• Hello!

    Either you have not registered on this site yet, or you are registered but have not logged in. In either case, you will not be able to use the full functionality of this site until you have registered, and then logged in after your registration has been approved.

    Registration is FREE, so please register so you can participate instead of remaining a lurker....

    Please be certain that the location field is correctly filled out when you register. All registrations that appear to be bogus will be rejected. Which means that if your location field does NOT match the actual location of your registration IP address, then your registration will be rejected.

    Sorry about the strictness of this requirement, but it is necessary to block spammers and scammers at the door as much as possible.

I don't want them to get burned..

Jadie.Glitch

Jadie.Glitch

:) colubridstudios.com :)
My father just modified a wooden bird cage that he built in order to house my two news snakes. I am about ready to put lights and heat into it but I had a question. What are the best lights/lightfixtures to use in a snake cage? I am worried that the snake will try to crawl up there (on one of the fake trees) to get warm by the light and get burnt... I know that when I was a kid I touched a hot light bulb and I was burned pretty badly so I am just being very cautious here. What do you use? Also, may I see pictures if you have them so I can use them for reference? Thanks a bunch!!
 
I don't use bulbs as they are more of a fire hazard than UTH's in my opinion, but I have heard that others use a 15 Watt bulb with great success.

D80
 
I used to have a 15 watt pigmy bulb in one of the leopard gecko vivs, which I would turn on for cleaning, as it was in a dark corner. I lost count of the number of times I burnt my hand on it and Hubby still has a scar from one of the burns :( So I would not recommend it unless you were to use a mesh guard of some type around it. We made guards with 1/4 inch wire mesh for the gecko tank, but you would have to use a finer mesh for a corn snake, especially when young and small.

You really don't have to use any type of light for a corn snake, unless it's for your viewing pleasure only, but if you do make sure it is guarded :)

Hope that helps some,
 
Thanks, the guard idea is good to know. I wasn't going to use the light for heat, it was for "our viewing pleasure" as Susielea stated. I was wanting to use something similar to the light pictured below to attach to the top or back of the cage. Do you think that would be a problem? I will be looking into constructing a guard for it.


0000003360217_001c_v001_zp
 
That looks a bit like the mini flourescent tubes you can get that you can put under kitchen cabinets or next to make-up/shaving mirrors. I would suggest running it and testing the temps with a digital thermometer with probe, to see what temperature the unit reaches. If it is too hot, over 85F, then make a guard :)

Also make sure there are no little gaps around the unit, that your corn could crawl into and use as a hide :)

Best wishes,
 
Wow, good idea about making sure there are no gaps. I will probably use caulking after I screw in the fixture to make it more solid and fill in any gaps. Thanks again everyone!
 
You could always use aquarium sealant around all the edges, as long as you allow it to dry/cure thoroughly, before putting your corn in there and that would also stop any moisture getting in the fitting, when you wash the tank down :)
 
I prefer the light on the outside of the cage just for that reason of getting burned.
And are you housing both snakes in the same cage??? If so ..separate them with a divider. Trust me.
 
I would also rather put my light on the outside. I put all heat sources on the outside. The light I only use when cleaning the cages or watering them. They have plenty of light throughout the day. Honeslty, if I was to put it inside, I would never get any sleep. There is nothing that is 100% full proof.
 
Yes, the two snakes will be separated. There is a solid divider in the middle. I hadn't really thought of mounting it on the outside. I am going to have to look it over to see if that can be done and still provide enough light for the cage to look good. Also, I would rather it be more dimly lit and have my snakes safe than to run the risk of getting them burned just because I want it to look pretty... so mounting it on the outside is a great idea :).
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top