Heat/Light question

[jphealy]

My setup at the moment is made up of a UTH on 24 hours; There are also 2 bulbs in the viv - one regular 60W white incandescent which is on a timer to come on for 11 hours during the day, the other a 50W infra-red bulb which is also on a timer to come on the other 13 hours at night. Both bulbs provide the correct temp range (the infra-red making it a couple of degrees warmer than the white).

My question is whether I would be better to just have the infra-red on for 24 hours and remove the white bulb. Or is it better to have the day/night cycle of the 2 different bulbs?

Also, is it a bad thing that the viv is a couple of degrees warmer at night (all temps are in a safe range)?

[ddbjdealer]

I had about the same setup as you did, and the problem with it is the warm side becomes the cool side at night.. and visa-versa. Just put the blacklight/infra-red (non light emitting) heating device on one side, and turn the puppy on. (Same side as UTH). This eliminated a lot of my heating problems.

[jphealy]

All my heating devices - both bulbs and the UTH - are on the same side.

Is it better to have white light on during the day, going off at night - providing a day/night cycle, or would I be better just having the red light on 24 hours?

[JimiSnakes]

Snakes do not need a "sun" to be happy. You can get away with just a red light.

[Adam_Wysocki]

If there's a window in the room, you don't need any additional lighting and a red light 24x7 is fine.

In my experience with ball pythons, their feeding and basking habits are definitely reflective of the amount of light (no matter how insignificant) they are exposed to during the day. All of my snake rooms have florescent lights that are cycled on and off during the day. During the non-breeding season, I use 14 hours of "light" and 10 hours of "darkness" in every room.

-adam