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basking lights
- Thread starter Xavier
- Start date
Skye
New member
I am not entirely sure I agree with hones.
Whilst hot rocks have been well documented to cause problems by developing hot spots which cannot be seen with the eye, I am not aware of this being a problem with basking lights. In fact, the whole point of a basking light is to create a hotter area within the tank.
Corns can, and do bask in the wild, and there is no reason not to offer them this opportunity in captivity if you wish, although it is certainly not essential. All our corns have basking lights, and a good number of them bask under them on occasions.
With regards to burning the snake, any concerned corn keeper will keep regular tabs on the temperature and will use bulbs of a suitable wattage to ensure that the basking area is of the correct temperature for the snake. This will necessitate changing the bulbs to ones of different wattages as the seasons and house temperatures change.
With regards to Xavier's initial question, this will depend on what the ambient temperatures are at night in the room containing your snake cages. Our snakes are kept in the basement, and when the lights go off, this would become too cold for the smakes, so we use heat mats in addition, which remain on during the night. Snakes cannot digest food properly below about 72 F, and so you would not want to have temperatures dropping below that.
Skye
Whilst hot rocks have been well documented to cause problems by developing hot spots which cannot be seen with the eye, I am not aware of this being a problem with basking lights. In fact, the whole point of a basking light is to create a hotter area within the tank.
Corns can, and do bask in the wild, and there is no reason not to offer them this opportunity in captivity if you wish, although it is certainly not essential. All our corns have basking lights, and a good number of them bask under them on occasions.
With regards to burning the snake, any concerned corn keeper will keep regular tabs on the temperature and will use bulbs of a suitable wattage to ensure that the basking area is of the correct temperature for the snake. This will necessitate changing the bulbs to ones of different wattages as the seasons and house temperatures change.
With regards to Xavier's initial question, this will depend on what the ambient temperatures are at night in the room containing your snake cages. Our snakes are kept in the basement, and when the lights go off, this would become too cold for the smakes, so we use heat mats in addition, which remain on during the night. Snakes cannot digest food properly below about 72 F, and so you would not want to have temperatures dropping below that.
Skye
Skye
New member
adding a little more to back up my thoughts:
taken from the Journal of Herpetological Medicine and Surgery, a paper by W.G.Griswold, DVM on Captive Care and BReeding of the Corn Snake states:
"Corn snakes fare well in a temperature range of 22 C to 32 C (72 - 90 F). One end of the cage should approach the lower end of this thermal range and the other should provide a focal hot spot at or slightly above 32 C. Providing such a thermal gradient allows snakes to actively regulate their body temperature within their Preferred Optimal Temperature Zone. Because wild corns snakes thermoregulate primarily by hiding beneath tree bark or surface debris that is warmed by the sun, an overhead heat source (such as an aluminum reflector lamp) is preferred over under-cage heat sources (Rossi, 1992)."
taken from the Journal of Herpetological Medicine and Surgery, a paper by W.G.Griswold, DVM on Captive Care and BReeding of the Corn Snake states:
"Corn snakes fare well in a temperature range of 22 C to 32 C (72 - 90 F). One end of the cage should approach the lower end of this thermal range and the other should provide a focal hot spot at or slightly above 32 C. Providing such a thermal gradient allows snakes to actively regulate their body temperature within their Preferred Optimal Temperature Zone. Because wild corns snakes thermoregulate primarily by hiding beneath tree bark or surface debris that is warmed by the sun, an overhead heat source (such as an aluminum reflector lamp) is preferred over under-cage heat sources (Rossi, 1992)."
Thanks everyone I went ahead and ordred a 8 x 8'' eco terra heat mat/tape and a thermomstat. My room is used just for herps,incubators, feeder insects, and my computer. So the day time ambient temp is 78-82 and drop of about 3 degrees at nigth. I do live in vegas my humidty is about 30 % and that only cause I'm have 3 aquayic turtle set up in the room. This might me too low? Would it be wise for me to provide this corn with a mircohabitat? Maybe a small rubbermaid container with spagnum moss over the heattape.
Xavier
Xavier
pinatamonkey
Ophidiophile
If the daytime ambient temp is that high, you can probably get by without supplying any extra heat. In the summer when the snake room temp is around 80 during the day, I usually just turn off their heat completely. They do fine.