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Which heat light?

Posted: Mon Feb 22, 2016 12:53 pm
by GeckoQueen
Hi im in the process of finding a heat light to use for my skink and i cant decide which one to get
what are your recommendations and how many watts?
:0

Re: Which heat light?

Posted: Mon Feb 22, 2016 1:52 pm
by Noah H.
I use a normal 100W incandescent bulb with a simple lamp dimmer to control the heat output. It's more than sufficient for the job and much cheaper than a special infrared bulb.

Re: Which heat light?

Posted: Mon Feb 22, 2016 3:00 pm
by GeckoQueen
Noah H. wrote:I use a normal 100W incandescent bulb with a simple lamp dimmer to control the heat output. It's more than sufficient for the job and much cheaper than a special infrared bulb.

i would personally be more comfortable with a bulb specifically made for reptiles but thanks for the suggestion

Re: Which heat light?

Posted: Mon Feb 22, 2016 3:52 pm
by alichamp
For daytime basking it makes no difference whether you get one specifically for reptiles or not. You can just use a normal spotlight or floodlight bulb from the hardware store (cheaper than a 'reptile' one anyway but same bulb). Wattage depends on your setup, the aim is just to get the right basking temp up the hot end. If your lamp sits on top of the cage 100w might be right unless it's really cold maybe 150w.

If you are talking about night time heating, options are purple moon light, red light, or ceramic heat emitter which give heat but no light. Any is fine, but CHEs are great, they cost more but last heaps longer and you can set it up with a thermostat that will make it turn on when the temp reaches the lowest temp you set and turn it off when it reaches the higher temp.