Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I'm just curious if anyone heats their ball python's enclosure with just a heat lamp. I ran across a site that recommends just the heat lamp, no heat mat. I know most use both. thanks!
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1.0 bearded dragon "Ifrit"
0.1 leopard gecko "Lucy"
0.0.1 frog eyed gecko "Nikki"
1.0 crested gecko "Strider"
0.0.1 ball python "Kaa"
0.1 pueblan milksnake "Scarlett"
0.0.1 corn snake "Ember"
1.0 rabbit "Pippin"
1.0 cockatiel "Pretty Bird"
0.1 siberian husky "Sierra"
lots of fish

I used to use a heat lamp but it dried the air out too much. It was almost impossible to keep the humidity up. Also, he so rarely used the "basking" spot provided by the lamp heat compared to the under tank heater that I just decided to remove it.
I now have it just hanging from the ceiling over all of my cages and use it to provide the day length with a timer.
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1.0 normal ball python
0.1 greyband hybrid kingsnake
0.2 crazy cats
1.0 husband

Lamps are inefficient and can do more harm that good - don't really know why people still use them for snakes.
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Tosha
JET Pythons
Toshas Blog

Herp Medicine does not equal a bottle of Baytril - Dr. Scott Stahl

Shannon, most do in fact not use both. The vast majority use belly heat to heat their ball pythons, and most of the remainder use back heat. The very few that use overhead heat seem to run into some problem or another. It's not that used, and even more rarely recommended.
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www.strictlyballs.ca

we have the 5 snakes as listed below. each has their own tank. one of the tanks i made myself out of wood, with the front being plexiglass. the others are in glass tanks/aquariums. two have the under tank heaters. two of them have day light bulb lamps. and the other one has one of those red bulb lamps. i started using that one when i had him in a plastic tub- i wasnt comfortable putting a UTH on the tub so i got that to put at one end of the tub for a warm end.

as far as basking in the light- the king snake doesnt seem to yet. but the ball python does. i put a rock at that end so she lays on it sometimes.
i just recently put half of the lamp box in there-- yall know the kind- the lamps that you buy at petsmart/petco. i still had the box from when i bought one of the lamps. so i just tore the lid off and gave the bottom half as a hide spot. the hole is at the top, right in the middle. i have the lamp aimed toward one side, so she can lay in the warmer spot or off to the other side. shes using it too. i went in there just a little bit a go to check on everybody and she was in the box. lol.
i also make sure i keep the room warm since we do turn the lights off at night. the only bad thing- i dont have a timer- so they get turned off at different times of the night.

the boy with the UTH seemed to always lay in the cooler end in the hide box that was the tightest. i recently switched them around and he still goes to that hide box even though its on the warmer side. i guess sometimes its the hide box, not the warmth/coolness- at least with my little fruitloop of a bp lol

i dont have any big advice. either way, keep them warm, and with enough humidity and they will be fine and dandy.
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~Snake Charmer~
0.1 russian tortoise (natasha)
3.1 dogs (church, bandit, willy and tonka)
1.2 cats (taz, squeaky, cami)
0.1 king snake (q aka curly q or queenie)
2.2 'normal' ball pythons (zenith, butters, zahara, and shadow)

Here is the site if anyone is interested:
http://www.angelfire.com/al/repticare/page21.html
With all the caresheets available it gets kinda confusing, some say "this" is the only way and some say "that" is the only way.I've spent way more time worrying over my BP than any other snake I own or plan to get in the future, but I have to say it's worth it, he's definitely my favorite. I enjoy reading other people's point of view since most of ya'll are FAR more experienced than me, so thanks to all of you!

SnakeCharmer77, you said that you built an enclosure from wood and plexi. We are currently building some new enclosures for our growing snake family, how do you heat yours?? or anyone else?? thanks
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1.0 bearded dragon "Ifrit"
0.1 leopard gecko "Lucy"
0.0.1 frog eyed gecko "Nikki"
1.0 crested gecko "Strider"
0.0.1 ball python "Kaa"
0.1 pueblan milksnake "Scarlett"
0.0.1 corn snake "Ember"
1.0 rabbit "Pippin"
1.0 cockatiel "Pretty Bird"
0.1 siberian husky "Sierra"
lots of fish

i use a lamp for the tank i made. but you could just as well use an under tank heater but just place it on the plexiglass instead.
alot of people who make their own will use other materials and then just use heat tape. but i dont have that, so i use whats easier to get for me. lamps and uth's are easier for me to get.
i have more plexiglass...i just dont have all the cool tools to build all the tanks i want to build...lol...perhaps another time...
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~Snake Charmer~
0.1 russian tortoise (natasha)
3.1 dogs (church, bandit, willy and tonka)
1.2 cats (taz, squeaky, cami)
0.1 king snake (q aka curly q or queenie)
2.2 'normal' ball pythons (zenith, butters, zahara, and shadow)

The only issues you get with heat lamps is that they tend to dry the cage out...other than that there is no issue with them. Even Ralph Davis sets them up using both lamps and pads.... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dx8FrA1Gzlk

Ralph Davis may set up a customer with a heat lamp but if you look at his collection, I have never seen any youtubes of him using them on his ball pythons. Also if you are using a light you set it on a day/night timer, I personally do not see why you would go with an info red. For the people that use bulbs, it is to sinulate the light of the sun, make the snake feel like it is day time. However ball pythons are nocturnal so in nature they really wouldn't see the sun anyways not to mention it is not come for a wild ball to bask in a sunny spot because of possible predators finding it. During the day they normally are found under ground, in tree holes, rat burrows, ect. So of these are located under direct sun but the snake itself does not bask like some other reptiles.

That is why I run with UTH. You can use the bulbs, but in all reality they are not needed for health of the snake. Most breeders use under belly heat sources and next to none use bulbs.

just my 2 pennies,

matt

Ralph has racks...so the point is moot. UTH are fine as a stand alone if the room you house the snake isn't too cold or you have a way of insulating the cage. UTH by themselves don't do a good job of giving you a good overall cage temperature...its only on that one spot...unless like I said your room temperature is higher. Fact is that there is nothing wrong with heat lamps if know that it may dry the cage out some and you do things to negate that effect.

I've got a snake room now and rarely use any heating element other than to heat my room to 80 degrees. I have and still occasionally use heat lamps on my cages that aren't racks and have had 0 problems in over 10 years. The reason why "most" people don't use heat lamps is because "most" people anymore house there snakes in racks where its not needed.

I guess I should say this....If you can get away with only using UTH then by all means do it. But if you are housing in a glass aquarium in a normal room where it can be cool you generally need more than just a UTH...just in my opinion. And yes, the heat lamp would only be on during the day WITH the UTH and then just use the UTH by itself at night.