Reptile & Amphibian Forums

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Does it make visible light? I personally don't even like red lights, but have used them in large iguana enclosures. If it is visible light...then NO, don't leave it on 24/7 or you will stress out the snake big time.
What I do is have a UTH and a overhead light. The light is one only during the day. The UTH all the time. That way they get some temp drop at night. You may get that anyway with your house temp drop but I wouldn't in my room if I didn't turn stuff off.
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Sonya

>>.

Does it make visible light? I personally don't even like red lights, but have used them in large iguana enclosures. If it is visible light...then NO, don't leave it on 24/7 or you will stress out the snake big time.
What I do is have a UTH and a overhead light. The light is one only during the day. The UTH all the time. That way they get some temp drop at night. You may get that anyway with your house temp drop but I wouldn't in my room if I didn't turn stuff off.
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Sonya

One of my friends, a boa breeder, wanted to find out if it truly harmed the snakes to leave the light on 24/7. He used BP's and boas, and half of them he used a 12 hour cycle, the other half he kept it on all night. After about 3 months of monitering their feeding responses, activity, and other things, he found that it does not cause stress to leave a light on 24/7. Many people claim it stresses the snake, but that is not the case. Ever since then, I switched to a 24/7 cycle, and all of my animals are fine. Also, if your BP has a hide (which it should) then it has a dark place to go to get away from the light. I am sure there will be somebody who disagrees with me on this subject, but I go from my personal experience. BTW this study was done with a little over 100 animals, so the results are accurate.

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Well, I have known folks that did leave lights on and had their snakes become psycho or go off food or both. Were all 100 of those snakes in tanks? If they were in racks that is a bit different than haveing an immediate overhead lamp. Not questioning the information, just trying to understand it better. Cause, like I said, I have known folks that used their snake's lights as 'nightlights' and had bad results....started turning off the lights and they went back to 'normal' . So I guess I gotta say, I still wouldn't do it.
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Sonya

I have to agree with Sonya. I have known snakes that went "freaky" because the lights were left on 24/7, even if they had a hide box. A 24/7 light cycle is not natural for anything. I have cousins that live in the northern part of alaska and they complain about the 24 hour days that they get during parts of the year.

Now your personal experience says they do fine...MY personal experience says that some animals can't take the 27/7 cycle and quit eating.

This next bit might offend you but the following material was drilled into my skull in my Biostatistics class in college.

Your friends experiment only went on for three months and it only covered 2 groups of animals. For this to be a truely accurate scientific experiment, there has to be at least THREE groups. One of these being a control group. Statistics don't work with only two groups. For me to believe that a 24/7 light cycle is fine for some animals. I would have to see that there were three groups and there was no significant difference statistically between the control group and the experimental groups. Sorry this is my scientific mind here and without statistics, I can't believe it.This "experiment" should also have covered long term effects (at least a year)as well as the short term (three months). For instance, many animals need the shortened daylight cycle and a heat drop at night to breed properly. They can't get this if the lights are on 24/7.
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2.9.9 Leopard Geckos
1.2.3 African Fat-tails
0.1 Gonisaurus Luii
1.1 Central American Banded Geckos
0.1 Gargoyle Gecko
1.1 Calabar Pythons
1.1 Savu Pythons
1.1 Cornsnakes
0.1.2 Chondropythons
0.1 Standing's Day Gecko
1.0 Frog-eyed Gecko
1.1 Ball Pythons

Not all the snakes had the light on 24/7. 1/2 the boas and 1/2 the balls were kept with a 12 hour cycle. The half without was the control group. Also, it wasn't intended to measure breeding effects, only the amount of stress on the animal in regards to feeding and behavioral pattern. The snakes were all kept in tanks, not racks. I have kept over 20 snakes with 24/7 lighting for over 5 years with no problems. The friend has been keeping over 100 snakes for over 8 years with 24/7 lighting and no problems. I have heard about it being bad to keep the lights on all night, but from my own vast experience, it does not cause any extra stress or "dry out the animal." Like I said in my earlier post, I knew I would get flak from people for my opinion, but I wouldn't do anything to harm my animals. If I thought it would cause any harm, I would buy heating pads and use those at night.

Ok, please don't take this the wrong way but......
As I stated before, in order for this "experiment" to be truely scientific (the only way it would pass in the scientific world) is for there to be at least THREE groups. A control group, and TWO experimental groups. All conditions have to be the same for all groups except for what you are testing. Now you have to decide what will be the criteria for "stress". What would you call stress in a Boa or Ball python? Right there lies a problem. What I call a stressed snake...you might not. If we agreed to weigh the animals before hand, and then weigh the animals at the end of the trial and see if there was a difference in weights. (After all, maybe we can agree that a stressed snake won't eat) We then have to take all the weights before and after, and do some statistics on them. If there was NO SIGNIFICANT DIFFERENCE at the 95% range. Then I would agree that maybe you are correct. However, in order for statistics to work properly, you need at least THREE groups.

Stress is also a very liberal term. What stresses you out, might not stress me out. Leaving the light on 24/7 might not "stress" your snake out but it might stress somebody elses snake out. I'll admit that I do somethings with my animals that work FOR ME, however, they might not work for someone else. Do I tell them how I do it? or do I tell them the standard? I usually tell the standard methods.. WHY? Because they work for almost everybody. Leaving the lights on 24/7 works for you, guess what it might not work for me. You have 5 years of experience on this kid. Tell him the standard methods, till he gets his feet wet. After he has more experience and can actually TELL when his snake is stressed out, then let him play around with different methods.
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2.9.9 Leopard Geckos
1.2.3 African Fat-tails
0.1 Gonisaurus Luii
1.1 Central American Banded Geckos
0.1 Gargoyle Gecko
1.1 Calabar Pythons
1.1 Savu Pythons
1.1 Cornsnakes
0.1.2 Chondropythons
0.1 Standing's Day Gecko
1.0 Frog-eyed Gecko
1.1 Ball Pythons