Question/Story

[RachelRiot]

I do have a question but the events leading to this question were pretty entertaining so I thought I would share.

I am going to be on bulb number 6 for Brody's cage when I go to the store and get a new one tonight. Every once in a while when I am misting the bulbs pop. Well that happened yesterday and I called my husband to the room to take the light off of our cricket breeding bin for Brody and when he was unplugging it he somehow knocked over the bin of crickets. There were about 75-100 large crickets in there.

Of course they all came rushing out of the bin and all over our reptile room. Well we have brand new wood floors and they are super slick. The crickets could not go anywhere. It was like the clear packing tape to them. They were running but in one spot. There were crickets everywhere from the initial tipping of the bin but they were all running in place.

It was hysterical. My four year old really got a kick out of it. Luckily it helped us get them all gathered back up. We think we lost almost all of the crix eggs we had in the bin though from the tipping.


My question is how do you keep the heat bulbs from popping when you mist?

 

[sandrachameleon]

I dont mist cricket buckets and I dont use heat lamps on crickets (they are in a warm room).
In cham cages I dont mist towards the heat bulbs. I use regular household tungsten incandescent bulbs, which are less prone to busting (certainly a bit of mist doesnt break them)

 

[RachelRiot]

Thank you. I will get those today and try them. The heat ones from the pet store burst so easy. I am afraid I am going to get hurt one of these times.

My reptile room where the crix are was kinda chilly so thats why we had one in there.

 

[ChromaChameleons]

Like Sandra.. I prefer the $0.50 household incandescents over the $5.00 specialty bulbs.

 

[BocaJan]

Rachel, if you live in Florida why would be buying any special kind of heat bulb? Just use a regular 60w bulb like you screw into a lamp.

 

[RachelRiot]

I didnt know that I could use those. I have snakes and stuff too and I just always bought the ones made for them. lol Now I know and will invest in $5.00 worth and not need to stock up for a long while.

Arent these the kind of bulbs they are trying to get rid of? I thought they had some new bulb out that they were switching to. Its less energy or something.

 

[SaZzY]

This story is so funny. I would have been terrified im scared of crickets and am practically trembling feeding my cham ( silly i know just scared of crawly things )

 

[ChromaChameleons]

The specialty reptile bulbs are just fancy incandescent bulbs with a reflector built in the backside. If you use a dome fixture , any household incandescent will do the job.
The new CF bulbs are much more energy efficient , but don't produce the same amount of heat.
It would be nice if a manufacturer could produce and market a CF bulb with a ceramic heater as a single unit . Such as a 10 watt CF coil in the middle with an external circular ceramic heat element, around the light. That would provide the visible light to attract the cham and the heat to provide the basking temp all in one energy efficient unit.

 

[BocaJan]

Don't get the squiggly less energy bulb, get the regular old light bulb. They give off heat.

 

[summoner12]

You pay for the fancy packaging.

Don't get the squiggly less energy bulb, get the regular old light bulb. They give off heat.

You mean like the one pictured above?

Yes, the 'reptile' heat lamp is the same as a normal hose hold lamp. BUT do keep in mind the point of the lamp is for heating your cham. So using a lamp that is focused is a good idea. A focused lamp will generate a spot of heat, your cham will find this spot and bask. because the energy is focused it will take less energy to operate. This is possible by using a lower wattage lamp than you might need if using the hose hold bulb shown in the picture above. I would spend the money on a flood lamp at Home Depot or Lowes.

This might only concern someone with a lot of cages and a lot of heat lamps, but every bit helps. I try to consume as little power as possible... no im not a hippy just don't want huge electric bills