ReptiFiles received a free Double-Wide Toad Ranch Bask N Hide in exchange for an honest review, whether positive or negative. The review below is my honest, objective opinion, but it does contain some affiliate links. To learn why I use affiliate links on ReptiFiles, read here.
You’ve likely heard about the importance of humid hides by now, but did you know that warm hides are also an important aspect of reptile husbandry?
- If you have a crepuscular or nocturnal reptile, a warm hide is extra important! Reptiles that sleep during the day often multi-task by sleeping in a warm burrow or similar. This enables them to “charge” their bodies and get the energy they need to grow, maintain immune function, digest, etc. while enjoying the security of being hidden from predators. (This does not mean that a basking area should not be provided as an option, as freedom of choice in thermoregulation is still important for night-active reptiles, and heat lamps are also effective for warming the entire enclosure.)
- Providing a warm hide is also helpful if you have a diurnal reptile. It certainly should not be their only option for gathering the energy they need to power their metabolism, but if your pet is in the mood to warm up without necessarily sacrificing the security of hiding, then an appropriate warm hide gives them a way to satisfy that desire without having to make a compromise.
- A warm hiding place can also simply be comfortable! Offering a warm hide increases your pet’s options inside its enclosure and increases its control over how it lives day-to-day. In turn, this enhances the reptile’s wellbeing!
Bottom line: It all comes down to David Mellor’s 5th Provision of Animal Welfare: Freedom of Choice. Providing both a basking area and a warm hide helps reptiles do what they do best, which is taking care of themselves and their needs when they have the resources to do so.
Who is Toad Ranch?
Toad Ranch is a US-based luxury enclosure manufacturer with over 50 years of combined experience housing, observing, and breeding reptiles. Their enclosures are made of a combination of PVC, HDPE, and aluminum mesh, and customization is their specialty. Although they have standard options, if you can dream it, they can make it. I’ve seen these guys make some HUGE enclosures for other customers – the biggest I’ve seen is 12’L x 3’W x 58”H! If you wander around the website for a bit, you can tell Toad Ranch is really passionate about promoting better, more informed reptile care, and I LOVE to see it.
In addition to enclosures and tortoise tables, they offer hoods, stands, reptile hides, Arcadia lighting and heating products, Universal Rocks and adhesive backgrounds, and if you’re a big fan, you can even get a rather nifty handcrafted pottery Toad Ranch mug. (Full disclosure, they were nice enough to send me one as part of this review and I confess I now have a new favorite mug for the copious amounts of herbal tea and cocoa that fuel me. I’m doing my best not to let it bias me, though.)
Toad Ranch is active on social media and posts their builds to Facebook and Instagram so you can get an idea of what they do and how they do it. They’ve also made exhibits for Garden State Tortoise, the Brian Barczyk Reptarium, and Florida’s Wildest (Gatorboys), and they are GORGEOUS. You can watch videos showcasing these special builds on YouTube here.
Toad Ranch scored a rare perfect ‘5’ star review for their enclosures in ReptiFiles’ comprehensive review. Are they as good at building hides as they are enclosures?
Product Specs
- Available in 3 sizes
- Single-Wide: 12.25”L x 8.5”W x 6”H
- Double-Wide: 16.25”L x 12.25”W x 6”H
- Triple-Wide: 24.25”L x 12.25”W x 6”H
- Entrance measures approximately 6” at widest and 4” at tallest (applies to all sizes)
- Made from ½” PVC
- Choose from Black or White for the PVC body
- Slate tile appearance varies
- Cost varies between $39.98 – $59.48 depending on size, as of October 2024
- May take up to 3-5 business days to ship during times of high demand, but most Bask N Hides ship on the same day if ordered before 12pm CST
- Shipping to the USA only
This review is being conducted with Tina, an adult female Northern blue tongue skink as the test subject. She’s fully-grown and morbidly obese, making her quite large! It’s hard to find a good hide for a larger blue tongue skink in general, but when they’re wide like this, the challenge is increased because the size of the opening is a limitation, as well as the animal’s flexibility. Too large of a hide or opening compromises the animal’s sense of security, while too small on either dimension renders the hide useless.
