Is too much light bad fro Carpets?

[Cam]

Hello All, I'll be getting my first carpet (Female Jag) in a month or so, and I'm busily arranging a nice enclosure for her. Right now I'm thinking I'll use an 18"x18"x36" aquarium and begin building a nice large viv for her for when she gets larger.

Anyway, this aquarium is one I had set up for fish some years ago, and I already have a stand, canopy, lights, and so on for it. The lights however are quite bright fluorescent tubes. I'm wondering if I should be figuring something else out for lighting (will bright lighting cause undue stress to the snake?). Is there a rule of thumb to use like watts per gallon or lumens per cubic foot or [...?].

[Cam]

Arg. Can't edit the title spelling. :p

[Lankyrob]

I have no lights in my snakes tanks, they just get natural light. I think shauny uses UV for his Diamonds but that is all i can think of. :)

[shaunyboy]

i use 2.0- uvb according to the season for my diamonds

the rest of my carpets i use non light emmiting ceramic bulbs,bulb guard and thermostat

i personally wouldn't use old fish tank lights with my carpets

re jags
please remember to ask if the jag your buying has shown any neurological issues

imo, a SMALL percentage of jaguars can show anything from,mild head wobbles,to full corkscewing

its thought to be a birth defect with the jag morph,although as far as i know NOT a lot of research has went intyo the cause of this problem

i have 2 jags in my collection at the minute,and BOTH are perfectly healthy snakes

i had a few in the past thats suffered mild head wobbles,when excited or in feeding mode

cheers shaun

[Cam]

Yeah I know the lights are not really a requirement - they are more for me to see the snake than anything. Just don't want to use them if they're going to bother her.

[Cam]

Thanks shaun for the info.

I think "old fish tank lights" might be a bit of a poor description. They are 36" fluorescent lights that I happened to use to light this tank when I was using it for fish. They are a daylight/soft white light but quite bright. If I'm going to replace them with something else I'm sort of looking for a direction to lean in.

[CDN_Blood]

I've always found fluorescents irritating, myself, and since Carpets are generally nocturnal creatures, I doubt they appreciate it much. While they can and will be active during the day, it's unlikely that they'd park underneath this type of light. They're more likely to park themselves on top of it, lol.

If you can get away with incandescent lighting, I think your snake would appreciate it more; it's a much less harsh light. If you want to be able to see your snake during the day, take it out of the enclosure. If you want to see it at night, use red bulbs.

My Jungle Carpet will often bask under a lamp during the day, but come evening he wants nothing to do with light or heat. He likes it quite cool at night, whereas my Jag likes it a bit warmer than he does at any time.

The neurological issues are indeed important to ask about, and I can point you to a site where a keeper has seen that exposure to certain chemical disinfectants and other products commonly used for parasite prevention can trigger the neuro issues in snakes that previously showed no signs of it.

I'm awfully lucky in that my Jag has no symptoms, but then again I only ever use water to clean things, so she's never been exposed to anything that might trigger the symptoms. Food for thought :)

Oh, I should add that my Jag likes her humidity quite a bit higher than my Jungle, but then again, Jungles are tough cookies and if you think about the word 'jungle', you might discover that jungles are hot during the day but cool considerably at night. Coincidence? ;)

[Cam]

Thanks much for the added info! The breeder seems like a very knowledgeable and professional guy (Henry Piorun A1Pythons.com) but he does specialize heavily in ball pythons so maybe it's worth asking.

The main reason I was considering the fluorescents is that I have a 1.5" space above the top (glass) of the enclosure that I could juuust cram a fixture in and have it be nicely concealed. The gentle warmth wouldn't pose an issue for cracking the glass or anything either. I'll go back to the drawing board though, it sounds like maybe not the best plan.

For night lighting what I've used in my aquaria are cold cathode tubes from computer case lighting. They come in lots of colors, are dim, cheap, run cold, etc. Maybe I'll just put a few white ones in for daytime ambient light in this temp setup and scratch my head a bit more on the full size viv.

[gonesnakee]

Thanks much for the added info! The breeder seems like a very knowledgeable and professional guy (Henry Piorun A1Pythons.com) but he does specialize heavily in ball pythons so maybe it's worth asking.

The main reason I was considering the fluorescents is that I have a 1.5" space above the top (glass) of the enclosure that I could juuust cram a fixture in and have it be nicely concealed. The gentle warmth wouldn't pose an issue for cracking the glass or anything either. I'll go back to the drawing board though, it sounds like maybe not the best plan.

For night lighting what I've used in my aquaria are cold cathode tubes from computer case lighting. They come in lots of colors, are dim, cheap, run cold, etc. Maybe I'll just put a few white ones in for daytime ambient light in this temp setup and scratch my head a bit more on the full size viv.

