Lighting / Heating questions

[infernalis]

What I am trying to say is that Garter snakes are not tropical. I have literally found them in the snow (It's rare, but it does happen)

There would be no harm if you could maintain a floor temp around 70, but make sure their is a gradient, so the snake can thermoregulate.

These animals are used to sudden weather changes.

It's not like our four legged reptiles that need precise tropical conditions.

[Light of Dae]

You could use the heat pad at night n the bulb during the day.

Where do you live? I live in central Alberta, Canada. So I know about it getting cold at night.

All of my 17 garters were just fine when I was living in a house heated by wood stove, If we didn't wake up n stoke the fire it would get down to 12'c in the house n I just made sure I'd only feed them when it was warm in the house and that it stayed warm long enough to digest everything. They had heat pads on 24/7 but no basking light.
It's better now, in the house we just moved to, nice even heating

Point being they can do just fine getting little cool, worst that would happen is they may want to burmate n stop eating for a bit. However if they get to warm.. there is no coming back from that.

[Varanus]

You could use the heat pad at night n the bulb during the day.

Where do you live? I live in central Alberta, Canada. So I know about it getting cold at night.

North Texas, it's normally quite warm here even in winter but the weather is famously unpredictable. It can be in the seventies one day and freezing the next.

Also the garters I plan on getting are checkered garter snakes, which live in substantially warmer regions than the more northern varieties.

I guess now I am just trying to figure out a use for the heat pad since I already attached it. I'd figured that using a thermostat for the heat pad would keep it from getting too warm even with the low wattage light bulb.

[infernalis]

run the heat pad at night when the lamp is off..

I live in New York, I keep a very wide variety of Thamnophis species, including Snakes from Mexico and Texas.

Last winter we had a storm, it knocked out all my power for a whole day, and my garter snakes all did just fine.

I had one small propane space heater and that was it.

[d_virginiana]

I have a space heater in my reptile room. Works great for keeping the ambient temp at a good place, and I can just use supplemental heating/lighting for my tropical frog and as a basking area and UVB source for my turtle. I don't use any supplemental heat for my snakes. Usually just turning the tanks perpendicular to the space heater creates a pretty good heat gradient over the tank.

[ConcinusMan]

Having a thermostat that tells you the temp. is okay but a thermostat that controls and monitors the temp. is best.
May I suggest.
Amazon.com: Hydrofarm MTPRTC Digital Thermostat For Heat Mats: Patio, Lawn & Garden

I highly recommend using Hyrdofarm heat mats too. More mat for the money, they don't get as hot as reptile mats which is perfect for garters, more flexible and durable. But you won't find them in reptile supply or at pet stores. They can be found at garden supply stores.

Adjust the timing every couple of weeks to more or less match your natural day length.

Unless of course you want to trick them into thinking it's a different time of year. Right now I got my non-brumating snakes on a 13 hour cycle but I keep adding 15 minutes or so every other week. I don't want them thinking it's time to brumate. I want them to think the opposite. That the days are getting longer, not shorter. Shrinking day length could trigger them to go off food and prepare to brumate. At least, that's the effect it has on my local snakes. They start congregating around the den areas, and northwesterns start fall mating, when the days get shorter than the nights (autumn solstice) regardless of the temperature. It could still be in the 90's but if the days are getting short, they respond accordingly.

[ConcinusMan]

Just heard on the news that the govt. is forcing the phasing out of incandescent household light bulbs. Sometime in 2014, their plan is that you won't even be able to buy them. You'll only be able to get compact florescents. That sucks. I guess it's going to be florescent tubes and ceramic heat emitters/undertank heaters from then on for me. I don't think it's going to apply to the pet supply business so you'll probably still be able to get those expensive UV reptile bulbs for your lizards. And then there's halogens for security lighting and whatnot. I think it's just the regular 40, 60, 100 watt bulbs that are going the way of the dinosaur.