do albinos not like heat lamps?

[Codil7]

hi! i've had my juvenile male ball python named monty, who is an albino, for about a month and a half now. he is my first snake ever.

i have noticed that he goes into the hide he has on the cool (80°F) side of the cage a lot instead of his hide on the warm side (95°F). for the daytime, i use a 100w heat lamp. for nighttime, i use a 100w ceramic heat emitter (it's worth noting that bc of the lack of light, i can't see him). i also use a UTH for secondary heating. i don't think it's because the temp on the warm side is too high, because it's almost always at the recommended 95°F. however, correct me if i'm wrong!

i initially thought that perhaps monty just personally prefers cooler temperatures. then i thought, well, human albinos can't stay out in the sun very long without sunburns, so is it the same for snakes? what if his heat lamp bothers him during the daytime?

i couldn't find any information relating to this specifc inquiry online, so i made this thread. i love monty so much and i want him to be as comfortable as possible, so if his heat lamp is potentially causing him problems i will replace it immediately.

if anyone could help me on this, i would very much appreciate it. thank you.

What type of enclosure are you using? Aquarium? Tub? What size? Are you using a thermostat/dimmer for the heat lamp? Where do you have your lamp positioned over the enclosure? What are you using to gauge the temps?

When I first created my balls enclosure, she was in a 20 long and I used a 60 watt heat lamp to heat her enclosure in the colder months. I was using analog gauges and those darn things read wrong consistently. I quickly bought a temp gun and used that. Turns out the spot directly under the lamp would spike to well over 100 degrees even with a 60 watt bulb.

If your ambient temps are reading 95, my guess is that the lamp is causing a much higher ground temperature making the warm side unbearable. Also is your UTH on a thermostat as well? Those will peak the ground temps to much higher levels than desired if not.


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