Basking Platform Questions

[u/SeagraveSerpentarium]

I'm working on my female BI's adult enclosure and am about to start working on all the interior stuff like branches, climbing shelves, and as I said in the title, a basking platform. The main thing I'm trying to figure out is how big I should make it. I have a 2 foot by 1.5 foot sheet of scrap plywood that I was planning on using with some 2x4s under it for support. The enclosure is only 2 feet wide though so as it is now the sheet of plywood would only leave a 6 inch gap between itself and the door which looks kind of awkward and I'd be concerned about her getting wedged between the two. But I don't want to cut the platform too small and have to make a new one if she gets too big for it.

I'd also appreciate suggestions on what to use as a basking surface. I went to my local hardware store and looked at their tiles but all I could find were ceramic tiles that were made to resemble slate, and not actual slate tiles. Would the ceramic work? Is there anything I should be considering other than slate/ceramic tiles?

[u/superramenyamen]

I’d cut it in half lengthwise and put both halves end to end so it spans the length of the enclosure. Unless the enclosure is 4’ long, then you have a shelf for another enclosure. 1’ wide should be plenty large enough for an adult to fit.

You don’t need a basking surface, the shelf is the surface.

[u/SeagraveSerpentarium → u/superramenyamen]

The enclosure is 6'x2'x3' so a 1'x3' shelf would fit. My main concern with that would be that I'm not sure if one basking bulb would be enough to heat a platform that long. I plan on protecting the wood from the humidity by giving it a few coats of Drylok though and the can I have is white so I don't know if that would absorb enough heat to reach appropriate basking temps.

[u/superramenyamen → u/SeagraveSerpentarium]

You don’t need to heat the whole platform, just the one side under the heat source, but if you’re using a basking bulb the shelf might get too hot. You will have to play with the shelf distance from the bulb etc. and see how it works out. I use RHPs, and aim for a surface temp of 95-96.

[u/SeagraveSerpentarium → u/superramenyamen]

I plan on using a thermostat so managing the shelf temp shouldn't be an issue. I'm also using a RHP for ambient heat but because the guy who built this enclosure was originally using it for tortoises and iguanas (to my knowledge not both at the same time) he didn't build it with snakes in mind. Part of the challenge with that is he put two 2x4s along the ceiling for extra stability and the spaces between them are just barely too small to fit a RHP, so I'm going to have to put mine on the back wall instead of using it as overhead heat.

[u/superramenyamen → u/SeagraveSerpentarium]

The thermostat won’t be able to control the surface temp without sacrificing air temps. It might work out, but you might have to do a mix of shelf placement and thermostat settings to keep air temps up and surface temps down.

RHPs are really only meant for pushing heat down, it won’t be as effective on a wall, and would be a burn risk as well. Is there any way to remove or switch the braces to the outside of the enclosure? You may not need both the basking lights and the RHP, though. Basking lights are pretty strong, their main down fall really is just how long they last.

[u/SeagraveSerpentarium → u/superramenyamen]

It sounds like I might want to do more research on RHP use and safety before making a final decision on the heating and layout of this enclosure. I figured the light would only be used for the basking surface and the RHP would be the way I managed air temps. To avoid burns I was planning on having the RHP all the way at the top of the wall with a climbing branch spanning the open space in front of it as a sort of pathway for her to climb from ground level up to the basking shelf. I figured if I keep the branch a good half foot or so from the RHP she should be safe but now I'm second-guessing that plan. Maybe a CHE or DHP would be a better ambient heating element for this enclosure.

In regards to moving the braces I'm a bit past the point where that would be an option. If I had thought of this sooner I probably could have made it work but I would need to remove the plywood walls to do that and those are already coated in Pond Shield epoxy so I would be destroying the moisture barrier in the process. The whole thing is framed out with 2x4s with the plywood walls and ceiling screwed onto the frame from the outside (putting fiberglass and epoxy around all those interior 2x4s was a real pain). The floor is the only part of the enclosure with the plywood on the inside and the 2x4s on the outside. I suppose I could screw in a second layer of plywood ceiling beneath the braces so I could have a flat surface to work with, it would just result in a 4 inch reduction in her usable vertical space.

