when my heat lamp goes out at night my ball python is only left with a heat mat and a cave over the mat. the room its in is open plan and will get even colder over winter. will the mat and cave be enought to keep it warm and if i put an infrared bulb in and keep it on all the time will the snake still work out night and day or will it think its nightime constantly?
You should be fine, ball pythons don't need a heat lamp or light of any sort. They are nocturnal anyway. All they need is the heat pad and their hide on top, which is what you have done. I suggest buying a thermometer or a temp gun to find out the temp of his basking spot. If he gets too got he can get burned easily from the heat pad. Or if he gets too cold, he can die and he will also have problems digesting food and can result in death as well.
as long as the enclosure doesn 't drop below seventy degrees at night you should do fine. I am assuming you are talking about a under tank heater when you say heat mat. you can also purchase what is called a nocturnal heat lamp, tank size will determine what wattage bulb you need. these bulbs are perfect for night heating, they put off a red color they are not bright they just heat. you can also purchase ceramic heaters that screw into light hoods like a bulb. they are kinda expensive though. if you are using a household heating pad for heat change it to a UTH they are made to fit just one side of the glass tank, once again you need to know the gallon size of the tank. hope this helps/UTH's can be bought at your reptile pet shop
You might want to turn off the bulb and keep the heat pad on at night.
