Light as heat source

[RedSided]

Its a 25watt one at the moment and about 5-6 inches away for the "basking spot" , shining through the glass sliding door. If I put my hand on the basking spot I can feel modrate heat on the back of my hand but not too hot. She has not basked in it yet and just seems to crawl up the glass to try and use it like a heat matt . I will give it a fair tiral for a few days and if shes still a little apprehensive I will revert back to the heat matt.

The 25watt seems to make it hot enough from the distance I have it at.

Any suggestions?

[GarterGuy]

Not much a suggestion as a warning. Shining heat lamps through the glass walls of a tank can actually cause them to expand and crack. I had this happen in a leopard gecko tank I once had (it was a 20gal)...so you do want to be careful of this. As far as the wattage, as long as the snake is not constantly sitting in the heated section of the tank, it should be good enough. Your snake will pretty much let you know if it's too hot or too cold. If it's constantly at the heat source, it's probably too cold; if it's constantly away from it and buried or sitting in or around the water dish, it could be too hot. Usually a snake will sit at a warm spot a while to get its self up to "opperating temp." and then move off. If it's just fed or if it's gravid, it may bask more extensively....but will still move around and such. Hope this helps.
Roy

[RedSided]

Success I just caught her catching a little heat from it, she is very active, more so since Ive been testing the light as a heat source. She did use to just sit on her heat mat a lot, not all day but still for a fair amount of time.
At the moment she just seems to slither around, digging, climbing occasionaly stopping to bask for a minute or two and then returning to exploring.

I will keep an eye on the burrowing becase as you said it may mean she is too hot.

[GarterGuy]

Burrowing is fine....they really like to do that. It's just staying burrowed that could be a sign of over heating. They go underground to get away from the heat.

[Cazador]

That slow tongue flicker is very often done when snakes are too cold. I don't know if that might apply in this situation... only a thermometer would tell for sure.

Rick

[adamanteus]

Good point Rick....Do we all have a thermometer in every viv? I think we should!

[RedSided]

Of course, and its certainly not too cold.

[Stefan-A]

Good point Rick....Do we all have a thermometer in every viv? I think we should!

I agree, but I don't have a thermometer in every viv. I have a perfectly reasonable excuse for this: I monitor the temperature for a while before removing the thermometer. I just make sure that the basking spot is warm enough and the cool end of the terrarium is cool enough. I don't really need to monitor the temperatures except for the hottest weeks of the summer, when I'm forced to shut off the heat. One of the benefits(?) of living this far north, the conditions are fairly stable.

[crayguns]

What I used in my boa constrictor's cage was a porch lamp. It had a glass globe. Desmond could feel heat. If it was too hot for him, he didn't climb upon it. I kept a 60 watt bulb in it. I painted it with motorcycle black expansion chamber paint on the inside of the globe (for night). For summers, I had it off. I also mounted an old kitchen incandesant ceiling fixture on the underside of the cage's floor.This worked quite well. I had bought a hot rock. It looked like brick with a electrical cord coming out. I kept a thermometer in the cage.

[Thamnophis]

I don't have thermometers in my terrariums.
I have one in the room where they stand.
I know the temperature in the terrariums is ok and as long as I do not change anything it stays allright.