Ceramic Heat Lamps and sleeping habits

[jmagill]

This is the first time I have used a ceramic heat emitter. I am impressed.

We leave a light on all day and when we turn it out, they quiet down and go to sleep. This is great because they are in the house
and would disturb our sleep. Pretty vocal within minutes of the light going on.

 

[blake101]

Could you tell me where you got your ceramic heater, sounds like a good idea.
Thanks.

 

[jmagill]

I got it from Amazon.com . You can get them from most big pet stores I think.( just live to far from the big city so I do the internet thing)

 

[gabbyscritters]

I got mine from Amazon too. Overall I like it.

Pros: It does not make light which is good for in the house and the chicks or chickens seem to sleep more with less light at night. I still keep a night light or light on over stove on in the kitchen, chicks seem to like a little light.

Cons: It is harder to tell if the heater is out, no lack of light to let you know that bulb is out.
When using in cold climates it does not seem to make as much heat as a regular type bulb? Maybe it just does not distribute the heat as wide? Our house, especially the kitchen gets cold and in the cold winter spells I still switched to a red bulb for a while for new chicks to keep a more consistant higher heat.
Outdoors in real cold it would not keep up as well as a regular but it worked good to make extra heat for older birds. It is supossed to be less a fire hazzard which is good.
They are expensive but are too last a long time.

 

[eponagirl]

I used a heat emitter for my chicks last year and loved it. I kept checking the temp constantly anyway, so would notice if the temp goes down then there may be something wrong with the light...but no problems. It helps them get used to natural light cycles and are not freaked out like when you start turning the red light off.

Try www.reptilesupply.com for great pricing and also get the better lamp guard too... looks like this:

 

[jmagill]

An update!

One week and this heater is working great.

They would do a lot of talking when we shut down the lights at night at first. 5 -10 minutes of pure noise.
Now they know that the boogie man is not going to get them and they settle down with almost no noise.

There is now not much sleeping during the day, just lots of playing and they sleep most of the night.
We have not been disturbed by any late night parties like we were with the regular brooder heat lamp.

 

[krants]

I am using the same kind. I got a 100w ceramic heat emitter from Petco. Cost me 40 bucks but it was well worth it. The chicks are up all day with it and a 50w heat bulb, then when the light goes out they also make hella noise for 5-10 minutes and finally sleep. It's great. The red bulb all night was killing me.