Ambient lighting in room at night a problem?

My boa's enclosure is in my room and I tend to go to bed late-ish, usually never before midnight. There isn't a lamp directly shining in there or anything, but the room overall is moderately well-lit. I have noticed that the snake only comes out when the room lights are off (but he's still little and shy).

I'm a bit concerned, so I've been blocking out most of the light with a box in front and newspaper on top of the tub (2 out of 4 sides are opaque plastic, but obviously there's air holes). I guess I'm planning to keep up with that if necessary; there isn't anywhere else I'd be able to put the enclosure. Does anyone have insight on how much of a problem this might be?

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Originally Posted by caravaggiooo

My boa's enclosure is in my room and I tend to go to bed late-ish, usually never before midnight. There isn't a lamp directly shining in there or anything, but the room overall is moderately well-lit. I have noticed that the snake only comes out when the room lights are off (but he's still little and shy).

I'm a bit concerned, so I've been blocking out most of the light with a box in front and newspaper on top of the tub (2 out of 4 sides are opaque plastic, but obviously there's air holes). I guess I'm planning to keep up with that if necessary; there isn't anywhere else I'd be able to put the enclosure. Does anyone have insight on how much of a problem this might be?

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I am not sure. However, my two cents is as follows.

Ideal is 12 hours of light and 12 hours of dark. However, that's not completely realistic in some situations.

Does he have lights on his tank? Are they on 12/12 schedule? If so, that helps a lot, even if it's only darker" when they go off.

We have all our reptiles in a finished basement that's an L. The tanks are in the _ part of the L, not the l part. In the l part, we have out TV area, a bathroom, etc. Do we stay down their with lights on after the snake lights go out at 9:30PM, of course, and often. However, the tank lights are pretty bright and only ancillary light gets back there. It's not totally dark, but it's only about 10-20% light and everyone nocturnal starts coming out as soon as the tank lights go out. When we got upstairs for the night, we turn off all the lights and it's even darker and stays that way until 9:30AM the next morning.

Basically, if you can mitigate the amount of light, but some still gets in, I do not think it's a big deal.

You can block the tank, or if using overhead lights in the room, turn them off when his light goes out, and use a lamp to light where you are.

Good question, but probably not a big deal unless you are only giving him 5-7 hours of night. I think if there's a dramatic change and he gets 8 hours of dark, he will probably be fine.

Interested in what others have to say as well though. Not claiming to be an expert on this.

Does the snake have access to hides? I'm sorry if that seems obvious but I've seen so many people who don't offer them. If there are hides he can escape the light if he needs to. But you have to think in the wild they don't have 12 hours of pitch black darkness either. There's going to be moonlight and reflection.

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Like said above, as long as hides are provided, I wouldn't worry at all.

Thanks for your responses! Yep, my snake has two Reptile Basics-style hides (and I totally get it, I've already seen so many new keepers clueless about this and I only got into the community months ago...). He's still in a tub so no lights in the enclosure yet, but I'm planning to get a PVC with lighting later. I'm so glad I wasn't doing my little guy any harm!

I'm in agreement with Craig & Valyrian, I don't think it's a problem either. In fact, I'm a bit of a night owl too & I haven't had any complaints? ;)
But good on you for caring & asking!