# GALS heat mat?



## kuragehime (Dec 25, 2013)

I'm having a dilemma about which heat mat is best to get for my two young, achatina achatinas . 

there in a plastic tank atm, some mats say only to use on glass? and i have no idea about watts.

Can anyone recommend me any good ones they use?


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## Red123 (Mar 3, 2010)

Personally I always use habistat heat mats. As for wattage you really just need to get one which is the correct size for the back of your tank. Always put the heat mat on the back of the tank and never underneath as you risk cooking your snails. Which ever heat mat you get it MUST be attached and controlled by a thermostat so that the heat mat does not get to hot or over heat the tub. Again I always use the habistat thermostats and have a preference for the habistat temperature thermostat 300w as it is easier to adjust the temperature on these ones as apposed to the mat stat 100w.


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## Reptitat (Nov 28, 2013)

I personally don't use heat mats. They can very easily overheat, so I stay away from them. It usually gets hot in their enclosures, anyway. :notworthy:


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## *mogwai* (Feb 18, 2008)

i dont use heatmats with mine either. in the summer the house is warm enough, in winter its a bit too cold for them so i move them to on top of my carpet pythons viv. the heat from the viv warms the tank without needing a mat.


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## TheMetaphysicalNinja (Aug 18, 2009)

kuragehime said:


> I'm having a dilemma about which heat mat is best to get for my two young, achatina achatinas .
> 
> there in a plastic tank atm, some mats say only to use on glass? and i have no idea about watts.
> 
> Can anyone recommend me any good ones they use?


Any one you like - I get the cheapest I can. Never had a issue. The "only use on glass" is a bit of a lie I think. Just make sure it's thermostat-ed properly or it could easily overheat. 



Reptitat said:


> I personally don't use heat mats. They can very easily overheat, so I stay away from them. It usually gets hot in their enclosures, anyway. :notworthy:


Gets hot how? From the cold blooded inverts?
You know what'll stop that overheating problem? A FREAKING THERMOSTAT. The number of times I end up saying that on here... 
You clearly haven't got a clue. The doors over there - bye. 



*mogwai* said:


> i dont use heatmats with mine either. in the summer the house is warm enough, in winter its a bit too cold for them so i move them to on top of my carpet pythons viv. the heat from the viv warms the tank without needing a mat.


Viv heat is a good idea if you can  

Assuming they are true A. Achatina (a lot of places sell A. fulica as Achatina) then they will need it quite warm. If your rep room/chosen room for them is quite warm 24/7 then no problem, but if not... mat em up : victory:

I've kept about a two dozen different snail species and found mostly through trial and error the best number was about 27-28C for the larger tropical species with the exception of the fulica that seem to do better a bit cooler. They all appreciate a slight gradient so they can burrow away from the heat if they do get too warm... in case you were wondering what works well... they went on for many years and had many many hatchlings like that. 

If you get any more problems/questions/whatever, drop me a PM and I'll try and help you out


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