Discussion
Unboxing & Assembly
The Toad Ranch Bask N Hide comes with a packet that contains your receipt, a little thank-you note, assembly instructions, screws, and a sticker. (It’s the little things that count!) I opted to assemble the hide without referencing instructions to test ease of assembly. The pre-drilled pilot holes and labeled pieces make guessing what goes where a breeze.
The pilot holes are designed so the screws recess into the PVC rather than sitting flush. I’d prefer they sit flush, but it’s not a big deal. In theory, you can use the pilot holes to install the screws with a Philips screwdriver. The effort toward simplifying assembly is appreciated, but I will always prefer a drill over a screwdriver, and this made assembly very fast. As an additional benefit, I didn’t have to struggle as much with keeping the walls in place as I painfully placed each screw.
It’s a little bit difficult to pop both pieces of stone into the top (as opposed to dropping in a single piece). What worked best for me was putting them in simultaneously so they could fall in together. If I tried to put one in followed by the other, the second piece wouldn’t quite fit. The result, however, is a comfortably snug fit.
As for the labels? They weren’t a problem at all. They came off at slightly-higher-than-average room temperature without leaving a noticeable residue as long as I tugged at them slowly.
Functionality
As the name implies, the Toad Ranch Bask N Hide is designed to function as both a warm hide and a basking platform. Whenever I recommend a warm hide for a reptile, I typically recommend also placing a piece of flagstone or even stone tile on top to prevent the reptile from using plastic as a basking surface. Something that immediately interested me about this product is that it applies this same concept without the DIY.
At first glance, the thin stone tile may seem like a problem — would it crack easily? would it get too hot? In reality, the thin stone does an effective job of transferring warmth into the hide below for a functional warm hide, much more efficient, in fact, than my own solution of placing a piece of flagstone on top of a black box hide: At a surface temp of ~119°F (this sounds very hot, but it really isn’t when you measure temp with a temp probe to get a sense of immediate air temp or simply place your hand under the basking spot – very typical of a surface warmed by sunlight), the interior of the hide got to about 98°F. for reference, the cool side of the enclosure at this time was ~79°F.
This helped assuage my concerns that the interior wouldn’t get warm enough without dedicated secondary heat source. This warm hide is clearly quite good at funneling warmth from the surface to the interior. In all honesty, in some applications it might be a little too good at transferring that energy — if you like the basking temp but the warm hide temp is too high, I’d recommend adding additional tile or even thin flagstone on top as a buffer.
Because the tile isn’t secured to the hide itself, it does allow for top access if needed. That said, the fit is tight enough that you may need a flathead screwdriver or similar to pry it open if you want to go this direction. The tiles don’t actually sit flush with the top, which helps in this respect. There’s also no bottom piece to this hide, which makes access to your pet as well as increasing humidity a simple matter.
- NOTE: Avoid forcibly removing a reptile from their hiding place, as this is highly stressful and can damage the trust relationship between animal and keeper!
If you’re worried about the fact that the stone top isn’t fixed into place and the larger sizes have multiple tiles, it’s still perfectly secure (in other words, you don’t have to worry about your reptile somehow falling through the ceiling when on top of the hide). Plus it makes cleaning easier since you can clean the tiles independently from the rest of the hide. With the interior of the hide being PVC, that’s straightforward to clean and you could probably toss it in the dishwasher on a sanitize cycle if you wanted, although I’m not sure how this would affect the screws, so do that at your own risk.
How did this hide work for Tina? It’s perfectly sized for her, and would probably work well for my big Merauke as well, who is slimmer but still ~24” long. It might be uncomfortably large for my male Northern, who is both slimmer and substantially shorter at ~18”, so there’s your reference.
Misc. Design Notes
The entry is shaped like a very lopsided pentagon, which is both organic and modern-looking at the same time. It’s distinctive and attractive without getting in the way of function since it’s wider than it is tall, which means it can accommodate lizards as well as snakes. This is worth noting because the traditional black box hide has an arch-shaped entry that can be prohibitive to wider lizards such as bearded dragons.
