Mar
8
fightergirl09 asked:
I have a young corn snake and i turn the heat lamp off at night. Is this ok?
I have a young corn snake and i turn the heat lamp off at night. Is this ok?
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7 Responses to “Is it ok to turn my heat lamp off at night?”
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Under tank heating is a MUCH better source of heat for your snake than a heat lamp. Snakes require belly heat to digest their food, and heat lamps simply do not provide this very well. UTH can also be left on 24/7 (on a thermostat to regulate the temps, of course), which allows them to keep proper temps at all times, especially important after eating…and there is no light to disturb his (or your) sleep cycle.
If your house is warm enough, he MAY be ok at night, but I won’t take the chance with my critters, especially when they are trying to digest their meals. If they get to cool, they can regurge their meals, which in turn can lead to other problems.
They must be kept at 70 degrees at night so if your room stays at 70 or above your good, otherwise you could either use a red nighttime bulb or an under the tank heating source, like a heat pad. Just never use a heat rock, they can fritze and burn your reptile.
like the first person said an uth would be best for them, as well as a infared heat lamp at night and the uth and over the tank lighting during day.
Yes it’s perfectly ok to turn the heat lamp off at night. In fact, it’s pretty much essential in order to provide a natural light+dark cycle, and is healthy for your snake both physically and psychologically. You see, snakes are night time predators. They’re comfortable roaming around at night. If the light is never off, then they really won’t ever come out and explore. Ever take a look at your snake’s eyes? They have very large pupils for a reason. They see MUCH better in the dark.
And I disagree with the “heatpads” are better than lamps. What you want to provide your snake with is a gradient of ambient heat. What his means, is that with a heat pad, you basically get 2 temperatures, hot and cold. Over the pad is warm, off the pad is cold. That’s not much of a gradient. Plus, heat pads only warm the bottom of the tank, not the air. Snakes don’t have heat sensors on their bellies, they’re located on their back. That’s why heat rocks are such a bad idea (the snake doesn’t know they’re burning themselves). So with the warmth coming from above (IE: The sun), they can tell where they’re going to be the most comfortable. Plus, past a certain depth of substrate, the pad can get way too hot (if you have a burrower), or way too cold (if the substrate is too deep for the heat to rise through). You’ll never run into that problem with a lamp. And for the gradient, if you place the lamp on one end of the tank, you’ll have a gradual decrease in temperature across the tank, which is, by definition, a gradient. That way your snake can choose whether it wants to be any temperature from 90 to 80. Their digestion will actually be helped greater by a lamp than a pad, too. I’ve kept many many reptiles and have only once had a problem with regurgitation, and that’s because it was a skittish hatchling that freaked out when I put it back into its container (I feed outside the container, no substrate in the mouth that way, and it’s also good to prevent snakes snapping at you expecting food). Night time outside gets to be around 60-70, and snakes do just fine digesting in the wild. Your house temperature at night will be perfectly ok, and will actually make the snake much more comfortable (at night).
Now, if you ever have a rack of snakes (IE: you become a big collector/breeder), then under tank heating simply becomes economically more sound, and you won’t raise the temperature of your room by 10 degrees (many heat lamps will do that, 1 won’t). Which is why I think the lady who breeds them recommends it. But with racks, you don’t have 10-20 gallon glass tanks, you have tupperware containers in row after row like a bookshelf. There’s a big difference there. For your single snake in a glass tank, the lamp really is the best way to go.
What I did, and I highly recommend you do, is go to wal mart or a pet store and buy an automatic timer for about $8-10. It looks like a tall wall plug-in with a 24 number dial. You plug it into the wall, and then the lamp into it. Set the hours you want the lamp to be on (I have mine on from 8 am to 8 pm), and you never have to touch it again. This way your snake gets a healthy amount of heat and maintains its sense of security at night.
Sorry for the lengthy reply, there’s just a lot to cover. If you have any more questions, feel free to email me. Hope this helps!
yes thats what ur supposed to do
A: GF, Over the last 8 years the copper contacts on your standard wall switch have corrodded a bit. In other words, they have that crusty green copper corosion junk on the contacts. Since this system works on a milliamp signal it is very sensitive to variations or resistance. You can either remove the switch from the wall socket and clean the contacts or purchase a gold or mercury contact wall switch that will not corrode over time.
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