ceramic bulbs to heat instead of lights?

[SilverBlaze]

Greetings!

Last year, I hatched pheasant and quail, and I used red lights and black lights to heat the brooder. However, the brooder is in my room. The red lights were so bright it was hard to sleep, and the black lights were good, but they were too hot after awhile.

Has anyone used the ceramic bulbs you can get for reptiles? I know ZooMed sells a brand...they're available in different wattage, and they don't emit light, just heat. Has anyone tried these? Either way, do you think they would work? Please advise.

Thank you!

 

[Cindiloohoo]

Haven't tried them but I would think they'd be fine. Maybe someone with some experience will chime in in a second

 

[GardeNerd]

I have used ceramic, regular, and red lights. I had two different ceramic bulbs since I have a young desert tortoise that lived in the house until she was a three years old.

The ceramic bulbs are expensive and decrease in their heat emission and effectiveness with age. I kept a thermometer in brooder to make sure it was the temp I wanted. They work fine, but if you are like me, and I was only brooding chicks for a few months every few years, it would be hard to justify the expense of buying them for temporary a brooder. Since for a few weeks last spring, I had 3 brooders, I needed multiple heat lamps.


The two ceramic bulbs set me back almost $60.
On the other hand, my white light brooder lamp was about $3. at Lowes, and my red one $5.

 

[SilverBlaze]

Cool, thanks guys.

I wasn't sure, but I figured, never hurts to ask! >^_^< I think I'll stick with the black lights for now, but good to know if I decide to go more frequent with the hatching.