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Lighting Question

Lavagirl

Lavagirl

New member
I have a Zoo Med UVA basking bulb set to "normal" daylight hours (when it's light outside) and then an Exo Terra Night-Glo moonlight bulb to keep her warm at night since she's a hatchling. I know that there are the red heat bulbs also - are they better for the corns? I kind of went with the moonlight bulbs thinking that if corns are nocturnal, there is moonlight.....but if it's too much light, I'm open to getting a different nighttime heat source for her. Does anyone else use the moonlight bulbs?
 
Welcome to the forums. Corns don't need any extra lighting. Heating should be accomplished through use of under-tank-heating pads, not lamps, which dry out the enclosure. For more info, use the 'search' function. Good luck. :)
 
I use an UTH (under tank heater) for actual heat, but I do have a light for the day time on. It's just a fish tank kind of set up and it remains pretty cool to the touch. But I like it because as soon as I turn it off out he pops ready to cruise :D
 
I tried using the search function and it kept coming back that it couldn't find anything. I tried "heat source", "bulbs", etc. I'm not trying to be argumentative - just new at this and want to understand. I have read, and it made sense to me, that using a heat source from a bulb is not a bad thing. One person made the observation that the ground is not warm to a snake, that it gets warmth from rays coming down from the sun. Obviously living inside a viv is nothing like living outdoors, but it seemed kind of 50/50 from other keepers on what type of heating is suitable for corns. If the bulbs are really not good at all for the corns, I'll go get the under the tank heater. Thanks for the quick replies.
 
I personally would say to get a UTH with a thermostat (to regulate temperature) and just use a display light. I think (personally) that light bulbs are hard to regulate.

This way you have a constant source of heat & lighting only if you want it :D

PS Snakes get heat from lots of places. They do bask in the sun, but they mostly absorb it from the ground and rocks heated by the sun. So through their bellies is just fine :D
 
Lavagirl said:
I tried using the search function and it kept coming back that it couldn't find anything. I tried "heat source", "bulbs", etc. I'm not trying to be argumentative - just new at this and want to understand. I have read, and it made sense to me, that using a heat source from a bulb is not a bad thing. One person made the observation that the ground is not warm to a snake, that it gets warmth from rays coming down from the sun. Obviously living inside a viv is nothing like living outdoors, but it seemed kind of 50/50 from other keepers on what type of heating is suitable for corns. If the bulbs are really not good at all for the corns, I'll go get the under the tank heater. Thanks for the quick replies.
Click to expand...

Yeah I know what your saying. Also try the archives . Scroll to the very very bottom right look. Gives you the thread titles and post to them.

Good luck :cheers:
 
You know, I have never noticed the archive before lol. Sometimes searches don't pan out and I just figured that's the way it was. Thanks!!
 
Don't know if I'm much help here, but I do use the moonlight bulb for my frog, I love the look of it. I think though, that your corn might enjoy the infrared one though as it is believed that they don't see the red light very well, so they think they are in darkness, thus more likely to cruise around yet you will still be able to view them better than with no light :)

I also use uth for my corns though. Just easier to regulate as someone else already mentioned.....

Rebecca:)
 
Thanks very much for the help. I bought an UTH last night. I don't have a terrarium/viv stand like the back of the package showed. The viv is up on the breakfast bar. The UTH came with feet to elevate the viv a bit. Does anyone else keep their viv on a flat surface? You don't worry at all about anything overheating?
 
No I use the little feet that came with it. Works well for me. Make sure you get a retrostat to be able to control the heat though!!! This is very important as my heat mat will get up to 102* pretty fast.
 
Thanks again. Ya'll have been helpful. Last night we got home late and when I turned on the lights, I could see on the cool end by her water dish. She did not hide. She stayed out for a while and cruised around a bit. I fed her another pinkie last night and when I checked this morning, it was gone. Although I have aspen bedding as the substrate, I have paper towels on top of it by her favorite hide so that I can put pinkie's near the hide entrance and she won't ingest any bedding. My son took her first shed to school today for Show and Tell. By the way,her name is "Lavagirl". ;)
 
I would suggest feeding out of the viv. It only takes about 5 minutes for my boy to wolf down his mouse if he's in his deli cup :D
 
Here's the thing I also read about that....sometimes babies can get freaked out by the moving pinkie and they are not in their favorite/familiar hiding place and they won't want to eat. This is why this forum is so valuable - you can read and read and Google for information and get lots of good info, but once you have your snake.....she has eaten twice the way I fed her, so should I still go ahead and try to feed in a deli cup? If so, is it because of the substrate possibly being ingested?
 
I would take her out. The deli is the same as a hide, I just put a pinky in the bottom, put snake in & put on lid. (One of these came with my snakes but you can use a butter tub, just poke some holes in the top of the lid for air). My piggy scarfs them down & I can see him poking his nose around the air holes looking for a way out I know he's done.

It also is a good chance for me to clean vivs :D
 
Preita said:
No I use the little feet that came with it. Works well for me. Make sure you get a retrostat to be able to control the heat though!!! This is very important as my heat mat will get up to 102* pretty fast.
Click to expand...

I am new here - so taking that into account, I would like to "second" the above advice. The little "feet' that they give you with the uth are what I consider the bare minimum - I use 1 x 2 boards that are cut a little longer than the short side of the viv - that way PLENTY of air can circulate under there to keep the heat pad from getting too hot - probably not absolutely necessary, but it makes me feel better. Also, I also use a LOT of newspaper in the viv as a buffer because I have felt the glass where the uth is and it's too hot! The best way would be to get a rheostat to control the temp with - though I haven't done that yet.

Oh, the other thing - as a baby, I don't think a snake can eat a paper towel, but I remember reading a thread here about someone's snake dying because it ate the paper towel that the f/t mouse was on - it was an adult snake if I remember correctly. I have always fed my RTB in another container as a precaution (it's gonna get much bigger than my corn, so I don't want it to ever mistake me for food) :crazy02: But I remember thinking about using the paper towel thing once but after reading that, I decided "never". Don't want to raise concern where there should be none, but just wanted to tell you about that in case you hadn't seen that post. It would break most corn lovers hearts to lose a snake that way. I never used to worry at all about my snakes dying, but now I realize that there are hazards and concerns and I am thankful for such a place as this to become more educated about how to better care for my slithers! :) Thanks for listening.
rodney
 
rodney johnson said:
Also, I also use a LOT of newspaper in the viv as a buffer because I have felt the glass where the uth is and it's too hot! The best way would be to get a rheostat to control the temp with - though I haven't done that yet.
Click to expand...

I would recommend you get a rheostat or thermostat as soon as possible. If your snake were to burrow underneath the newspaper and come into contact with the glass, it could get badly burned.
 
Preita said:
I personally would say to get a UTH with a thermostat (to regulate temperature) and just use a display light. I think (personally) that light bulbs are hard to regulate.

This way you have a constant source of heat & lighting only if you want it :D

PS Snakes get heat from lots of places. They do bask in the sun, but they mostly absorb it from the ground and rocks heated by the sun. So through their bellies is just fine :D
Click to expand...


This is what I want to do. UTH for heating and then a display light.
What display light is recommended. At the moment my corn is in an aquarium glass style viv so im thinking of a red light but not sure what wattage to go with.

Soon i will be upgrading the viv to a bigger wood style one when lighting will be an issue. Then I would prefer a long fluro tube type... again any recomendations.
 
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