My initial thought was that using two pieces of tile for the top instead of just one is an odd choice. After taking another look at Toad Ranch’s sizing options, my guess is that the modular approach has something to do with simplifying the manufacturing process, but from a user perspective, it’s unexpected.
The two pieces of stone also don’t seem to be two halves of one whole piece of stone, which does disrupt the final look a bit. That said, it’s not something I really mind or notice immediately when I look into the enclosure, as they’re both more or less the same shade of medium brown. The stone does add a nice bit of naturalism to an otherwise utilitarian design, so it’s definitely the most attractive “black box” hide you can get and fits better into a naturalistic setup than a typical black box hide, which requires some camouflage.
Summary
Things I Liked About the Toad Ranch Bask N Hide
- Quick and easy to assemble. The design is intuitive and it really doesn’t take a genius to figure out (it’s me, I’m the DIY-challenged one). The pre-drilled pilot holes help a lot!
- Extra screws included. Because losing tiny screws happens sometimes.
- Low ceiling height. The Bask N Hide isn’t as low-profile as traditional black box hides, but it’s still low enough for taller species to feel comfortable.
- Relatively small opening. Entrance-to-hide ratio is important for helping reptiles feel optimally secure. Yes, wild reptiles can be found in burrows with relatively large openings, but when given the choice, my own reptiles almost always prefer the hiding spots with the smaller “door.”
- Attractive stone top. Let’s be real: If you keep reptiles, you probably don’t think a rectangle of black plastic is all that very attractive. Using a black box hide probably means compromising your aesthetic sense in one way or another. The Toad Ranch Bask N Hide is a welcome alternative in that aspect!
- Uses unpolished stone tile. This helps file down claws and provides a grippier surface as well!
- Provides a large basking surface. The basking surface of the Bask N Hide is significantly larger than most ready-made basking platforms. A larger basking zone allows a reptile to comfortably stretch out or settle on a flat surface and promotes more even heating of its body, which promotes better circulation and more efficient thermoregulation.
- Functions effectively as a warm hide. Both diurnal and nocturnal reptiles can enjoy passive Infrared-C heating in security as needed, likely without the need for additional heating equipment.
- Retains heat very well. This enhances the hide’s naturalistic function by giving reptiles access to an area that remains warm after the heat source has been removed, which is a resource they often seek out in the wild.
- Accommodates larger reptiles. It’s generally hard to find hides for larger reptiles (especially ones with any kind of aesthetic appeal) without having to resort to just making one yourself. The Bask N Hide offers a reasonably-priced solution in a sparse market.
Things I Didn’t Like About the Toad Ranch Bask N Hide
- Multiple tiles on top instead of just one uniform piece. I would prefer 1 uniform piece of tile on top instead of the two. I understand the logic from a manufacturing perspective, and it probably reduces the risk of breakage, but a single piece would be more attractive and a little easier to install.
- Not the most naturalistic-looking hide. While better than most options, this hide’s plain plastic walls and rectangular shape makes it stand out as an obviously artificial component in naturalistic setups. Aesthetic is compromised in favor of function and ease of shipping in this regard.
- Heat mats must be placed below the hide. The Bask N Hide is quite efficient at gathering heat from the basking tile and transferring it to the hide below, but in cases where supplemental heat is needed to reach/maintain target temperature for the warm hide, a heat mat has to go underneath the current design, which isn’t very safe. I would love to see a modified design with heat mat pocket in the top as an option.
- Useful only for medium to large reptiles. It’s a shame that such a useful product is only sized for larger pets. I would love to see smaller and/or shorter sizes available for smaller species such as leopard geckos and kingsnakes.
FAQs
Can the Bask N Hide be used as a humid hide?
The Bask N Hide is not designed for use as a humid hide, but it also wouldn’t be bad at the job, either. Ease of access from the top makes replacing substrate and remoistening more convenient than having to move the entire hide, especially considering size.
Will the Bask N Hide reach optimal warm hide temperature without a supplementary heat mat?
That depends on room temperature, heat source, and what surface temperature you’re going for on the basking surface. Based on my own observations, I think it is possible to achieve optimal temps with just heat lamps if you’re choosing lamp wattage based on warm hide temps rather than surface temps (which should be your priority anyway if you have a night-active species like a ball python).
