Is using a red heat bulb bad?

[Maddlesrain]

I've been running bulbs for the entire time I've been keeping snakes, almost 20 years. All my animals are healthy, good eaters, etc...
I prefer the dark purple bulbs myself, but that's just cause I hate red, hahahaha.

FB groups are toxic... I ditched my FB account about 6 years ago. One of the best things I ever did.

I completely agree. There are too many overly aggressive people in the Facebook groups. That goes for all types of animals. And most of them have no idea what they’re talking about.

Lol I don’t mind the red. I didn’t think my snake did either, but figured I’d double check!

I don't keep BPs, but I use red or black bulbs for some of my snakes that like more warmth (like my spotted python loves to bask under her warm light), & I've
seen no problems at all with them. All of mine are used with dimmers also, never on full-blast...they're supplemental heat only- all my tanks have UTH too.

The main thing for you is whether or not your enclosure is meeting the needs of YOUR snake: heat rises, so overhead heat (of any kind) isn't the most efficient
when it comes to reaching the very floor of the enclosure, which is where your snake is mostly going to be. (BPs are not big on climbing up to bask.) In my spotted python's tank, she has a very warm UTH also running, so she has all sorts of choices that meet her needs. What are the temperatures in your snake's cage, on the warmest end & the coolest end (on the floor)? Is the light your only heat source? How tall is this enclosure? The chillier the room is where the snake lives, the more you'll need UTH heat rising from the cage floor, but if the room is kept warm (near the ambient needed for a BP) then you might get away with just some extra heat from above. (it's just not optimal for such terrestrial snakes though...their tummy needs the warmth)

I would not worry about using a red or black light, as long as your snake is getting the temps. & privacy he/she needs to thrive. Keep in mind that it's not only
winter that snakes sense a chill in the air...our air conditioning in summer can do the same thing, put a snake off food because they're too cool.

I have the heat lamp and then a large heat mat that covers the front panel of the cage / goes under one of the hides. It’s on a thermostat that keeps it between 89-93F. Right now it’s HOT here so the ambient temps have been 84-88F most days and upper 70s-80F at night. I’ve been trying to keep the humidity up, and it’s been mostly in the 50s, but it drops during the day sometimes down to 45 and then comes back up at night when it cools down to the mid 50s.

We don’t have any air conditioning, so that’s not a problem! Trying to rule out everything to make sure it’s not something I’m doing causing this fast, but if the light isn’t an issue I’ll just leave it.

From my understanding the CHE put out more heat? Is that correct? Thinking it may be worth it for the winter months.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk