cirice
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- Jan 16, 2016
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Hey all. I have a two year old Coastal Carpet Python who is 1.7m long right now. I don't know it's sex (I'm suspecting female) so I just refer to it as a he. He's the only reptile I've ever owned (so far, at least) and so I haven't had any experience with heat lamps for different species.
Anyway, he lives in my room in a perspex vivarium. It has a mesh top and sliding front doors with a rubber stopper as he's learned how to open it, and the stopper prevents him from doing so. The bottom is slightly raised (perspex with a plastic border, so the bottom is about half an inch from the ground) so I have a rubber-coated type heating cord underneath half the tank. I've always used a heating cord, as I got it free with a bunch of other left-over stock from a pet store I used to work at when it closed down.
The warm side of the tank sits at 30c in the winter, 32c in the summer. The cool side sits at 25c in the winter and 27c in the summer.
He was getting a bit too big for his current vivarium, and while I was bargain-hunting at my local rubbish dump, oh-so glamorous, I found a snake cabinet with a missing front. The guy who was on-duty told me a local snake owner had dropped it off that morning, and so I got it for a total of $5 because it had gotten rain damaged from the rain we'd had that morning. After stripping the back and front panels, replacing with some scrap timber, and replacing latches with some spares I had, I've gotten half-way and spent no money so far! However, I noticed that the top has a section where it looks like a lighting-cage was set in, and I've discovered that a heating cord wouldn't be sufficient as the cabinet is much taller than it is wide, so only a quarter or so of the cabinet would be heated, unless I put the heating cord on the side, which kind of ruins the natural effect I'm going for.
The top of the cabinet is also opaque unless you open the lid.
I really want to use a heating lamp, but I've never used one before. What wattage would I need to produce a 32c-ish heat? Are there lamps I can get that don't emit too much light, so I can alternate the lights (so there isn't a bright light coming from the cabinet 24/7)? Can I just use one of those timers (for Christmas lights and such) from Bunnings or Mitre 10 to turn the light on and off at night? Does he even need a heat lamp at night?
There's so much information I've found online, but none that's really helpful as it isn't specific enough.
I live a ways off Gympie, so it's hard for me to get into a proper town with pet supplies, so I'd like to have a proper list of things before I go anywhere. I'd go into a pet/supply store, but I've been in before and the employees won't even touch pythons without gloves because they think the snakes are vicious, and don't know the slightest thing about them.
Hope I've given enough information. Any help would be appreciated
Anyway, he lives in my room in a perspex vivarium. It has a mesh top and sliding front doors with a rubber stopper as he's learned how to open it, and the stopper prevents him from doing so. The bottom is slightly raised (perspex with a plastic border, so the bottom is about half an inch from the ground) so I have a rubber-coated type heating cord underneath half the tank. I've always used a heating cord, as I got it free with a bunch of other left-over stock from a pet store I used to work at when it closed down.
The warm side of the tank sits at 30c in the winter, 32c in the summer. The cool side sits at 25c in the winter and 27c in the summer.
He was getting a bit too big for his current vivarium, and while I was bargain-hunting at my local rubbish dump, oh-so glamorous, I found a snake cabinet with a missing front. The guy who was on-duty told me a local snake owner had dropped it off that morning, and so I got it for a total of $5 because it had gotten rain damaged from the rain we'd had that morning. After stripping the back and front panels, replacing with some scrap timber, and replacing latches with some spares I had, I've gotten half-way and spent no money so far! However, I noticed that the top has a section where it looks like a lighting-cage was set in, and I've discovered that a heating cord wouldn't be sufficient as the cabinet is much taller than it is wide, so only a quarter or so of the cabinet would be heated, unless I put the heating cord on the side, which kind of ruins the natural effect I'm going for.
The top of the cabinet is also opaque unless you open the lid.
I really want to use a heating lamp, but I've never used one before. What wattage would I need to produce a 32c-ish heat? Are there lamps I can get that don't emit too much light, so I can alternate the lights (so there isn't a bright light coming from the cabinet 24/7)? Can I just use one of those timers (for Christmas lights and such) from Bunnings or Mitre 10 to turn the light on and off at night? Does he even need a heat lamp at night?
There's so much information I've found online, but none that's really helpful as it isn't specific enough.
I live a ways off Gympie, so it's hard for me to get into a proper town with pet supplies, so I'd like to have a proper list of things before I go anywhere. I'd go into a pet/supply store, but I've been in before and the employees won't even touch pythons without gloves because they think the snakes are vicious, and don't know the slightest thing about them.
Hope I've given enough information. Any help would be appreciated