Jungle carpet python lighting and heating

[matty-jungle]

Hey,
i have jungle carpet python which is about 8 months old and i am in the process of building an enclosure for her. I was just wondering what the best way of providing heating a lighting for it. i have a resun aquarium light for uv, but not sure on how to go about heating for the day and night.

Is it nessesary to have night time heating and if so which type of globe to use?
What is the best way to heat during the day and which globes do you use?
Is it ok to use party globes for heating at night?

any help would be appreciated thanks.

 

[Khagan]

Only thing i can say about globes is they can be unreliable in the form of blowing, i've had one last months before blowing then the next 3 could blow after only a week.. I switched to ceramics and had no problem so far.

 

[souldoubt]

I use ceramic heating globes they last for ages and you can use them any time as they dont give off light. If you do go for incandescent globes you will need one of the infra-red or purple ones for night time. I leave the heat on overnight but usually turn the thermostat down a little (to about 29) overnight.

 

[matty-jungle]

thanks for that, i think im gunna go for the ceramic heat lamp instead so there is no light at night as its going in my room. and then run two thermostats on timers so one is on at a day and one at night set at different temperatures. and just wire them both to the same light fitting.

 

[FusionMorelia]

you can get day/night thermostats ATC210 does it and lights habistat do them aswell,
might want to look into dimming or pulse thermos to reduce power consumption

Nato

 

[matty-jungle]

do ceramic heat lamps just screw into a normal light fitting?

and for an enclosure 6 foot height x 3 wide x 2 depth would you use a 100w or 200w lamp?

thanks

 

[souldoubt]

I really like the habistat dimming thermostats and they definitely do save some power. But the thermostat set up is your call, as nato mentioned a day/night thermostat might not be a bad idea, I believe habistat make those as well and of course there are other brands.

Ceramics are great and yes they're just a normal ES fitting, I often use incandescent ones for the wildlife I have in rehab because they are a bit cheaper and I've been satisfied with the lifespan of the ones URS make. If you do happen to use incandescent (or have incandescents as a spare etc) I would definitely recommend going for the purple globe if it's in your room, theyre far less offensive than the infra reds. I find a 150w is fine for 3ft glass enclosures and 4x4 melamine so I think a 200 or 250w would probably be the way to go but if you want to test it you could always buy a 150w incandescent (the urs ones are only about 15 bucks i think) and see if that wattage is close to sufficient

 

[matty-jungle]

cheers mate, thanks for the help.

 

[dangles]

matty im currently using red incandescent globes. Using a 75w at the moment in a 4x2x2 enclosure. overnight ambient temp gets to around 2 degrees lately in the garage with my herps, but with a basking shelf situated below the light it sits comfortably at 32 degrees with a dimming stat. You can get away with running a lower wattage globe if you have a basking shelf to reduce the distance between heat source and snake.

Hope this helps

 

[matty-jungle]

thanks for the help dangles.

 

[user 16324]

I use ceramic bulbs but just bought a proherp 80w heat panel. it emits no light (aside from a little LED to tell you its on) has a ten year warranty and isn't too hot that you cant touch it which means a snake couldn't burn itself on it. The heat is also spread over a larger area too. Maybe check em out.

 

[matty-jungle]

thanks i will have a look at them. i have a ceramic lamp but i noticed it get really hot, but if i put a cage around it it should stop the snake from burning itself.

 

[Schnecke]

Cages are a must.

Here's one of my replies from another thread that I've chopped up to recycle here. May be of some help...........................

Before you buy a heat globe, you need to work out what globe size (wattage) you will need after you decide on an enclosure size. It can be a bit tricky to guess what wattage you'll need, but here is a basic chart to help work out what you may need (please note variables like enclosure construction material can vary the heat efficiency in your enclosure so this is a GUIDE ONLY:

35-75 Litres = 50W
75-150 Litres = 100W
150-265 Litres = 150W
265-340 Litres = 200W
340 Litres and up = 250W




Moose's upcoming enclosure is a converted display cabinet. It's 85cm wide x 130cm high x 38cm deep with 2 lockable doors and glass panneling (not full glass) on 3 sides. So it's not quite big enough for him as an adult, but will do him for about 2-3 years.

