How many lights do you need?

[AmericanTacos]

I've been reading a whole bunch of different articles and pages and they all have differing information on what types of lights you need, and are generally pretty vague on how many. I know the day/night cycle of hours and all that, but what ALL lights do you need?

Also, how do you manage temperature/humidity?

[Starscream]

Lights aren't considered necessary for snakes, though I like to provide a UVB light for my ball python regardless. They can see UVA, and they have been noted to bask under a UVB lamp if given the chance, so I see no reason why not to give them the option.

As for actually heating an enclosure, a under tank heater and ceramic heat emitter are what you're going to want to look into. You control the heat with a thermoSTAT (used to regulate the temperatures, you'll need one for each heating device), not a thermometer (which you use to monitor the temperatures, and you will need two of these).

And for humidity, you can use water-retaining substrates like coco husk or coco chip, changing the size of the water bowl, and misting the enclosure from time to time. For monitoring the humidity you need a hydrometer, though I just always buy thermometers that do both, like the ThermoPro TP50.

[SDA]

Personally I would either go with, if just buying a premade PVC enclosure, the LED options they give or, if you can find it for a DIY build, dimmable LED strips. This way you can either dim down the brightness to a level your snake will best tolerate or, if you get a smart dimmer / timer, you cna create a dimmable on off setting to simulate sunrise and sunset.

[redshepherd]

I've been reading a whole bunch of different articles and pages and they all have differing information on what types of lights you need, and are generally pretty vague on how many. I know the day/night cycle of hours and all that, but what ALL lights do you need?

Also, how do you manage temperature/humidity?

This depends on what animal you are getting... Different species of reptiles need different types of lighting, and different setups.

If this is about a ball python, they do not actually need bright lights. But they should have some ambient light during the day to keep their circadian rhythm. You can use LED lights.

What species are you talking about?