# Light Burns



## Nero Egernia (Apr 22, 2016)

Another "noobish" question. I just recently got some new enclosures and they have heat lights on the inside, fitted to the wall of the enclosure. All my current enclosures at the moment are partial mesh tops where I place the lights on top of the mesh. I am wondering how common is it for a reptile to come into contact with the heat lights and consequently burn themselves? Would a light cage be a solution to this? Or would they have sense to stay away from the light?


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## Stompsy (Apr 22, 2016)

Cage the light. Unfortunately they are not clever enough to stay away from the light and it's really not worth the risk. 


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## pinefamily (Apr 22, 2016)

With pythons you need to cage the light. The only ones of our lizards that have caged lights are our Mertens', as they tend to hug the light/cage.


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## Burgo89 (Apr 22, 2016)

Always Cage the light, the cage still gets warm but not nearly enough to burn.


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## pythoninfinite (Apr 22, 2016)

And if you can, move the heat source to the top of the cage - if it's on the wall, the animal can drape itself over the light cage and still overheat or get burned. The top surface of the light cage will still get very hot.

Jamie


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## Nero Egernia (Apr 22, 2016)

Thanks for the replies everyone. It'll probably be a while yet until something goes in the enclosures, so until then I will try and modify it. I was planning on housing either monitors or pythons in there, but haven't quite decided. If pythons, then I might consider taking the lights out altogether and replacing with heat cords to try and conserve power. Only just not overly sure on how they work.


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## Smittiferous (Apr 22, 2016)

If you do keep the lights, it's really easy to make your own mesh guards using rolls of wire gutter guard from Bunnings rather than paying up to $40 each guard from a shop.


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## Stompsy (Apr 22, 2016)

Smittiferous said:


> If you do keep the lights, it's really easy to make your own mesh guards using rolls of wire gutter guard from Bunnings rather than paying up to $40 each guard from a shop.



*raises eyebrow*

Really easy?


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## Smittiferous (Apr 22, 2016)

It is when somebody else is doing it...


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## Stompsy (Apr 22, 2016)

Smittiferous said:


> It is when somebody else is doing it...



Most tedious job ever. But cost effective. Or so I was told whilst completing the task and grumbling about it.


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## pinefamily (Apr 22, 2016)

Oshkii said:


> Thanks for the replies everyone. It'll probably be a while yet until something goes in the enclosures, so until then I will try and modify it. I was planning on housing either monitors or pythons in there, but haven't quite decided. If pythons, then I might consider taking the lights out altogether and replacing with heat cords to try and conserve power. Only just not overly sure on how they work.


Heat cord is better with terrestrial pythons; arboreal pythons are better suited to heat from above, globe, CHE, panel.


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