. This is not "scorch" as in it catches fire or is even capable of catching fire (the heat cable doesn't get hot enough to ignite paper products). However, the paper towel will turn brown where the heat cable is.
I've discovered that my Flexwatt does the same thing. Again, it takes a while--it's not an overnight thing--but it still bugs me. The fun thing is that it does it no matter what percentage of power is output to the heat tape. It's really hot this time of year, and with a swamp cooler, my house doesn't usually get below 80-85 degrees, which means the heat tape sits around 0 to 30% output. Also, the back end of the baby tubs are at the very edge of the heat tape to try to minimize the scorching...but it still happens.
One of the solutions to this is not to use belly heat. While this isn't an option with my current setup, it would probably be a good idea for baby racks in the future.
Another option I came up with is to replace the damp paper towel with cheap rags (or some other cloth substitute). They can be kept damp when need be, the snakes shouldn't have any issues with getting body parts caught in the loops, they're washable (reduces the amount of paper towel I use and throw away), and the snakes can even burrow in them if they want. There is a chance the heat tape will still scorch the rags, but I'd have to test this to know for sure. Rags should be at least slightly more resistant to heat than paper towels (or have a higher ignition temperature, if nothing else).
Keeping the paper towel moist is not an option after their first shed. For one, this is the only time of year when I wouldn't have to mist the tubs multiple times a day to keep them wet. Otherwise, though, it's a bit of a pain. Plus, it could be detrimental to the snakes to keep the humidity that high for an extended period of time.
My question is, do y'all have other suggestions/options to minimize the paper towel from getting scorched? These were the only ones I've come up with so far, so I'd like to hear what the rest of y'all do.
Thanks!
I use 4" Flexwatt (belly heat) on my racks, which are not enclosed on any side. Now, normally, I use Sani-Chips for substrate, but for babies, I use moist paper towel until their first shed and dry paper towel after that. (I switch 'em to Sani-Chips whenever I think they're ready, like after they've had a few meals.)
Something I found out last year with the heat cable on my temporary quarantine rack was that over the course of a few days to a week, the heat cable will slowly scorch the paper towel. This is not "scorch" as in it catches fire or is even capable of catching fire (the heat cable doesn't get hot enough to ignite paper products). However, the paper towel will turn brown where the heat cable is.
I've discovered that my Flexwatt does the same thing. Again, it takes a while--it's not an overnight thing--but it still bugs me. The fun thing is that it does it no matter what percentage of power is output to the heat tape. It's really hot this time of year, and with a swamp cooler, my house doesn't usually get below 80-85 degrees, which means the heat tape sits around 0 to 30% output. Also, the back end of the baby tubs are at the very edge of the heat tape to try to minimize the scorching...but it still happens.
One of the solutions to this is not to use belly heat. While this isn't an option with my current setup, it would probably be a good idea for baby racks in the future.
Another option I came up with is to replace the damp paper towel with cheap rags (or some other cloth substitute). They can be kept damp when need be, the snakes shouldn't have any issues with getting body parts caught in the loops, they're washable (reduces the amount of paper towel I use and throw away), and the snakes can even burrow in them if they want. There is a chance the heat tape will still scorch the rags, but I'd have to test this to know for sure. Rags should be at least slightly more resistant to heat than paper towels (or have a higher ignition temperature, if nothing else).
Keeping the paper towel moist is not an option after their first shed. For one, this is the only time of year when I wouldn't have to mist the tubs multiple times a day to keep them wet. Otherwise, though, it's a bit of a pain. Plus, it could be detrimental to the snakes to keep the humidity that high for an extended period of time.
My question is, do y'all have other suggestions/options to minimize the paper towel from getting scorched? These were the only ones I've come up with so far, so I'd like to hear what the rest of y'all do.
Thanks!
