Tank heating question!

[HoneyCombTina]

Okay, so I went to a reptile expo last weekend and asked one of the vendors there if he recommended I get a uth for my ball python and he said that it is not required if I'm using a heat lamp and managing to keep the humidity in the correct range because ball pythons are such hardy animals.
I've read many posts regarding this issue, and even though the majority of you guys say to use uth's, I still want to know if my ball python will be fine without it? At least until I upgrade her to a 40 gallon, in which case I'll be getting them for her then to make sure the tank is adequetly heated? :\

[bsash]

You could use a heat lamp for a little while, but it will make it fairly hard to maintain humidity. As well, you will need a temperature gun to make sure the spot under the light is about 92-94 degrees. It would probably just be easier to get an under the tank heat mat and a thermostat. Also, I would only use a red or black heat bulb as white light will irritate ball pythons as they are nocturnal. Ceramic heat emitters are hard to use if you are trying to make a heated spot of that temperature.

[HoneyCombTina]

will the white light still irritate my python if I'm only using it during the day? I have a night lamp for her that emits heat as well for the night time

[bsash]

No, it should not irritate your snake, it just typically won't come out during the day. My snakes all have regular day and night cycles, but that is just from the light coming through my windows.

[Kaorte]

lamps can work but belly heat is preferable. The main issue with lamps is humidity, especially in a fish tank.

I would also suggest loosing the heat lamps and going with a UTH on a thermostat.

[HoneyCombTina]

and uth's are what i plan on upgrading to in the near future. just want to make sure there's not any problems with using a lamp for now. thanks everyone