Reptile Keepers? Need advise on heat mats

Bryan Kortez

Bryan Kortez

Bryan Kortez

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I'm looking to change around the layout in my Leopard Geckos setup, and go from using a ceramic heat lamp to a heat mat instead to save some money on the electric bills.

I have a 36" long, 16" deep by 18" tall wooden vivarium with a glass front.

My idea was to buy a 17x11" (40W) heat mat and attach to the inside floor, put a thin 5mm layer of sand on top, and then use some ceramic tiles for a DIY store to go over the top. The heat mat will be controlled by a thermostat with the probe on the tiles.

Is this a safe way of doing things, or is it going to melt?
 
Sounds fine, although I would recommend against having sand in the tanks.

Yes, it looks nice... but apparently it's common for pet reptiles to suffer from sand impactation, whereby they ingest sand gradually and it builds up, eventually killing them. We've not seen it first-hand with any of our reptiles, but they've never had sand in their tanks.
 
Yes totally fine.

Just be careful with the type of sand. Generally a healthy animal in proper conditions will not suffer impaction as it will easily pass grains of sand if you use the right type. Most keepers use play sand due to the very small size of the grain and the cleanliness of it. Some use calci-sand but most are a bad option as the clump when wet - I use the caribsea calci-sand which is slightly different and doesn't have those issues.
 
Do heat mats get that hot that you need tiles over them?

I have had my Leopard Geckos for 15+ years and the sole source of heating is a 25W Red or Dark Blue bulb.

They have been on sand (the expensive bright green stuff) for the last few years, before that I used bark chips. No ill effects from either.
 
You can also buy sand that's digestible and aids in calcium enrichment, but its a little bit more expensive - but then isn't everything to do with reps... We used to have our Beardie on it.

Can't really see how buying a new heat matt would actually result in a saving though. Are you factoring in the cost of the matt itself on the expected difference in electricity consumption, and I don't think the heating is the most expensive electrical item in their care - the lighting with UVB spectrum can come in higher with a 30" T8 running ~12 hours a day @25w, will probably use more than a ceramic heat bulb running properly on a pulse proportional or dimmer stat with a day/night heat cycle.

Have to say the running costs for our Beardie with a 150w ceramic with pulse stat and a 38w 10% UVB tube wasn't really noticeable. Unlike its feeding costs when young, the amount of insects they devour as youngsters is mind blowing.
 
I've decided to go against the use of a heat mat as I can't really find any safe guidelines of how to use them without the risk of burning the house down :D

With Leopard Geckos you don't really need a UVB, if anything, just the smallest size 3% UVB. I used to have a UVB tube, but it looked like it stressed the gecko out so I removed it. 12 years later, it's still healthy.
 
Have 2x Leopard Geckos myself.

1x 40watt spot bulb for some background heat and to provide a day/night cycle
1x Heatmat in the hot end of the viv on 24/7

Am using bark chip as substrate.
 
Heat mat on a stat in a wooden viv is as safe as a lamp on a stat in a wooden viv - the combo has been on sale for as long as I can remember and tbh they've only started pushing mat stats in the last decade or so more because snakes like to lie on the mat or under it and there have been cases where larger Pythons, Boa and Anaconda have suffered contact burns than of a fire safety risk.

For reference, my Wife's snake vivs in use until March when we sold up because it was taking up too much space, all 30" wooden vivs using 17x11" mats on mat stats. We also used wood chips or aspen as substrate in these. We never had any fires, and there wasn't even any discolouration on the white finish beneath the mats. Plenty of crap stains from the snakes themselves though.

As for UVB, Arcadia make a 2% UVB tube for Leopards, regular ones appreciate it and it has been proven it helps in their D3 production and calcium uptake, but they do say colour morphs and albino's especially are less likely to be able to handle it because of their altered pigmentation.
 
Monkeh said:
Heat mat on a stat in a wooden viv is as safe as a lamp on a stat in a wooden viv - the combo has been on sale for as long as I can remember and tbh they've only started pushing mat stats in the last decade or so more because snakes like to lie on the mat or under it and there have been cases where larger Pythons, Boa and Anaconda have suffered contact burns than of a fire safety risk.

For reference, my Wife's snake vivs in use until March when we sold up because it was taking up too much space, all 30" wooden vivs using 17x11" mats on mat stats. We also used wood chips or aspen as substrate in these. We never had any fires, and there wasn't even any discolouration on the white finish beneath the mats. Plenty of crap stains from the snakes themselves though.

As for UVB, Arcadia make a 2% UVB tube for Leopards, regular ones appreciate it and it has been proven it helps in their D3 production and calcium uptake, but they do say colour morphs and albino's especially are less likely to be able to handle it because of their altered pigmentation.
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Very helpful info thanks. Mines a tangerine leopard gecko so not sure if that means she is a bit more sensitive to the light.

What I am starting to like about the heat mats are being able to get more of a controlled ground temp in and out of the hides. The ground temp tends to be cooler than the open ground so it's obviously been sheltered from the IR of the ceramic heater. So in order to get the ground temp higher in the hides, I have to have the heater on more.

I am about to rebuild my vivarium soon so I will have a think. I am going to be making a 3D rockface etc out of foam, so it looks more natural. Rather than having to use thing like the exo terra hides etc.
 
This is a nice little write up on the whole UVA/B lamp and how leopard geckos utilise it - I know its a marketing spiel but it does seem to talk sense, to me anyway.

Drawing on how I set up for the Beardie so someone with more experience with Leopards can and probably will shoot me down if I'm wrong or being too generalised, but I understand that lizards prefer to bask on heated rocks because it allows them to warm up from their stomach and helps in digestion/metabolism etc and they can feel the heat through their stomach area better than from on their backs - kind of why I chose a pulse thermostat on a ceramic bulb and had a nice big selection of rocks under the lamp for our Beardie to sit on. Its not the radiant heat from the lamp they seek out, its the heat on the floor. Ceramic heat lamps provide a more natural warm spot the lizard can lay on and it cools normally here they bask, but a heat mat doesn't and can confuse the lizard - hence why big snakes especially end up burning themselves.
 
Had a leopard and was told they prefer heat from underneath rather than from the air to aid digestion - might be a load of rubbish but had a heat mat under reptile carpet
 
I'm got a small wooden viv for a royal python and it has 2 layers of glass which the heat mat sits between and the thermostat sensor sits on the aspen bedding ontop of it.
 
Was going to suggest aspen chips rather than sand.. It's standard for snakes so should be OK for all reptiles?

Think your over thinking the heat mat thing.. They don't get hot, just warm, I used to just put a mat under a thinish layer of aspen at one end of the tank.
 
Monkeh said:
You can also buy sand that's digestible and aids in calcium enrichment, but its a little bit more expensive - but then isn't everything to do with reps... We used to have our Beardie on it.
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Thats calci-sand - But as I previously said this is actually not very safe like the manufacturers will have you believe. Most brands of it the grains clump together with moisture and actually CAUSE impaction rather than it being digested. The exception to this which I have found is the "Blue Iguana" brand aragonite sand (made by Caribsea). You have to be really careful as a lot of the loose stuff most of the shops sell are full of dust and impurities which totally defeat the object of that type of sand - This one is dust removed and is really the ONLY calci-sand which I personally believe is worth using.
 
Yeah it's the more expensive of the ones available, but with good reason. I use the yellowish colour one - Nice contrast against the wood and rocks for my collared lizards :)
 
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