A heat rock is the common name for a type of heating source in enclosures for cold-blooded animals to supply heat, in the form of a false novelty rock plugged into an electrical socket.
Keepers may notice that smaller reptiles prefer to rest on the heat rock most of the time, since it provides constant heat. Larger reptiles supplied with heat rocks often prefer to stay near their rock at all times, diminishing their novelty.
Pet owners and keepers now usually recommended a non-direct contact UTH (under-the-tank-heater) or thermal tape which distributes heat through the enclosure’s substrate placed in different areas of the tank to create a more even heat gradient, making the pet more liable to move throughout its enclosure. Another popular solution is replacing regular lightning with UV-specific basking lights.
Famous quotes containing the words heat and/or rock:
“And suddenly, to be dying
Is not a little or mean or cheap thing,
Only wearying, the heat unbearable ...”
—John Ashbery (b. 1927)
“Compare the history of the novel to that of rock ‘n’ roll. Both started out a minority taste, became a mass taste, and then splintered into several subgenres. Both have been the typical cultural expressions of classes and epochs. Both started out aggressively fighting for their share of attention, novels attacking the drama, the tract, and the poem, rock attacking jazz and pop and rolling over classical music.”
—W. T. Lhamon, U.S. educator, critic. “Material Differences,” Deliberate Speed: The Origins of a Cultural Style in the American 1950s, Smithsonian (1990)