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:
“Two wooden tubs of blue hydrangeas stand at the foot of the stone steps.
The sky is a blue gum streaked with rose. The trees are black.
The grackles crack their throats of bone in the smooth air.
Moisture and heat have swollen the garden into a slum of bloom.
Pardie! Summer is like a fat beast, sleepy in mildew....”
—Wallace Stevens (1879–1955)
“Amongst the learned the lawyers claim first place, the most self-satisfied class of people, as they roll their rock of Sisyphus and string together six hundred laws in the same breath, no matter whether relevant or not, piling up opinion on opinion and gloss on gloss to make their profession seem the most difficult of all. Anything which causes trouble has special merit in their eyes.”
—Desiderius Erasmus (c. 1466–1536)