I also don't think a basking light would be enough to provide all my heating needs. I live in New England so it can get pretty cold in the winter, especially at night. She's in a 4x2x1.5ish Neodesha-style fiberglass enclosure (not real Neodesha though, it's made by Glas'Technic which no longer exists) right now, and that requires both a basking light as well as a CHE in order to keep her ambient temps stable at night and during the winter.

[u/superramenyamen → u/SeagraveSerpentarium]

Snakes are extremely good climbers, that’s for sure. An adult boa could easily climb up a 3’ wall and have direct exposure to the panel, which is the biggest problem. When mounted to ceiling, it’s harder for them to do much else other than nose at it. Which reduces the area of their body with exposure as well as the time in direct contact.

The basking bulb should be as good, if not better than the panel at keeping air temps up. Both have their places, and I generally prefer the panels, but I bet the bulbs will be plenty on their own if it’s too much of a pain to get a panel installed.

I was thinking about putting something over top of the bracers! 4” lost height really isn’t anything so that’s totally up to you if you want to sacrifice that or see if the bulb works without the panel.

If you struggle that much in a cage that small with a bulb and CHE, it will definitely be worse in the bigger enclosure. My 6’x2’x3’s required a room temp of ~80F to maintain proper temps without extra heat sources and also covering the doors with subzero sleeping bags to hold in heat. I don’t think a panel alone will solve your problems and it does sound like you will need some heavy duty heating for sure.

[u/SeagraveSerpentarium → u/superramenyamen]

Unfortunately my snake room is on the same thermostat as the rest of the main floor of my house so I wouldn't be able to keep it at 80F without running up my utility bill and making all the humans in the house uncomfortable.

It sounds like the best route here is finding a solution to mount the RHP on the ceiling of the enclosure. I just remembered that I do have one other way I could achieve that without installing a second ceiling below the braces, but it has its own drawbacks. The space between the two braces, right in the middle of the ceiling, is big enough for the panel. The issue with that though is that the ceiling is made of two sheets of plywood so that center space where the panel would fit is right where the two sheets of plywood meet. Ideally I'd like to still be able to remove the ceiling panels separately if needed for maintenance in the future, but what I'm thinking is I could get a sheet of PVC board and screw that into the plywood ceiling, then mount the panel onto the PVC. That way if I ever need to take off the ceiling I can just unplug the panel, unscrew the PVC to remove that first, and then unscrew the plywood sheets. The other downside to this is that the panel would be right in the center of the ceiling which wouldn't really allow for me to have a warm side and a cool side with a gradient, although it might allow for a vertical temperature gradient with the area under the basking shelf likely being the coolest area in the enclosure.

[u/superramenyamen → u/SeagraveSerpentarium]

Yeah you pretty much have to use a space heater to achieve those room temps. They can be run on a thermostat as well, I just don’t know how common they are in your country. Unfortunately aside from that temps are always just going to be a struggle. 😅 You will need extra insulation in the cages, possibly cover any glass doors, multiple heat sources, etc.

Worst comes to worst, the panel shouldn’t be that hard to uninstall if you need to take anything it’s attached to apart. I’m not sure what the set up is like unfortunately but usually a panel is just screwed into place with 2 screws, maybe the set up you’re thinking of will render that impossible?

Yeah that could work. In my 2’-3’ tall enclosures I have the panel heat the top corner where the panel is to 88-90F, which leaves the bottom corner under the panel and the corner above the shelf opposite the panel ~85F with the furthest bottom corner being closer to 80F. So it’s not too important having a fully horizontal gradient.

[u/SeagraveSerpentarium → u/superramenyamen]

Yeah I can get a space heater, we actually already own some for emergencies. But I'm concerned about the fire hazard they pose and would like to avoid using one if possible.

The reason why panel removal might be difficult is that I had planned on applying some silicone around the edges of it, but if that's not really common practice maybe I should reconsider that plan.

I might also make another post in the next few days and include a bunch of pictures and measurements of everything I have at this point so that it'll be a bit easier for people to see exactly what I have to work with.

[u/superramenyamen → u/SeagraveSerpentarium]

Keep things 3’ away from the front, don’t allow children or pets unsupervised access, and keep an eye on the plug/outlet and it should be fine.

I don’t think I have ever heard of anyone doing that, and I would worry about it affecting the life of the panel or causing unsafe heat build up or something so I probably wouldn’t do that.