Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I went to a reptile store and they told me a 250w heat bulb is too hot for an ackie, that I should go with a 150w. Though many told me on the forums to get a 250. What do you guys think? how much wattage of a heat bulb?

Use a temp gun and you don't have to guess. If you have a sealed box type cage, that wattage will fry your lizard. I use a group of 3 50 Watt Halogena bulbs by Phillips in a sealed box cage that is 5 feet long. The bulbs are 8" above the basks or so. It guns at 148*F at hottest point. I've noticed when the basks get super hot (near 180*F BASKING SURFACE TEMP) my ackies stay clear of the hottest areas, so i save the money and down the wattage.

I only use 45 watt bulbs in all of my cages. Design the cage to be efficient and the cage is healthier to them, the electric bill drops with wattages.

Air temps. Why use 250 watts when you can accomplish the same with much less and not dry the cage out.
I can get basking temps from 135-195f on plywood with 45 watt flood bulbs. I was using 25 watt bulbs in a few cages and had basking temps 130f plus.
Consider that my biggest cage has a few 45 watt bulbs in it, thats 10ft by 5ft by 4ft. In fact right now it has one 45 and one 65 watt bulb as an experiment. My next biggest cage has 1-2 45 watt bulbs as needed.
I think 250 watts is a dehydrator or an oven for them. If you cannot get suitable temps with lower watts you are losing heat somewhere, that means losing moisture also, a dangerous condition.

It depends on the size and ventilation of your cage. I have a 4ft Long X 24in wide X 30in tall cage with excellent ventilation and I use 1 250 watt infared heat lamp and it makes my basking site around 130 degrees and the rest of the cage ranges from 80-70 degrees. My 1.2 Adult Proven Ackies love it. They thrive and breed very well. I totally agree with the other post to use a temp gun. Your heating needs totally depends on the cage you are heating.

Hope this helps.
-----
Joe Deavers
J & S Reptiles
http://www.jandsreptiles.net