One heat bulb or two?

[Skinkpositive]

Hi all. I’ve been researching Northern blue tongues for some time and am in the process of purchasing a nice big enclosure (60x30x18 by Animal Plastics). I have enclosures by this brand for my bearded dragons and love their durability and heat retention. I’m currently using Pangea 100w halogen floodlight heat bulbs for the beardies and the heat circumference is perfect for them. But given that blue tongue skinks are notably larger than beardies, I was wondering if one heat bulb would be enough. Have most of you found that one large heat bulb will do the trick or do you use more than one bulb in the basking area to ensure the animal’s large body is evenly heated (and not just hitting his lower body, for example)? Is it a question of simply finding a very wide bulb (like a bigger floodlight-style bulb)? Thanks so much for any input!

[splashy07]

90 percent of my cages are API, the few that are not are there only because I needed them fast and couldn't deal with the wait time. These cages retain heat so well you'd probably fry them with more than one bulb. My largest is a 48x24x12 and is heated with a bulb on one side that is only a 25w flood. With such a large cage you're probably going to have to experiment a bit with lighting until you get a proper gradient. I have a 36x24x24 for my water dragons that is heated with only a 40w flood. Get your temps right first, then get your skink. Too much heat is just as bad as not enough. My easterns do not like anything over 85, and my northerns retreat to the dark side when it goes above 95.