• Hello!

    Either you have not registered on this site yet, or you are registered but have not logged in. In either case, you will not be able to use the full functionality of this site until you have registered, and then logged in after your registration has been approved.

    Registration is FREE, so please register so you can participate instead of remaining a lurker....

    Please be certain that the location field is correctly filled out when you register. All registrations that appear to be bogus will be rejected. Which means that if your location field does NOT match the actual location of your registration IP address, then your registration will be rejected.

    Sorry about the strictness of this requirement, but it is necessary to block spammers and scammers at the door as much as possible.

Heat lamps ok?

jld333

jld333

New member
My basement gets in the mid 50's in Jan and Feb. Is it ok to use those reptile night bulbs such as Exo-Terra Night-glo Moonlight Bulbs or Incandescent Night Black Bulbs by R-Zilla. Since the snake is active at night I don't want to restrict his moving around in his 55 gal viv. :shrugs:
 
To give the snake a better heat source you should use a uth (heat mat).

Heat lamps are good for heating the air in a hotel bathroom but the tile floor is still cold!!
 
I have a UTH on the one side, but when its cold he just stays in his hide. I wanted to warm up the other side so he could get some exercise.
 
Sorry to say...but the do that. You can't really control there movements.

As long as you have a good set up cool side and warm side. And use the proper instruments Thermostat, thermometer and uth. You should OK.
 
You could do a heat light with a thermostat... I've heard a lot bad things about them getting too hot. Of course, i've heard my fair share of horror stories for all heating units...
 
Have to say I agree with Eric here. As long as you have a warm area in the tank around their safe maximum (85-88) with a hide on top of it, then the snake will stay where it's the best temp for him at that time. Even if we think they should be somewhere else!

If you're worried about him not using the warm side, it may be because he doesn't feel secure over there. Maybe try some extra hides and ground cover all over the tank. See if he's more inclined to move around to different areas wen he can stay out of sight.

If it's any consolation, most of mine spend most of their time on the cool sides of their tanks, even in winter (and the heating didn't go on until December last year).
 
I use heat lamps with great success. I have used Flexwatt as well. The heat from the dome lamp warms the surface beneath it. Much like the sun warms the road.

Anytime I use a heat lamp, I use a piece of tile or large flagstone beneath it.

I do understand people praising UTHs, but there is absolutely nothing wrong with using lamps for heat. As long as the warm area is the correct temp, the snake doesn't care HOW it got warm.
 
I would worry about them drying out the air too much, or getting too hot. And I think there is a greater risk of fire, which scares the crap out of me. But I know some people have used them successfully.
They might have better answers than I do!
 
I love heat mats and flexwatt, no doubt. I like that they are not visually obtrusive and use Flexx every time I build a rack (I have built 4 and they all worked very well...)

I actually feel safer with my heat lamps. I use standard incandescant bulbs with Home Depot dome lamps, and never go above 75 watts (lamps are rated at 150). In the winter, I use the 75 watts, but in summer I drop as low as 40 watts when the house heats up.

Even when I am SURE I have wired my Flexwatt correctly and it is on a Herpstat, I still worry about wires shorting or thermostats failing. I don't worry about that with my lamps, though it certainly IS possible.

Bottom line, we need heat, there are several options, all have their good and bad. If used correctly, the snakes should be safe.

Great points on all posts...
 
i use heat lamps, work just fine for me. just make sure you get one with sufficient wattage to heat up the tank enough. i would recommend using the energy saver heat bulbs from home depot! saves a ton of money on your energy bill at the end of the month!
 
... The energy ones save you money because they don't really let off a lot of heat but let off a lot of light.

I would recommend NOT using those.
 
GSDlover said:
... The energy ones save you money because they don't really let off a lot of heat but let off a lot of light.

I would recommend NOT using those.
Click to expand...

i think you misunderstood me, u might have thought i said light bulbs.
there are energy saver HEAT bulbs. gives off a certain degree of heat for less wattage.
 
Thanks for the responses. I don't think I was not clear on my question. The tank has sufficient hides on both sides. My concern is that in Jan and Feb the cool side will drop down into the 50's. This will cause the snake to just stay on the warm side. Since the snake is currently 3.5 feet I was looking to increase the temp on the cool side so he would be able to use the space on that side of the tank to get some exercise.
 
I add a feeble heat lamp to the cool side of my two display vivs (tanks) in the winter. Otherwise the cool side floor temp is too cool because my apartment is cool. The tubs hold heat better & the cool side temps are fine with just the UTHs. Both Humphrey & Icabod like the heat lamps, and I just mist frequently to make up for low humidity. They had good sheds while the heat lamps were on, so it seems to work OK. Because I use low wattage heat lamps, the temp didn't rise all that much down at the substrate level, just kept the cool side of those vivs in the 70-75 range. I will turn them on again this winter when the time comes.

Edit: I let my apartment ambient be about 55F all winter. I plan to cool the snakes that are being cooled simply by turning off their UTHs once the temps in the apartment go low enough for long enough. Feed them one last meal, wait 3 weeks, turn off UTH for 8 weeks or so. Voila! Brumation without moving a single darn tub.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top