First cage build, lighting/mounting question.

I am going to be trying my hand at building an enclosure for my future carpet python and had a question concerning the lighting. Will be a wooden enclosure with a glass front and will be ~19in high. I wanted to put some type of lighting inside the cage as it will be in a darker corner of the room and would like to be able to see inside the cage. This will be purely for day/night cycle and viewing purposes.

I was looking for ways to mount lights inside the cage and I found this http://www.bigappleherp.com/Fluoresc...=2&category=22

Main question is if that is safe to put on the top of the enclosure without any protection around it. I was not sure if fluorescent bulbs got hot enough to injure snakes. If that will not work for some reason, I would love some suggestions.

Thank you!

The light you are looking at is decent. They are shallow so you will not have large light sticking down from the top of your cage with is cosmetically more pleasing to the eye. In terms of heat a fluorescent light such as that doesn't produce a ton of heat, now that is the actual bulb I'm talking about. The ballist on fluorescent lights is the part that can get warm, but not enough to cause instant burns.

Another thing to be concerned about is mounting the light flush. You don't want your carpet to wrap itself in the light and possibly cause it to break. I know my carpet pythons love to wrap themselves around everything. If the fixture mounts flush then you should be fine.

Another option you can do is the small LED puck lights for underneath a cabinet. I found these to be nice to use, they are small, energy efficient, last a long time and produce a nice light for viewing. You can usually pick up these small puck lights at home depot or lowes.

Hope this helps, let me know if you have any other questions.

My cages have light fixtures mounted in them. I would not recommend having an exposed bulb as they can get far too hot. A fixture with a plastic diffuser would be much better. Like so

http://i1186.photobucket.com/albums/...t/334ccf69.jpg

http://i1186.photobucket.com/albums/...t/IMG_0372.jpg

http://i1186.photobucket.com/albums/...t/3f1e76f3.jpg

http://i1186.photobucket.com/albums/...ant/photo5.jpg

I use LED Strip lighting in my cages mounts flush and doesnt generate any real heat :)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by The Serpent Merchant

My cages have light fixtures mounted in them. I would not recommend having an exposed bulb as they can get far too hot. A fixture with a plastic diffuser would be much better. Like so


http://i1186.photobucket.com/albums/...ant/photo5.jpg

---

this is exactly what i use when building cages...

I did mount lighting inside the cage before, but now have a new design where the light sits on top of the cage in a window. That way, no contact, no cord issues, easy to work with if the bulb burns out. :) And since I like to leave a few inches of space between my stacked cages anyway for air circulation to the heating, it should work just fine.

cool i like that idea too b ut with stacking cages the light on top becomes cumbersome but for single cages thats perfect
1