Carefully monitor the interior temperature with a temp gun or digital probe thermometer, and if you’re noticing that the daytime temps just aren’t in range, add a heat mat under the substrate under the hide connected to a thermostat with the probe inside the hide. However, I always prefer to sandwich heat mats between the top of the hide and a piece of flat stone rather than underneath the hide, as this reduces the risk of the reptile coming into direct contact with the heat mat itself.
Does the Bask N Hide retain warmth after the heat lamp turns off?
Yes! I did an informal test of the hide’s performance in this respect, checking internal temperature with an Etekcity 774 temp gun every 10 minutes for an hour, then coming back three hours after that to check again. Here’s what happened:
Over the course of an hour, the Bask N Hide’s internal temperature dropped by 8.8°F, and then when I returned three hours later for a final reading (four hours past sunset), the temperature had only dropped by another 5.8°F. The ambient temperature in the enclosure at this point was 71.9°F, which indicates that this hide is quite capable of holding on to the heat that it has stored for a good while after the basking lamp has turned off.
(As a side note, these warm hide temps are quite high for a Northern blue tongue skink. Although Tina didn’t seem to be avoiding the hide, I added a piece of flagstone on top of the hide to reduce heat transfer.)
Will the Bask N Hide work if I use a ceramic heat emitter/heat projector as the main heat source?
No. Heat emitters warm the air and do not effectively warm objects below them. Heat projectors are better at this, so you’re likely to see slightly elevated temps in the Bask N Hide compared to the rest of the enclosure, but they’re still not as effective as incandescent and halogen heating.
What reptiles can the Bask N Hide be used for?
It depends on the size of the hide, but given that their smallest size (Single-Wide) has a 12”x8” footprint, I wouldn’t use this for lizards smaller than 12” in total length or snakes <36” long.
Published customer reviews report successful use with ball pythons, black-headed pythons, corn snakes, reticulated pythons, red-tailed boas, bearded dragons, uromastyx, blue-tongue skinks, tegus, Russian tortoises, and juvenile red-footed tortoises.
Conclusion: A must-have for any terrestrial reptile enclosure
ReptiFiles Rating: 5 stars
Let’s be real: my complaints about the Toad Ranch Bask N Hide are kind of a stretch, and deal more with nice-to-haves than actual significant problems with assembly, functionality, or design. When one of these “major” complaints is just wishing for more sizes to serve a wider range of pets (which are already relatively well served by current products), that says a lot. As for the less-than-naturalistic appearance, the stone on top already makes it a lot better than most box hides on the market, and since this is clearly a design choice that prioritizes the hide’s function over its aesthetic, I really can’t ding Toad Ranch for it. While a perfect marriage of naturalistic appearance and function is obviously the ideal, I will always choose functionality over appearance in reptile husbandry.
In other words, that’s why the Toad Ranch Bask N Hide has earned a ReptiFiles Rating of 5 stars. It’s a well-designed, very functional reptile husbandry tool that effectively serves its dual function essentially without compromise — quite the accomplishment! This is another example of how Toad Ranch’s commitment to helping reptile owners provide the best possible care for their pets really shines through. I’d like to have one of these for every single one of my terrestrial and semi-arboreal reptiles.
ReptiFiles’ Tips for Success for the Toad Ranch Bask N Hide
- Use a drill with a Philips bit for assembly, not a screwdriver. You’ll save a lot of time and effort!
- For best results as both a basking surface and warm hide, use with a halogen or incandescent heat bulb.
- Monitor the interior temperature carefully with night-active reptiles, as supplemental heat in the form of a heat mat and thermostat may be needed.
- If you like the basking temp but the warm hide temp is too high, add additional tile or even thin flagstone on top as a buffer.
- If you have a snake that likes to feel extra cramped and the height worries you, stuff the hide with extra substrate to make it a tighter fit.
- Clean dry poo/urate off the tiles with a stiff scrub brush and then treat afterward with a veterinary disinfectant that is compatible with porous surfaces, like CleanBreak or F10SC.