Can anyone recommend a good heat pad that will work for pups if placed under vet bed in a plastic whelping box. Have used heat lamps in the past but I feel that a heat pad would be safer.  Thanks in advance.

I'm not so sure about a heat pad being 'safer'.   At least with the brood lamp we used, it was hung over the middle of the 4 X 4 section of our box, with no wires available.

The petnap ones are the most popular especially the ones with the armoured flex.

I have a very old version (where only the top is metal), and put it in a pillow case in with shredded paper and then use under vet bed.

I only use one not much larger than a sheet of A4 in a 3 foot square whelping pen, so bitch can keep away from heat.

My breed are not heat seekers, and pups by a week old hardly go near the heat pad as their pen is fully enclosed and covered with a blanket and the room kept at around 20'c day and night (I use an Oil filled electric radiator at night with thermostat).  I have a room thermometer (great big one) attached to the pen.

For me a heat lamp would be too agricultural/industrial (what on earth would I hang it from) for a normal home, and the bitch would not like it.

I use the ones from Warwick Whelping Boxes. Cord cannot be chewed, temperature stays constant adjusting to the room temperature so if its cold it will be warmer and vice versa, and comes with a washable cover and in various sizes. Have one for my toy breed and a bigger one for my large breed.

I've used this one for many, many years and it is indestructible.  I have always put it under vetbed.  But I also use the covers.  (I'm sure that most people would make their own covers.)  I even avoid sewing on buttons!

http://www.petnap.co.uk/acatalog/Flexiguard-Petnap-Pet-heat-Pad-2.html#SID=1

I don't hesitate to recommend this as a worry free puppy warmer.

Thanks for all of your help ladies.

I've got a vinyl Petnap and I've used a metal one. I'd splash out and go for the metal every time having seen what a friend's bitch did to her vinyl heatpad last year. Bitch and puppies, and owner, were very lucky!

> For me a heat lamp would be too agricultural/industrial (what on earth would I hang it from) for a normal home, and the bitch would not like it.

We had a 'gallows' - attached to the back end of the box.    It made the whole area in the initial 4 X 4 whelping box warm and most importantly with the 'outflow' from a big litter, dry!   Hung at the right height, the bitches had no problems with it, in fact enjoyed the immediate warmth.   And I like to think we had a 'normal' home!!!

> For me a heat lamp would be too agricultural/industrial (what on earth would I hang it from) for a normal home, and the bitch would not like it.

Barbara I can't agree more.  I bought a very expensive heat lamp and found it useless.  Total waste of money still in the box!

> in fact enjoyed the immediate warmth.

See mine thick double coated breed suffer and don't enjoy heat at all.  In fact for that reason I no longer use Vet bed for the first week or so, as the bitches just get so hot and dig their beds with the risk of pups getting under.

As for keeping things dry the heat pad at ground level does that, but I use shredded paper that absorbs really well and vet bed keeps the pups dry once old enough to eliminate unaided.

See this is where it's 'horses for courses'.   What works with some breeds, doesn't work with others.   Each to their own eh.

"I bought a very expensive heat lamp and found it useless.  Total waste of money still in the box! "    Jean, why not donate this unused lamp, either to a Shelter or even to a 'poor' farmer !!!

Never thought.  Thanks for suggestion, it's only taking up space and it will never get used.  I even bought very expensive spare bulbs so should be a help to someone.