was wondering, my set up is heat mat in hide always on and infra red light off at night but normally see goes straight into hide after lights out or an evening stroll and sleeps in hide but the last few evenings she has been in the light area and stayed there all night she normally goes there when she hungry but she ate Wednesday morning last week small rat question is do i leave light on if she under it? with the cold nights it only goes down to 18.5 degrees.
0.1.0 Royal python. Sammy 0.1.0 Bearded dragon.Charlie
It depends what light you have, if its white light then no it has to be off at night, if its red its questionable, i'd still say no turn it off as red bulbs do give off white light as well. If its infra red ceramic bulb just leave it on 24/7 and ditch the heat mat, they are no good for adult Royals anyway so you will need to make these changes anyway. I have gone for ceramic heat bulb for heating in my new setup but used IR without issue in the old setup. You also dont have to drop the temperature overnight, they know when its night and day by light and atmospheric differences, also the ambient air temp will drop naturally even with the heat still on.
You want a hotspot (hot end) temperature of 32oC and an ambient (cool end) temperature of between 24-26oC to allow the best range for thermal regulation.
Heat mats in vivariums with Royals aren't great once they get bigger as the risk of thermal blocking leading to a burn greatly increases as the snake grows.
You also ideally need 2 hides. One at each end to allow the snake a degree of privacy while regulating their temperature. (I say ideally, Duke outgrew his hot end hide a month or so ago and I still haven't replaced it).
heat source.
Posted - 08/11/2011 : 23:24:09
