What's better...heat, or darkness?

[shew]

Okay, I seem to be coming to the boards with only problems/crisis issues, but at this point it's all I can contribute...thanks for being patient.
My Walgreens heating pad stopped working last night. I know, I should have been using a proper heating pad in the first place, and I have one on order...but it won't be here until Wed or Thus.
When I woke up this morning the cage was 76 on the warm side, and 74 on the cool side...which, I know, is much too cool for my bp. I put the heat lamp on all day, and the temp in the tank is currently perfect at 91.8 on the warm side and 81 on the cool side.
Here is my question. Should I keep the heat lamp on all night and cover up the front of the tank like I normally do (back and sides are covered in construction paper also), or should i turn off the light so it's dark in there even though it will significantly cool down? I don't know if he needs warmth or darkness more. My guess is he would rather be warm, but I also don't want to throw his day/night pattern into a tailspin.
And to top it off I will have had him for one week tomorrow, and I was going to attempt his 1st feeding since I've had him. Should I proceed with attempting to feed tomorrow even though we're dealing with this temp/lighting thing?

[mainbutter]

dont have lights on at night.

[Dixie Serpent Den]

If he has a hide I would think leaving the light on would be okay. Heat is more important to me personally.

[frankykeno]

Personally I wouldn't feed if you are struggling with enclosure issues like heat, etc. Better the snake skips a meal then it regurges a meal because temps didn't allow it to properly digest or refuses a meal due to stress. These snakes do just fine skipping a week and are built by nature to adjust to these sorts of things so I'd just pass on the feeding and focus on getting that enclosure stable as soon as possible. This of course is assuming this is a healthy snake of normal weight range.

As far as your heat lamp, if you are using the red heat lamp bulb made for reptiles it won't bother the snake at all. If on the other hand you are using a standard bright white household light bulb, well that's not a great option really.

[WingedWolfPsion]

Heat is far more important, a messed up lighting cycle is unlikely to make your snake sick in the short term, but lack of heat certainly can.