Will they burn themselves?

[DoctorCosmonaut]

If you have an anole or gecko in an enclosure where the heat lamps are just handing down in it, will they burn themselves on them? Or are they smarter then that? Its a fair sized and tall table, but I don't want to add them if they are going to be fried.

 

[Tom]

Sometimes they don't. Often they do. I wouldn't risk it.

 

[Kristina]

They CAN. Probably they wouldn't, but it is a possibility. We have all seen where Iguanas haven't known well enough to get away from the heat and burning themselves badly, even to death.

The safest thing would be to make a "cage" out of some PVC coated hardware cloth (available at Home Depot and other hardware stores) to go around the bulb and keep them from getting as close. The PVC also won't absorb quite as much heat as bare metal would.

 

[exoticsdr]

If they can, they will. That's Murphy's Law of reptile keeping.

 

[Kristina]

Horses, too

 

[DoctorCosmonaut]

Argh... Well now I've got to either engineer something... or more likely, be to lazy and not get any ^_^

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Thanks you all for letting me know, appreciate it

 

[EricIvins]

If you give a Reptile that does bask a basking spot that is relative to the size of the animal, you won't have problems.......

Give a 4ft Iguana a small basking spot, expect burns........

It's a fairly simple concept - A 4ft Iguana would need a basking area spread out over at least 3ft, so the heat energy is evenly distributed.......That, coupled with low wattage bulbs and the basking area close enough for the heat energy to work efficiently, results in a safe basking area with no burns........Simple 30-45 watt Indoor Floods work the best.......

 

[DoctorCosmonaut]

Well, I can assure you that the lamp is much bigger than the anole But I mean what if they jump and land on it?

 

[Floof]

It's very possible that a lizard with the means to reach the lamp will burn themselves on it eventually, whether it's by bumping into or sitting against it, or attaching itself to the bulb to warm up. It's a problem with any animal that can reach the bulb... For example, some snakes will wrap themselves around an exposed bulb for the warmth, even though the extreme heat of the bulb's surface burns them.

If you get anoles or geckos or any other similarly small, arboreal lizard and put it in the enclosure with the bulb exposed, sooner or later, one is going to jump/climb/sit on the bulb/fixture and burn itself on it. exoticsdr described it very well: Murphy's Law of reptile keeping. What can go wrong, will go wrong, and the circumstances you're describing are just way, way too tempting for mean ol' Murphy!

 

[DoctorCosmonaut]

Hah yeah I can see that. Does anyone have picture examples of some protective heat lamp enclosures/cages they have rigged up?

 

[Kristina]

I don't - but really all you need is the mesh and some cable ties.