Well Henry's been breeding REAL Pythons (not BPs) since before most of us stopped peeing in our pants or were even concieved ;)
Know the man personally, bought my first snake & many more from him over the last 13 years.
As for the Jaguar neurological issues they are not "triggered" they either have them or they do not & there are slight & extreme cases.
They typically worsen or become more noticable as the animal ages.

That said its well known that exposure to certain chemicals will also cause snakes neurological issues HOWEVER in the case of Jaguars it is a genetic thing, same as with Spider BPs & a few other snake types/morphs.
Its one of those genes that contributes to lethal combos.
Being a codom they were line bred in the begining (& still are in some collections) trying to produce a "Super".
Jag to Jag breedings of course produce all jags & also will produce all white ones that could potentially be "supers".
That said EVERY single one ever produced (all white, potential "supers") has DIED or to the best of my knowledge that NONE exist.
They do not hatch on their own they come out of manually pipped eggs IF they come out at all (will die in the egg if not manually pipped, not meant to be!)
If they live past the egg they typically die off in the first few days or weeks.
They never feed & always die, thus the "fatal white gene" that you hear about in other animal species, I have heard horse folks talk about it etc.
Anyhow the neurological issues are straight up genetics & they either have them or they do not.
I have seen first hand multiple examples of almost none or extremely mild displays of this & have seen total corkscrew action as well.
My one & only Jaguar breeding using a pure Diamond male to a pure coastal female jag produced one with some issues, not enough to cull it but it was given away as a pet & is still not quite right to this day.
I also have had a pure coastal jag from a ccp to ccp jag brreding done by a person I know here for a couple years as well that was totally messed up.
As a baby it was not too bad but got progressively worse in its 2nd & 3rd year.
Eats, fine, sheds fine. craps fine BUT extremely BAD motor skills & next to no coordination when moving.
I was "babysitting" this snake for 2 years & just gave it away as a pet rather than euthanizing it as a subadult.
If it had displayed the behaviour that bad as a baby & I had prodcued it I would have culled it.
Anyhow ASK about the parental stock, I personally would not ever buy a jaguar from jag to jag breeding or from a breeding where either parent displayed obvious neurological issues.
Henry's pretty easy to talk too & I'm sure he will answer all your Qs in regaurds to such.
Cheers Mark
P.S. as for minor head bobbing when excited or in feeding mode pretty much ANY Carpet will do so to some extent prior striking prey, folks tend to worry more about it now with the known jaguar issues when it has been something pretty normal snakes will do when excited feeding etc.
P.P.S. I would never breed a jag to a known sibling or parent ever whether they were a jag or not, better to be safe than sorry.
I at this time have sold off ALL my jaguars the neuological factor being one of the main reasons alomg with all the intersubspecies crossing going on instead of breeding "pure" subspecies everyone & their dog is no breeding subspecies crosses (aka MUTTS) just because they can. Its getting pretty difficult to obtain pure subspecies stock since jags hit the scene anyhow.

[red ink]

I have no experience in keeping JAGS but my JCPs are provided flouros for lighting they don't seem to mind it one bit....

If a carpet python wants too move around day or night they will. There have been times were they would hang out outside the hides all day on the branches just a foot from the flouros.

Would be good to here from Jag acrpet keepers who have flouros in their set up too see if there is an effect on their "neuro"?

Under the flouros hunting.... (no difference in behaviour)
http://i305.photobucket.com/albums/nn214/Red-Ink-Buldogs/Greyham/4a595483.jpg

http://i305.photobucket.com/albums/nn214/Red-Ink-Buldogs/Greyham/1e906b1c.jpg

[shaunyboy]

as said Henry Piorun is one of the old school knows what he's doing breeders

Mark gonesnakee has had the pleasure of meeting the man (wish i could have a chat with henry)

again as mark said the jag neuro issues are either there or not,its commonly thought to be a birth defect related to the jaguar mutation

imo,to a degree all carpets give a little head wobble at feeding time,i have read its their way of guaging how far away a prey item is before they strike

the few jags i've had that showed slight neuro issues at feeding time,had more pronounced head wobbles,that said they always struck on target perfectly every time

i'm sure a man of henrys good reputation will be honest and forth coming with you mate

cheers shaun

[Cam]

Once again guys thanks for the informative discussion. I've sent henry an email asking about the juvie in question. I think he is a busy man though as he generally takes a couple of days to get back to me. (I've also had a ton of questions though, so he's probably getting sick of me!).

Hopefully I'll have some time to mess with the juvie enclosure a bit this weekend - it's just a 18x18x36 aquarium turned on it's side in a stand I built for it years ago when I was keeping fish in it. Hopefully some good ideas re; lighting come my way.

http://i91.photobucket.com/albums/k281/vermeuliscious/50gl%20viv/small_P1000968.jpg