Red light vs multi-purpose basking spot

[KahleenB]

Hello all!

Currently we are heating our cage with a multi-purpose basking spot during the day and a nocturnal infrared heat lamp at night. The guy at the pet store says that we only needed the multi-purpose one. But having that light on 24/7 would stress him out. Its VERY bright.

My question is, is it best to keep switching between the two lights or just keep the red light on. The consensus I have seen on this site is that keeping one heat source on 24/7 is best for the snake. But on other sites and beginner python sheets its saying to switch out heat sources every 12 hours.

[magicmed]

Honestly bp don't need a daylight spectrum bulb at all, personally I use a red light 24/7. Mine keeps my tank at a good temp gradient and doesn't affect my snakes sleeping patterns. And from my experience people that see high failure rates in bulbs are the ones that switch on and off a lot, as most wear and tear in a bulb occurs at light up. I'd say drop the day bulb and go red 24/7. Some will also recommend a CHE.

[Sonny1318]

Just go with the proper wattage red bulb, they work great. I use six of them and couldn't be happier. And you could also go with a CHE or UTH with a thermostat. They all work well when set up properly.

[tikyeec]

I use red and black 100watts daily. 12 hours on each.
It seems like it suck up a lot of humuidity.