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Albino corn snakes and basking bulbs?

G

gutterskump

New member
Hi all,

This may be a stupid question, but are albino corn snakes irritated by basking bulbs at all?

In my current setup, I have to have a basking bulb and a heat mat on the warm side to get it up to 83F. With only the heat mat, temps don't get higher than 75F. (I should probably look into a better heat mat.) I've noticed that my albino corn snake doesn't come out of her hide at all (from what I can tell) while the basking bulb is on. She comes out every night about 30 mins to an hour after the lamp has shut off. I know they're nocturnal, but I just want to make sure the bright light isn't keeping her from coming out of her hide during the day.
 
It's been debated whether amelanistic snakes have a higher sensitivity to light. Some have even stated that UVB lights can and have caused blindness in Amels. From research I would tend to agree. If your bulb is a basking only bulb then it is emitting UVA. There are combo lights that emit both UVA and UVB. Corn snakes fall into crepuscular to nocturnal. They're known to bask during the day too so UV lighting isn't harmful in general. It's even been debated that UVB lights is beneficial to corn snakes just like it is for humans. Sounds logical.
For Amel's it is not recommended to use UVB lighting and they could be for sensitive to UVA lighting especially if it's only inches away.

All that babble being said lol I would switch to a night bulb or heat emitter for day basking assuming that the room has lighting during the day for a night/day cycle.

If your UTH, bypassing a regulator and plugged directly into an outlet, only reaches 75 at the glass (if that's where your measuring) then it is time for a new one.
 
gutterskump said:
Hi all,

This may be a stupid question, but are albino corn snakes irritated by basking bulbs at all?

In my current setup, I have to have a basking bulb and a heat mat on the warm side to get it up to 83F. With only the heat mat, temps don't get higher than 75F. (I should probably look into a better heat mat.) I've noticed that my albino corn snake doesn't come out of her hide at all (from what I can tell) while the basking bulb is on. She comes out every night about 30 mins to an hour after the lamp has shut off. I know they're nocturnal, but I just want to make sure the bright light isn't keeping her from coming out of her hide during the day.
Click to expand...

I can't answer your question and it's certainly not a stupid one BUT I'm sure I've read somewhere that albino snakes ( indeed albinos in ALL creatures & humans ) have slightly defective vision of one kind or another .... maybe a little online research would prove fruitful ??
 
I believe that could more true of mammals than reptiles, but I don't know if any studies have been done. Either way, even a partially blind snake isn't really hampered much.
 
daddio207 said:
It's been debated whether amelanistic snakes have a higher sensitivity to light. Some have even stated that UVB lights can and have caused blindness in Amels. From research I would tend to agree. If your bulb is a basking only bulb then it is emitting UVA. There are combo lights that emit both UVA and UVB. Corn snakes fall into crepuscular to nocturnal. They're known to bask during the day too so UV lighting isn't harmful in general. It's even been debated that UVB lights is beneficial to corn snakes just like it is for humans. Sounds logical.
For Amel's it is not recommended to use UVB lighting and they could be for sensitive to UVA lighting especially if it's only inches away.

All that babble being said lol I would switch to a night bulb or heat emitter for day basking assuming that the room has lighting during the day for a night/day cycle.

If your UTH, bypassing a regulator and plugged directly into an outlet, only reaches 75 at the glass (if that's where your measuring) then it is time for a new one.
Click to expand...

Wow! Very informative. Thank you. I'll definitely look into your suggestions.

Yeah, I've read that UVB lighting is bad for them. My bulb only emits UVA and it's about 16 inches away from the bottom of the tank. Her tank is in a room that gets some natural light, but I'm worried that it's not enough to simulate actual daylight.

I'm measuring the temp at the surface of the substrate and the UTH is plugged directly into an outlet, no regulator. I definitely need a better UTH.
 
Dragonling said:
I believe that could more true of mammals than reptiles, but I don't know if any studies have been done. Either way, even a partially blind snake isn't really hampered much.
Click to expand...



Maybe not severely hampered but for example my Albino royals both need a few strikes before they actually latch onto the mouse and my Albino King just lashes out all over the place when there the scent of mouse in the air .....its " scary time" when I have to feed it :)


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro
 
Zincubus said:
Maybe not severely hampered but for example my Albino royals both need a few strikes before they actually latch onto the mouse and my Albino King just lashes out all over the place when there the scent of mouse in the air .....its " scary time" when I have to feed it :)


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro
Click to expand...

My black-eyed corns derp out and miss as much as my red- and ruby-eyed ones as far as I can tell. My palmetto nearly dove into his water bowl trying to attack his food yesterday, though of all of my corns he might actually have vision problems due to the odd black pigmentation at the edge of his pupils. Still searching for a cause for that one, but I may be onto something now.
 
Zincubus said:
Maybe not severely hampered but for example my Albino royals both need a few strikes before they actually latch onto the mouse and my Albino King just lashes out all over the place when there the scent of mouse in the air .....its " scary time" when I have to feed it :)


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro
Click to expand...

Mine doesn't seem to have any issues with her vision whatsoever. As soon as I dangle a fuzzy in front of her, she latches onto it.
 
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