Why dont u use heat rocks?
- Thread starter Lepisosteus platyrhincus
- Start date
from whatt ive herd it can burn the sensitive skin on the underside of the belly. and ive never seen one but dont you have to have a wire in the tank cuz it needs to be plugged in? thats kinda a pain. risky just my opinion.
well my brother had one with his snakes for years and 0 problems.
just wondering what everyones reasoning is
just wondering what everyones reasoning is
ive used a heat rock for my baby boa that was connected to a thermostat. i was kept at around 90 and if it went hotter than 100 it would turn off. that is the best way to go if you use a heat rock. they are not the devil.
Basically they're outdated technology. They had their place at one time but safer alternatives have been introduced into the hobby.
It's too much of a hazard. It can malfunction and burn your reptile. If you wrap it in something in order to prevent hotspots hurting your reptile, it becomes a fire hazard. And it is really never a good idea to have a heat source which needs to come into contact with your reptile. It's better to warm the environment than to concentrate all that heat on just your reptile. I also remember reading something about how basking reptiles warm the blood in their backs, and then distribute it through their bodies to metabolize, etc. But when you warm the belly, by the time it gets to the back it's cold, so the reptile feels cold, and doesn't metabolize, so food just sits in its stomach and cooks.
More about it here: http://www.anapsid.org/hotrock.html
More about it here: http://www.anapsid.org/hotrock.html
The ones that are manufactured now-a-days are fairly safe......They use low wattage heat elements that don't get anywhere near as hot as the ones that were produced throughout the 80's and 90's......
However.....
They still have one flaw........The fact that they concentrate heat, not spread it over a given area......Any basking spot should be relative to the size of the animal, and most reptiles are significantly larger that any "heat rock".....
However.....
They still have one flaw........The fact that they concentrate heat, not spread it over a given area......Any basking spot should be relative to the size of the animal, and most reptiles are significantly larger that any "heat rock".....
I dont like wires in my cages. I had a bad experience with a monitor getting shocked by lighting wires so now I keep all electricity outside the enclosure. UTH or heat lamps will be sealed off from the animals inside.
Never used one due to the risks we've all heard about, but from an aesthetic point of view, I'm not a huge fan of resin rockwork or artificial decor, and I like to play about with the way basking spots are arranged.
Paul
Paul