I wished to heat some 24" neodesha cages on a rack
with heat tape and was having some problems trying to
figure out how to do it, so now that it is done, I
thought I'd share how I finally did it..
I started with a used set of 3 24" neodesha cages I
found in the classifieds, then I ordered heat tape
from a reptile supply company (in my case, Big Apple
Herp) I ordered 3' of 11" wide heat tape with clip
cord set... The heat tape comes with instructions,
here is a picture showing the clip cord being
attached.. (squeeze the conectors into the tape, then
cover with plastic safety guards)
The hard part was trying to figure out how to run the
3' of tape along the cages... because of the rack
there was no way to hook it up along the sides. I
decided the only way to hook it up and have it against
the cages (to heat the cages!) it would have to be
taped to each cage.. which means the cages cannot be
removed from the rack. Here is the rack as it normally
stands, from the back:
I had to unscrew the "X" support bars so I could
easily slide the tape up the back. I attached the tape
to the back of each cage with "Muffler Repair Tape"
(heat reistant tape), which is basically just a
cheaper way than buying it from the reptile supply
store:
Then I taped the heat tape against the back of each
cage one at a time with the clip cord at the bottom.
After each section was attached to the cage, I cut out
a piece of cardboard that would fit across the back of
each cage and duct-taped that into place over the heat
tape, this pic shows the bottom two complete and the
top cage before the cardboard was put into place:
This needs to be done because the heat tape needs to
be sandwiched between something in order to heat up
properly. If left in the open air all the heat
dissipates quickly. From the front, you cannot see any
of the mess from behind because of the design of the
neodeshas.
It is very important to hook your heat tape up to a
thermostat or rheostat because the tape can get up to
120 degrees which is too hot for most commonly kept
herps. I hooked mine up to a rheostat, temp checked
for 3 days and am able to keep the temps at a pretty
constant level... warm end (back of the cage) stays
86-88 while the cool end (front) stays about 78-80..
at night normal night time drop brings the temps to
78-80 hot and 73-75 cool end. Here is Vegas enjoying
her new cage...
All in all, it works really well now that it is set
up, but I do NOT recomend this as a good way to heat
these cages. Heat pads underneath or radient heat
panals installed above would probably work much
better.. or at least be a little easier and not look
quite as messy! (Janky) Just my experience with it...
hope some find this info useful.
-April
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