Snake keeps climbing on lightbulb...

[wowfood]

Okay so I have a tube light suspended on the front of the viv, its clipped up there with plastic clips, mostly so I can't see the bulb really. In addition to this the wires for the bulb are held on to the top of the viv with little wire clips, y'know the kind you hammer in to things.

Well, turns out my snake is a climber and every now and then I'll look over there they're climbing around on the cork background to the viv, and now more recently I'm looking over and seeing Snake hanging over in front of the glass suspended from the bulb.

I only turn the bulb on when I'm watching the viv, otherwise it stays off, and I'm kinda glad I decided to do that all things considered especially now that I keep seeing snake climbing up there.

Can anyone recommend any way to stop snake climbing on the bulb? Or perhaps something I can do to get them off when they're up there at the least? (she kinda coils her tail around the wire so its hard to get her down).

Also can anyone recommend any other good climbing decorations? Right now all I have in there for her to climb on is a wooden log, the cork background (unintentional) and the light (very unintentional)

Strangely she never goes on the log, just the cork and the bulb. But yeah any recommendations to help out would be appreciated.

 

[Fuzzoodle]

Just curious as to why the light is in her tank? That's very dangerous, even if it's only on when you're watching her... Could you not stick the light on top of the screen lid of the tank? (I'm assuming you have a screen lid for the tank...)

If not, you should figure out a way to cover the bulb, maybe super glue screen mesh over the light so she can't directly access it?

Or I'd get rid of the light completely... I think the risk of snake burning, light bulb breaking with snake on it, wet snake electrocution is wayy to much of a risk for me.

As for good climbing decorations, vines are great, wood is good, or those big fish tank decorations (as long as inspected for holes first) are fantastic.

 

[AliCat37]

Does that light put off any heat? I'm thinking it's what I have in my cage. You can make a little screen box to go around the light so that the snake can't come in contact with it.

 

[tommyhuck]

I would agree with removing the bulb from the tank entirely. I currently have three corns, a milk snake and a king snake posted on what used to be my wet bar. I found that instead of running any lights I just turn the wetbar lights on and everything is good and the snakes can not burn themselves if they tried.

Maybe you can move your viv to a bookshelf or build something about a foot off of the viv to house the light?

 

[-blaine-]

You need to remove the bulb completely or add something around it to prevent the snake from burns!

 

[wowfood]

It doesn't get hot enough to burn them, nowhere near it. Its very low voltage and honestly despite the insane amount of light it gives off there's very little heat generation, probably gets about at warm as the heat mat does (and yes I have a themostat on the heat mat)

If I remove the bulb from the viv then well. I can't see anything in the viv. It's one of the wooden ones, not a mesh one, so no chance of putting the bulb on top of the tank rather than inside it.

As for wet snake electrocution. I've figured out how they're getting up there now, quite impressive actually. Going along the cork backing, pulling the cable loose slightly by the vent, and then stretching across using the wire its pulled slightly loose as a kind of midway point.

I've only seen them up there once since I originally posted this, so I'm assuming it was just an attempt to explore. The don't constrict around the bulb (or rather they can't, too close to the wall of the viv) so there's almost no chance of it breaking either especially since the crappy plastic hooks holding it in place would likely break before the bulb (these things are made to last)

It looks like they'll just grow out of it though.

 

[bitsy]

Its very low voltage and honestly despite the insane amount of light it gives off there's very little heat generation, probably gets about at warm as the heat mat

You need to measure the heat it gives off with a digital or infra red thermometer. "Probably" isn't really a safe way to go. You need to be sure. I have low energy lightbulbs and flourescent tubes in my home and they're all too hot for me to touch. I've seen the same with the type of UV tubes provided for use with reptiles. If you find you can't touch the light, then it's dangerously hot for the Corn. They're perfectly capable of sitting on a hot surface until they sustain serious burns - their nervous system doesn't trigger the instinct to move away when the damage begins.

If I remove the bulb from the viv then well. I can't see anything in the viv.

All of my vivs are wooden as well, and I can see the snakes without any problems. The vivs ought to be set up primarily for the comfort and safety of your snakes, with what you want as a secondary consideration. Corns are active in the wild at times of low or no light, so it's probably not doing them any favours.

Any bulb in a viv at least needs some kind of wire caging around it that prevents direct contact by the snake.

 

[JayW]

My corn does this too, can anyone recommend a type of mesh to attach over the bulb so he doesn't get hurt?

 

[RoseRed]

All of my vivs are wooden as well, and I can see the snakes without any problems. The vivs ought to be set up primarily for the comfort and safety of your snakes, with what you want as a secondary consideration. Corns are active in the wild at times of low or no light, so it's probably not doing them any favours.

I agree with this completely, the safety of the snake is most important. I have an aquarium for my snake, and I can see mine as well. Maybe you could put a lamp close to the tank so you can see better, without putting the snake at risk. Honestly I would never be comfortable putting a lightbulb of any sort in my tank/cage with my snake no matter what material nor technique I used to try to keep the snake from getting on the lightbulb.

 

[bitsy]

You can buy wire bulb guards from reptile suppliers online or reptile shops. In the UK, try these:

http://www.livefoods.co.uk/index.ph...12_92?osCsid=0ec16b84fadb0237caaecdf66f22b781

 

[Floof]

If the bulb is warm to the touch when it's on, it's already too hot for your snake to be coming into contact with safely. Keep in mind that your hands generally run 90-95F, so, to be warm to the touch, a surface has to be warmer than 90F and probably over 100F. That's well over "safe" temps for a corn snake. As has already been said, unless you're taking the temperature on the surface of the bulb with an infrared thermometer, you can't know for sure that it's not getting dangerously hot.

At the very least, you need to have a fixture with a COVER for the bulb, so the snake cannot wrap around it. It's still risky to have the fixture in there, but the least you can do is put a barrier between the bulb and the snake, and eliminate his ability to wrap around the bulb.

That aside, how about replacing the fixture with a wireless/battery operated under cabinet fluorescent? That's the route I'm planning to go when I finally get a display light for my python's wooden viv. The wireless aspect should help prevent your snake being able to reach it via the cord, they come with a cover for the bulb so he can't wrap around it, and you can mount it in such a way that the snake cannot sit on top of it (i.e. mounted to the top of the viv). You could take it a step farther and go with an LED under cabinet light--IIRC, LEDs stay relatively cool, so it would further reduce burn/injury risk to your snake.

 

[wowfood]

Snake isn't wrapping around it anyway. The bulb i'm using is basically one of the flourescent tubes.

It's only on for a very small amount of time, normally feeding / searching for snake. It's held to the viv by a pair of brackets so it fits snug on the side of the viv, what snake is basically doing is going along the wire at the top of the viv, and then stretching out on top of the bulb.

My guess is where it's been a hot summer they're going up there because the glass is colder so they can cool off.

Also thanks to bitsy for posting those covers but like I said it's a flourescent tube, none of those things would fit. I would look into making my own with some chicken wire and melting some kind of plastic around the edges so they aren't sharp, but I'm about as good with DIY as a thumbless toddler.

On the bright side though, they haven't climbed up there for several weeks now.