Yes they're  from herpshop.

 And another thing the exposed loops were cooler than the tile.

Could anyone recommend a suitable size/power heat cord for the enclosure i am working on, 600Wx400Dx450H & 16mm thick. I am just not really sure about how strong it will need to be to penetrade 16mm of wood, and then maybe 50mm of substrate, but not too strong to heat the base of the whole enclosure.

Would I be better making a hot rock/tile simillar to the one steve posted, then trying to heat through the wood?

Cheers for any input on this.

Could anyone recommend a suitable size/power heat cord for the enclosure i am working on, 600Wx400Dx450H & 16mm thick. I am just not really sure about how strong it will need to be to penetrade 16mm of wood, and then maybe 50mm of substrate, but not too strong to heat the base of the whole enclosure.

Would I be better making a hot rock/tile simillar to the one steve posted, then trying to heat through the wood?

Cheers for any input on this.

A 15w cord should be fine. I have similar results with my enclosures, I run a herp shop 80w cord through 4 enclosures with a 250X500X18 piece of melamine on top, no routed lines just sat on top, and 2 loops 500 long each and the hot end gets to 50 degrees pretty easy. You biggest advantage for using ceramic tile to wood is heat conductivity, The ceramic will take less energy to heat up and will heat up quicker tha a 18mm thick piece of melamine and will retain the heat for longer so your thermo won't be coming on and off as much. in the not too distant future I am taking the wood I have on top of the heat cord out and putting tiles on top for this reason.

I should read these advise threads more often, I've been ignoring it thinking people were just posting tips for the newbys but shit this is pretty funny, people get their backs up a bit too easy, I think.

V, you post some interesting info and although the people you aim the advise at may ignore it, someone trawling through threads may take that advice on board and find it invaluable.



Andrew

My a/c up here is about 23 degrees all the time. I clip the cord down using cable clips that nail into the board and wit the melamine on top, there is then a 5mm gap from it sitting on top so I put a piece of 25mm aluminium angle on the edge to close that off and then seal it with white no more gaps. I have the same thing in the enclosure next to it for the carpets using I think a 50 watt with the same results, I also put a hook and rope in the enclosure below into the roof where the heat is for the enclosure above so the carpet climbs the rope and coils up there also, 75% of the time this is where they are after a feed getting their heat.


you can sort of see the wood with the ally here


And this is how they spend most the time because the heat is above them



Andrew

Thanks Andrew

I have glued my tile down onto the panel.

Hey guys,

I've decided I would like to know the sex of my stimson, as I am considering getting another now that I know how easy it is to knock up an enclosure, and have the offer of a reasonably cheap one as mentioned before.

<--- and so begins the addiction haha

If you can get a decent close up side on shot of the tail area and post it some people may have a go. It is true sexing can be done this way, some animals are harder than others though, depending on age. Post it up and see if anyone has a crack. I'd still get it probed though.

Andrew

You need to take a side on pic as the hemipenal bulge is far more obvious.
Try to keep the dorsal in a straight line if you can.

Sorry about that, here is a better try, really hard to keep him still and straight to get a photo (nobody home to help until late tonight).

After reading the link above (thanks Steve) I am going to hazard a guess at female, and from a closer visual inspection I couldn't make out a hemipenal bulge. Also, I believe females are bigger than males (usually) and this seems to be an above average size snake.



Also, I got a second hand heat cord that I saw advertised today, its 9m long and 80W so should be powerful enough to heat the next few enclosures I build. An light of the recent discussion, it was able to heat through 16mm wood to about 34 degrees when spread about an inch apart. I then attached my temp probe to the cord itself and so far sitting at about 40 (uncoiled straight section of cord). Seems like a bargain at $30.

Edit: now up to 45 on the cable itself.

Cheers guys