Lighting...is it necessary?

[Them and Us]

in building my new melamine enclosures i was about to install the lighting today but there are two reasons i didn't. 1. 10 inches of snow fell today so i didn't go out to home depot haha wow did that suck. 2. I thought " is lighting really necessary?" as Boas are nocturnal for the most part correct? I'm going to be using 11" heat tape for a hot spot about a third of the way across the 4' long enclosure. so really i wouldn't find lighting necessary. the room gets enough sunlight to distinguish between light and day. any insight woud be awesome. thanks all. \



Todd

[Linds]

As long as some light gets into the room to provide a photoperiod, lighting isn't necessary. IMHO, 1/3 of the way over seems a little too close to being in the middle of the enclosure, thus defeating the purpose of a thermal gradient. Hope this helped .

[Them and Us]

how about a 1/4 of the way over? then it would be 12 inches. does that sound reasonable? yes it has helped. I've been spending so much time soaking up herp and herp husbandry knowledge. i love it all. the more merrier. i still can't get genetics with the hets and pos hets and percentages but thats in due time i believe. Thanks Linds.

Todd

[Jeff_Favelle]

Impossible to tell how much heat tape is enough or how much heat tape is too little. Cage size, construction, ventilation, wood thickness (unsulation), substrate, room ambient, etc etc etc etc etc.

Basically, that's why its useless to tell people how to set up their cages. Create a cage where the hot spot can fit your entire snake and its 88-92F, has an ambient of 75F everywhere else, has an adequate water dish and hiding spots (warm and cold) and that's it. However you do it, does not matter. Just do it.

[Them and Us]

haha an answer i see Jeff make all too often and i fell victim. yes i guess i will do everything how I do it and make changes if necessary. everyones advice will go into my final product and then i'll go from there.

[Jeff_Favelle]

Coo.

[herm]

My boa spends all it's daytime hours inside his hide box where there is no light at all! lol
As long as your snake knows the difference between day and night, he'll do just fine.