hello ,lovley to be finally posting :0)

sorry to bother you all , I've been lurking for a long time,
great board and great reading!!

for the whelping room

i usually use a heat lamp,
as i cannot seem to get a heat pad for puppies in my local pet shop
but i can buy a vivarium  heat pad,
it is very thin metal,
i was wondering if i could possibly put a reflector fleece pad over the top of it,?

any suggestions?

or should i stick with a heat lamp?
, and turn the radiator on beside the whelping area

many thanks , and no doubt you'll hear from me when she starts to whelp i have her coming in to her whelping area tonight :0)day 56

wish me luck!!

Hi and welcome.

I've no experience of vivarium heat pads so cant say if they woud be ok but there are lots of online places that do the proper ones and delivery is pretty quick. I bought mine online but I cant remember the name at the min (I'm hopeless at names lol) but I'm sure someone with a better memory than me will be able to point you in the right direction soon.

Kind Regards

There are lots of good ones on ebay.  I'm sure if you said you needed it soon a seller might be prepared to send it faster if you paid a bit more for postage.

I've looked at the metal ones and they have looked good to me - I know some people who've used them under the vet bedding.  So if you had a cover for it I'm sure it would be fine. 

I used the 'Snuggle Safe Heat Discs' for my last litter and they were great.  The pups loved them.  I think this time round I'll go with a larger sized heat pad, but they were excellent if you can source them locally.

I got my heat pad from here http://www.petnap.co.uk/acatalog/pet_heat_pads.html#a30  delivery only took a couple of days.

Unfortunately don't have the foggiest clue about vivarium stuff so really don't know.  Sorry!

I'm pretty sure Brainless has posted in the past saying she has used a vivarium heat pad for her pups. Am sure she'll be along to confirm, or otherwise, soon.

Didn't actually use a heat pad for my litter, but did try them out as an experiment and I honestly couldn't say that the expensive puppy heat pad was any better than the vivarium heatpad my friend uses to raise orphaned hedgehogs!

Do NOT use a viv heat pad without a thermostat on it - I keep snakes and one of the top causes of injuries in snakes is uncontrolled heat mats and puppies will be no different when they are very small, in not being fully aware or mobile enough to move off a too hot pad quickly enough to preven themselves being hurt.

The temperatures these things can reach when not controlled with a stat is shocking, and a fire hazard to boot.

With a thermostat... i would think with care (so that one can ensure they are not chewed!) they would be ok, but certainly not without one.

I have four running at the moment, when i tested them all... 3 of them stayed around 45 to55c. one of them kept on rising.. and rising... at 90c i wimped out and turned it off!

Yep no problem under the Vetbed.

not sure what breed you have, I have a large breed and they would be ok with heat from mum and the use of a heat lamp without having to worry about heating. I have a single coated breed so not thick fur. to be honest I have a heat pad aswell and the pups didn't lay on it at all and they all spent there time over the other side of the whelping box under the lamp so wasn't really worth the money. The only use it would have now is if I had to take pups to vets in an emergency as it has an interchangable power supply so works off cigarette lighter in the car too. So if your comfortable using the heat lamp I wouldn't bother spending out extra money for a heat pad :-)

A lamp would make the bitch too hot, and in my domestic set up be awkward to site and re-site as I move the puppy accommodation. 

A heat pad is easier.  No point in both in my opinion.

I suppose so long as you check that the pups don't over heat it wouldn't be a problem, id just play it by eye and keep checking the puppies.

I don't have a problem with the lamp and my bitch but maybe thats because i have a large whelping area and she is able to lay down without being directly under it with the pups still under it. But she doesn't mind the heat as both my dogs are sun worshippers and hate the cold :-)