IR light in winter... An experiment

• Feb 2, 2017

• #1

M

milhazes

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17

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Portugal

Its been very cold and I had the hot hide set to 34 °C with a heat mat. My two geckos were very inactive latelly leaving the hide only when needed. They are not in Brumation, but something like in "eco" mode, so I bought an IR bulb despite all the things I read that they are not needed... Decided to film them during the night with an IR webcam I have... For my surprise, my older female basked herself on top of the hide for the 1st time and the male (7 months) started to eat like crazy. They were active for at least half the night. Here is the edited film...

Leopard Geckos under IR Lamp - YouTube

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• Feb 2, 2017

• #2

Neon Aurora

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1,376

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New Mexico

By IR bulb, do you mean red light or like a ceramic bulb?

 

• Feb 2, 2017

• #3

M

milhazes

New Member

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17

Location

Portugal

Low visible emitting red light with near infrared (the red glass one). I'm using a 50 Watt one. Ceramic is better... No visible light, less watts, but I wanted to be able to shoot some night movies too.

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• Feb 2, 2017

• #4

Neon Aurora

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New Mexico

Personally, I think geckos can benefit from overhead heat in the winter if the room they are in tends to get pretty cold. Although, I also don't think it's harmful for them to go into a less active state for the winter. In nature, their environment gets somewhat cold, down to about 10 C (50 F). I doubt most houses get much colder than that. I think it can be done either way.

I would also think a ceramic bulb would be much better. Red light will probably interfere with their circadian rhythm.

 

• Feb 2, 2017

• #5

M

milhazes

New Member

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17

Location

Portugal

Temperature inside my house is arround 17 °C. Yes, ceramic should be better. I'm thinking about using one. These little monsters kind of brumated from November till December. Now that they started to eat again since January, I'm turning the heat up a bit

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• Feb 2, 2017

• #6

Neon Aurora

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1,376

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New Mexico

Yeah, I think that's cold enough to use overhead heat. I would definitely go with a ceramic bulb, though. Having proper darkness at night is so important to these guys.