Ok...I have been hearing both sides of the coin here and now I'm confused. I've been giving some advice on the forums but now I'm the one asking for help...lol...anyway, I have a Pastel BP and he is about 2 feet in length. I've had him for about a week now and the heat bulb that that came with my hooded dual light/heat Zilla fixture, is defective. Zilla has a brand new one on the way. My concern is, is that the last ball I had had a heating rock and it worked just fine for him. Now after about 15 years, the general concensus is not to use one. The pet store rep told me that the radiant heat from the heat lamps were best and that even the heat pads were not good. I've heard arguments for both the heat pads v. heat lamps. So what's the deal and what would be best? So far the heat lamp has let me down. Thanks for any help you guys can give me!