Does My Corn Snake Need A Heat Lamp on Its Cage?

Does my pet corn snake need a heat lamp on its cage? This is a common question among first-time snake keepers, and rightfully so. Creating the right cage conditions is one of the best things you can do to ensure the long-term health of your pet snake. So, do you need to use a heat lamp on the cage? The short answer: Like all reptiles, corn snakes need some kind of supplemental heat when housed in captivity. You can provide this heat in a number of ways, including specialized heat lamps, mats and tapes. Which method you use is a secondary concern. The most important thing is to create a proper temperate range within your snakes cage. So thats the short answer. Now, lets take a deeper dive into this topic! Adding a Heat Lamp to Your Corn Snake Habitat Getting back to the question at hand. Does your corn snake need a heat lamp? The answer is that it definitely needs some kind of supplemental heat within its cage. The idea here is to create a temperature range or gradient within the snakes cage, as well discuss below. And one of the ways to accomplish that goal is by using a heat lamp. Lets start with the basics. Snakes and other reptiles are ectothermic. That means they cannot warm their bodies from within, the way you and I can. They rely on their environment to provide the temperatures needed to sustain life. Image: One of many heat lamps available for reptiles. Source: ZooMed In the wild, corn snakes can bask in the sun or lie on top of a warm rock to heat their bodies as necessary. In captivity, however, they dont have access to natural sunlight and sun-warmed basking areas. So you have to provide an alternative source of heat for your snake. You have to make sure the snake has a proper temperature range so that it can warm up or cool down as needed. One of the ways to accomplish that is by using a heat lamp. The idea here is simple. You place the lamp on top of the snakes cage, off to one side, and adjust the power as needed to get the right temperature. Ideal Temperatures for Pantherophis Guttatus Okay, so you need a heat lamp or mat or something for your corn snake cage, to create the ideal temperature range. But what is the ideal range? While experts vary on this subject, most agree that corn snakes can thrive in a habitat with a temperature range of around 70F to 88F (thats 21 31 degrees celsius). Ideally, the cool side of the cage shouldnt fall below 70F, and the warmer basking side shouldnt get hotter than 88F. Personally, I aim for a corn snake temperature range of about 72F to 86F (or 22C to 30C). That seems to work well. Placing a heat lamp or mat on one side of the cage allows your corn snake to move back and forth, in order to thermoregulate. In the wild, snakes can retreat into the shade or underground to escape heat, whenever they get too hot. Similarly, they can usually seek out the sun or a warm surface area in times when they feel too cool. Your goal is to duplicate this in captivity, by using a heat lamp or some other kind of supplemental heating device. Once youve done that, you can monitor your corn snakes behavior to see if you need to adjust the temperature range. For example, if your snake spends all of its time on the cool side, the warmer side might be a bit too hot. You could then use a rheostat to dial down the output of your heat lamp or other heating device. Similarly, you might find that your snake spends all of its time hugging the heat and rarely (or never) travels over to the cooler side of the cage. In that case, you might need to bump up the ambient or background temperature. It will take some trial and error to get it right. But dont over think it. If you follow the general temperature guidelines above, you will be meeting your corn snakes needs as far as heating goes. The Difference Between UV and Heat Lamps Its also important to understand the difference between heating and UV lightbulbs for reptiles. On one side, we have the incandescent and infrared heat lamps that are specifically designed to warm up the snakes cage. They dont give off any UVB light. Thats not their purpose. Their purpose is to supply heat. On the other side, we have UV-spectrum light bulbs that are specifically designed to give off UVA and (more importantly) UVB rays. And then there are multipurpose light bulbs that emit heat and UVB rays. Some reptiles cannot live without UVB lighting. Most lizards fall into this category. Snakes, on the other hand, can survive without UVB lighting but they certainly benefit from having it. But they absolutely need some kind of heat. I encourage you to use a UVB light on your corn snake cage for several reasons. For one thing, it makes the habitat look more attractive and brings out the beautiful colors of your snake. It also creates a day and night cycle, which is important for overall health. Additionally, a growing body of research showing that snakes in captivity can benefit from UVB lighting. And that makes perfect sense. After all, they get exposure to UVB light from the sun when they live in the wild. So why not try to duplicate that in captivity? Other Ways to Warm the Cage So weve answered the core question: Does a corn snake need to have a heat lamp on its cage? The answer is maybe. It definitely needs some kind of supplemental heat, so it can enjoy an appropriate temperature gradient. Incandescent and infrared heat lamps are one of several ways to accomplish that goal. But there are other ways to go about it as well. You could also use a special kind of heat mat or flexwatt tape placed under the cage. This allows you to apply heat to your corn snake habitat from underneath, rather than from above. But the goal here is the same. You want your corn snake to have a cooler and warmer side to its habitat, so it can move back and forth as needed. A word of caution though. You have to be careful when putting heat mats or tape under a cage. If the device runs too hot, it can melt plastic or crack glass. So I would recommend using a rheostat of some kind to control the output. Or you can skip the under-tank method entirely and just use a heat lamp for your corn snakes habitat. Heat lamps are well suited for cages that have some kind of screen lid on top. All you have to do is place the incandescent or infrared bulb within an appropriate dome or hood, and then place it on one side of the cage. You can measure the temperature inside the cage with an adhesive stick-on thermometer strip, or even better by using a temperature gun. But were wandering into other topics here. I think weve covered the main question at hand, which is: Does my corn snake need a heat lamp? If you still have questions on this subject, feel free to drop them in the comment box below. I would also encourage you to download my corn snake care guide, which is available in PDF format. You can find it through the link provided at the top of this page.