Are infrared heat lamps safe for me and my snake?

[bigsnakegirl785]

From my understanding, at full power infrared can disrupt nighttime patterns of a snake that isn't used to it, because they can still see the light coming from an IR bulb.

If you put it on a dimmer and dim it a bit, it shouldn't bother them so much.

My ball python grew up with IR bulbs, so they don't bother him, he'll still come out and explore, but my boa constrictor had never been around one. So when I used an IR bulb to view his nighttime activities, he spent 24/7 in his water dish without ever leaving it for 5 days. If he had left, I would have seen his trails in the bedding. The very night I stopped using it he began exploring again.

So, if the snake is young it should be able to be accustomed to the light, and you can always dim the light so they can't see it as well.

[Praireboyfarmer]

Originally Posted by bigsnakegirl785

From my understanding, at full power infrared can disrupt nighttime patterns of a snake that isn't used to it, because they can still see the light coming from an IR bulb.

If you put it on a dimmer and dim it a bit, it shouldn't bother them so much.

My ball python grew up with IR bulbs, so they don't bother him, he'll still come out and explore, but my boa constrictor had never been around one. So when I used an IR bulb to view his nighttime activities, he spent 24/7 in his water dish without ever leaving it for 5 days. If he had left, I would have seen his trails in the bedding. The very night I stopped using it he began exploring again.

So, if the snake is young it should be able to be accustomed to the light, and you can always dim the light so they can't see it as well.

If you would believe it, the day I put the infrared bulb on my Ball Python he spent all night out exploring his cage and spent most of the next day basking out in the open (versus in his hide). He doesn't go in his hide near as much.

The only issue is that when I woke up in my morning, the cage was sitting at 90 degrees on the hot side (that's ambient air temp) and that's with all my equipment dimmed down to the lowest allowable wattage on my thermostat. I think it's because at night my A/C quits running and so the air in my air (and consequently his cage) doesn't move as much.