I currently have 3 snakes (a BP, Florida Kingsnake and hatchling Corn) that are kept in a melamine rack. I have heat cable running along the sides of the BP spot in order to keep her ambient temps at 80 degrees since its so cold in our apartment. I have been closing the door on the front of the rack (while leaving a small gap to allow for some heat escape) in order to keep heat within the rack but am concerned about the minimal amount of light that is let into the rack. I'm not worried about overheating due to the fact that the heat cable and heat pads are all on dimmers/thermostats. So far, the snakes have been heating fine and seem happy. I',m just curious as to if this is an acceptable situation being in almost total darkness 24/7 or should I try to get the heat up some other way and resume typical light cycles?