I will be heating that size enclosure with a top mounted 200W black ceramic heat globe (we got all the electrical fittings and leads from a lighting shop, I just went in and asked for a CERAMIC Screw-in light fitting socket and power cord with an on/off switch to match (you need to make sure you get a ceramic fitting, plastic ones will melt) and it's easy to put together "by a licenced electrician naturally LOL" and both my heat globe and light (compact flurescent globe attached to the same screw in light fitting) are covered with a cage to protect my snake from burns.

I have them mounted at the top of the enclosure on a backing board, so the roof directly above the ceramic heat globe doesn't get too hot and the thermostat probe is about 30cm below the heat globe (more branches have been added since this photo and some hides including a terracotta herb planter. By having the heat source at the top it will give a warmer top half of the enclosure and a cooler bottom half so he can regulate his temps.

 

[matty-jungle]

thanks for that.

yeah i am going to use a ceramic lamp and just wire it all up my self with timers connected to the thermostats to turn off and on at different times of the day for the correct temps. im a sparkie so i should be able to manage it haha. my enclosure i am building at the moment is 6H x 3W x 2D so am going to use a 250 watt lamp. i am just about to finish it up so i will have pictures up of it when im done.

just wondering how close should the basking spot be to the ceramic lamp? around 30 cm?

thanks

 

[dangles]

imo 250w is too big regardless of enclosure size. you are not trying to heat the whole enclosure, just an area where the snake can get to the required heat it needs. The snake will regulate its temp. Keep in mind that if a thermostat fails and the ceramic is on full blast 250 watts of power will heat an enclosure fast, regardless of size.


going by the guide posted above a 4ftx2ftx2ft enclosure is 432 litres so a 250w globe, even if it was glass this is way to powerful for an enclosure this size

 

[matty-jungle]

i was talking to the guy i bought my snake off who also owns his own reptile shop and he told me to getthe right temperature in my size enclosure i need to use the 250w, and i guess if the stat does fail then any size lamp has the potential to heat the enclosure up too much it will just take a little bit longer.

 

[matty-jungle]

This is some pics of my JCP enclosure. it just about finished.

t

 

[Schnecke]

All depends on enclosure size, materials etc. That's why I put that in my post... So many variables. I've done it all by trial and error as well, not just using that guide.

In my enclosure I had a 100 Watt and 40cm below it couldn't even get to 25 degrees. Used a 150 Watt and was on 24/7 to get to 32-33 degrees. At 200w I get a nice on/off and consistent 33 degree basking spot. I have a lof of glass (that - let's face it, isn't designed for reps LOL it's pretty flimsy) and when the vents are added at the bottom of the enclosure, plus the ceramic herb planter and extra insulated hide that will be going in the bottom of the enclosure shortly also, it means that if I ever do get a thermostat fail (ours are alarmed once there is a 5 degree change in temps and we check 5-6 times daily) that it'll be pretty safe, even if there is a fail.

It also makes the air temp in the rest of the enclosure ambient enough for the snakes to comfortably choose their spot, without the need to always hunt for the hot spot.

For first time herp owners, I'm pretty happy with mine and my partners set ups (P.S. his enclosure is only 300 Litres and the 150w also struggled to head his basking spot and was on 24/7) They're different to light style basking globes and seem to put out a less direct heat (when I used to stand under the heat lamps in my old bathroom even 50cm away my head would feel like it's burning, but it's not so with the ceramics) I don't know why, that's just my personal experience with them... Whether it's right or wrong, it's what I've personally experienced.

Unfortunately each enclosure may be trial and error.

We were also told to use a 250w by the local herp shop here but we both felt 200w was enough in the end and we were right.

 

[pythrulz]

Everyone seems ro use globes to heat there snakes heat matts are cheaper and never blow using a 250 watt or a 275 watt will cook any snake no matter how big the encloser

 

[Schnecke]

If we only used heat mats the rest of our enclosures would be 10-11 degrees in Winter............ Which is just not good enough, to only have one spot in the entire enclosure that's above that temp. plus, my Jungle isn't a basker, he prefers branches. Was always up off the floor in his CC where it was cooler (seems to think he's a GTP)

We're only an hour from the snowfields here and get much colder than Sydney. A sole heat mat would be great, if we could get away with that, but it's just not warm enough. By using a globe, all the branches in our enclosures are luke warm and don't suck the warmth from our pythons so they don't spend their time holed up in a hide keeping warm (at least this is what it seems like anyway)

What works for one, doesn't always work for another. Each to their own