Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Alright I bought a "Deluxe Arizona Hot Lamp" today, it's got an 8.5" dome. The bulb I am using with it is a Heat Glo 50watt infrared light. First off, is that okay for a young king snake? He's probably.. 12 inches?

Also, I am a heat lamp newbie. So I was just wondering.. if you turn the dial towards off.. the light gets brighter.. and if you turn it towards on.. the light completely turns off after dimming. (Obviously has a dimmer switch.)

So.. why is it that when you turn it towards on it gets darker? Does that make it produce more heat?

1) Return the heat lamp and get undertank heating.

Heat lamps are to drying for a small king. Also the undersurface heat of a heat pad will give the snake a chance to thermoregulate and heat up under the bellie rather than to toast it into snake jerky. Your snake will thank you.

2) Don't listen to Petco employees.

Well, my room is very cold in the winter. I cannot keep him anywhere else, due to me living with my parents. So tell me if you still think I should not use a heat lamp. With the heat lamp currently, the tank right now is only 75 degrees. That's how poorly insulated my room is . Oh yeah.. and the venting to my room.. doesn't work.

Should I still swap it?

Again. Get an undertank heat pad. It does not matter what the air temps are. The snakes sits on the cage bottom and can get hotter than he could with a bulb.

There are tons of reasons to not use a bulb. Just take the advice and get a heat pad. Trust me.

Heat pads also use less power. Saves money.
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3.0 WC; 0.3 CB L. getula californiae
0.1.1 WC; 0.0.3 CH Elgaria multicarinata multicarinata

An overhead LIGHT is sufficient! Anything more than that is TOO MUCH!!! DO NOT use a heat lamp. Get a light with a regular 40 watt household light bulb (for a 10 gallon tank),and your snake will get about the same amount of heat as it would in the sunlight. Place the light (the type with a collar/shade on it so the bulb won't touch the screen) on top of the cage near one end of the cage, so your snake will still have a cooler side.
A heat lamp only produces heat and little light and will kill your snake (too much heat). The cheap 40 watt bulb is better = produces the right heat AND and realistic light.
Of course if you have a large collection of snakes an undertank heater is the way to go (saves space and good for appearance) and works good too. The overhead light DOES AND HAS worked very well for me in the past. My cal kings grew like weeds, with outrageous feeding responses. Think about it: Mother nature heats snakes from the top not from the bottom. Snakes bask to get heat and initially receive most of the heat from the top of their backs.
My sincere apologies, I should have clarified that in the earlier post when I said use an overhead light. When I said light, I didn't mean HEAT LAMP! Those will burn & dry your snake right up! Sorry . . .
Also remember to have the light on during daytime hours only, so you can have a cooler period at night.(Just like in the wild.)
OR you can still use an undertank heater . . .

Zee

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"I am an expert on everything, but I know so little and have so much to learn!" -Carsten "Zee" Zoldy-

Thank you for the advice. I'm just going to switch bulbs later then.

Beautiful crisp, white, chain pattern!!!!!!!!!

Thanks!
I LOVE THOSE (NC) SANDHILLS KINGS!!

Zee
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"I am an expert on everything, but I know so little and have so much to learn!" -Carsten "Zee" Zoldy-

Take it back and get an undertank heater. When I do use a light ther hottest bulb I ever use is 25 watts.
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Peter Jolles
East Coast Colubrids
www.eastcoastcolubrids.com

Yup. What they said.

You have to understand how kings thermoregulate in the wild to envision how your tank should be setup.

In the "wild" kings basically use the earth as their method of absorbing heat when they need to and as a tool to escape heat. Believe it or not, they do make use of cooler temps than you might think for various reasons.

Typical scenario: sun warms the ground to a depth of a few inches, snake comes up a burrow close to the surface to get warm. Or maybe in and among tree roots, or brush.

Kings will make use of artificial cover (like plywood and metal signs) that gets warmed by the sun. Snake goes under cover, cover gets warmed by the sun and transfers warmth to snake.

So you can use a bulb if your cage provides the following:

1. A substrate like Eco Earth that can be deep enough for the snake to escape the heat by burrowing (kings love to burrow) and that can be kept slightly damp in areas to keep the snake hydrated.

2. A hide thingy, like a piece of plastic or plywood to hide under, etc.

3. You insulate the glass tank somewhat. I use corrugated plastic sign material cut to size with a straight-edge and knife, then tape some aquarium background to that, then mount to the outside back wall of the aquarium. This helps to keep more heat in. Also, cover some of the screen top.

Note on undertank heat:
It is usually easier to use heat pads for smaller snakes like most kings. Heat pads use less power, and do not dry out the air in the tank. Most people use heat pads for those reasons. You can't argue with success.

Thanks for the help.

So untill I have enough cash to go throw down on a 10g glass tank, currently I am using one of thoes plastic ones with a plastic top with the little look in glass thing, would this be sufficient: It has a weak and small hermit crab under the tank heater on one side, and above I have a 50 watt infrared light warming it slightly (it puts out so little heat that if you touch the metal dome around it, it feels room temperature). Which is on the 'warm' side that the little heating pad is on. Annnnd my room is currently about 65 degrees, and inside the tank it is 75.

Walmart has 10n gallon tanks for 10 dollars. They don't have screen lids, so you have to go to a pet store. That will be another 10 dollars probably. Where do you live? Any pet store should have screen lids. Under tank heaters aren't that much either. If you start collecting lots of snakes, you might want to go to heat tape with a thermostat. Derek

Walmart also has a plastic lid with screens and locking "pins" a little farther down the same aisle. $7.00. I have many.
Todd Hughes