BLUE TONGUE SKINKS

Hello!

I have a Northern BTS, and where I live, it's starting to get a bit chilly. My room tends to get cold easily for some reason, and has been dropping into the 60s at night. Northerns aren't supposed to get under 70, so I would prefer to have her tank be ideal temps. I am wary of getting an under tank heater because she burrows under her substrate a lot, right down to the glass, so I would worry about burns.

I was wondering if a red or blue heat lamp would disrupt her sleep at all? Which one would be better in terms of not disturbing her at night? I would love to have a blue one because that would be very pretty, but if a red one is better for her, I'll get that. This would be a really convenient fix for me because I know red and blue bulbs are readily available for my kind of lamp.

If it produces light , it's not appropriate for a BTS.

My gang of skinks & dragons are all housed in the living area , and with us most the time , they do seem to be accustomed to the ambient light levels from TV , my big 17inch laptop and kitchen light. Never pitch black even when I got to bed as light from a street light about 100m away comes in the kitchen window.

Thanks for the response! I guess I'll try to get my hands on a ceramic heat emitted. I still want the temp to drop at night. I want the ambient temp to be 70-80, and I have a 40 gallon breeder tank. Any recommendations on what wattage would be best?

Low wattage should be fine, but if you're targeting specific temps, outfit the CHE with a lamp dimmer so you can control its exactly heat output.

You don't have to worry if temps go below 70, but he/she may go into brumation. I brumate mine at 62-65 from November to mid February as I breed them. They are very tolerant, so long as there is not a sudden drop in temp. Ceramic heat emitter or a night bulb would do fine, but I might add I have never used nighttime heat for any of my reptiles, (except the snakes in temp controlled racks) and night temps in my apartment hover around 65 in winter. Never had temp-related issues.

if you aren't planning on breeding the skink , it's not necessary to brummate it . Neither of my 8 yr old Eastern BTs (who are brother & sister) have ever brummated.
Never gets colder than 24 deg C in our climate controlled 24/7 365d / yr home.

True, but some will brumate on their own, at least here in the Northeast sensing seasonal changes. Mine always did even before I decided to breed them. Cooler seasonal nighttime temps seemed to trigger this.