Ceramic Lamp question

[Sorrelfeather27]

Hello!
I'm getting my first ball python tomorrow! I have a heat mat for my tank. But my house is not warm enough to provide the right ambient temperature. I do have a ceramic light with a dimmer. Would it be alright to leave it on 24/7? I'm just afraid it'll cause damage over time, like over heating, starting a fire etc. The lamp is currently resting on the cages wire top. Should I hang it up?
Thank you for your time!

[Dianne]

If you are using a lamp designed for basking/brooding, you shouldn’t have any problems. They are designed for long term use. You want a ceramic socket in the lamp and to be sure it is rated for the wattage bulb or ceramic heat emitter that you use. A dimmer will work, but I personally recommend using a thermostat to ensure you don’t overheat your new pet. Your heat mat absolutely needs a thermostat as they can get very hot and potentially cause burns.

It’s best to have a cage set up a few days to dial in temperature and humidity before placing an animal in them, but if you work on it today you should be able to get it mostly dialed in. You should also probably search the forum for the best ways to set up a tank for ball pythons. There’s a wealth of information here and everyone is really helpful.

Congratulations on your new pet and....

[Justin83]

Buy a ceramic fitting for the bulb as some plastic ones aren't suitable. Yes hang it in the tank but buy a guard (around £10) from your reptile store.
I'm assuming by dimmer you mean dimmer stat?
Just securely fix your probe just above the substrate in line with the bulb, if it's a glass tank maybe you can use high temperature mastic to hold in to the rear glass.
Set your stat to your desired basking temp and get a laser thermometer ( again cheap on eBay £15) and check your temperature hot, cold and ambient... It may take a day or two to get it set right.

[Justin83]

Lol beat me, covered everything between us I think haha.

[Dianne]

Lol beat me, covered everything between us I think haha.

Our only difference is I kept my lamps on the tank screen rather than in the cage. Never trusted the snake nit to get into the dome/light cages.

[Sorrelfeather27]

Thanks for all the replies! I have been messing with the light for a few days now. But I just got the fluker lamp
https://www.amazon.com/Flukers-Repta...S5K6YV5E7&th=1
I'm still messing around with the dimmer dial to get it to a perfect temp
The heat mat under my tank does have a thermostat above it and stays around 90 °f
And the light does rest on the tank screen, sorry I forgot to mention that xD

Here is a picture of my tank without everything on. ( Yes my house is very cold and I need to up the humidity xD

[Dianne]

I’m assuming the wire going into the tank and under the substrate is your uth? Is so, the uth should be under the tank and your thermostat between the uth and the bottom of the tank. You’ll need a temp gun to check the bottom of the tank to make sure it isn’t too hot. Snakes will burrow, so you need to take that into consideration and adjust accordingly. Usually you don’t want the substrate over the uth to be too deep. It’s a great insulator and can cause the uth to overheat.

[Sorrelfeather27]

The mat is under the tank, the wire is the probe ^^