# heat lamps / red light & rat sleep cycles



## noncewords (Jul 24, 2013)

Does red light interfere with rat sleep cycles?

The room I have my rats in is rather chilly, and I don't like the idea of just leaving a space heater on unattended- plus, that seems like an expensive solution. I've looked at the K&H small animal heating pad, but I wonder if a red heat lamp would be an easier (and possibly safer) option for heating part of the cage a bit.

I know that rats need regular periods of dark to avoid messing with their sleep cycles, but I also know that red light doesn't seem to interfere with reptile and bird sleep cycles, and interferes much less with human melatonin production than other lights. Any opinions on whether this would make sense as a heat source for the ratties?


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## Finnebon (Jul 15, 2013)

I hope someone here knows. I'd be interested in this too. The room I'm in gets very cold compared to the rest of the house for some reason, and sometimes I even like to leave the window open a little for air and coolness and just have a bunch of blankets on the bed in a cold room. I can't do this now since the rats are in my bedroom, and I especially worry about Aoife since she's hairless/double rex. If I could set up a little heat lamp for them near their favorite sleeping spot, I'd feel much better.


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## nanashi7 (Jun 5, 2013)

I don't know the technical side of things at all, but I do know that we recently purchased a heat lamp for our bunnies. Winter is coming and they live in the "garage" -- its insulated and meant to be a man-cave, but has no heat in and of itself. 

The heat lamp is pretty inaffective for wire cages and pets, to be honest. Your best bet would be to get one from a hardware store instead of one meant for reptiles but it still will be fairly useless. A space heater might be best, pointed towards their cage. 



For a guess, I would assume the light would mess with your rats though. More than just sleep cycles, rats can get angry/depressed what-have you with too much light.


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## noncewords (Jul 24, 2013)

My bet is that the angry/depressed effects are also related to melatonin production, so a red light probably wouldn't be an issue... but it looks like I won't need to worry about that. I've found ceramic heat emitters which still work in light sockets, but produce no light: http://www.amazon.com/Zoo-Med-Repti...=1384798374&sr=8-1&keywords=heat+lamp+ceramic

Now I just have to make an enclosure for it which will prevent ratties from burning themselves on it even if they climb onto the top of the cage. Overall, though, I feel safer about a heat source that isn't inside the cage where it's chewable. I'll test the temperature produced by this at different distances, and if folks here are interested, let y'all know how far away seems to be correct for adding just a bit of heat.


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## Aether (Mar 7, 2013)

I'm definitely interested, my room gets quite cold. Keep us up to date!


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## bazmonkey (Nov 8, 2013)

http://www.ratbehavior.org/RatVision.htm#ColorPerception

Rats can't see red, so they shouldn't be able to see those lamps.

I do agree that they wouldn't work very well with wire cages, though. How cold is "rather chilly"? Are you sure the rats need it? If the entire room is getting very cold, you'd be better off looking into heating the room itself rather than giving the rats a hot spot.

EDIT: a small radiator might be a good solution. Since it doesn't have moving parts and doesn't use an exposed coil to do the heating, it's much less likely to cause a fire. They also tend to come with thermostats, and since they heat gradually, are more consistent.


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## ratsaremylife (Nov 5, 2013)

Maybe using a chicken heat lamp? I have a wood stove for central heating for my rats. They are where we are most. They are plenty warm, maybe even hot! Is it possible for rats to get sluggish in heat? Because my rats are lazy and may be hot?


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## bazmonkey (Nov 8, 2013)

ratsaremylife said:


> Is it possible for rats to get sluggish in heat? Because my rats are lazy and may be hot?


Yes. How hot does it get?


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## cagedbirdsinging (May 28, 2012)

I don't like the idea of heat lamps for a rat cage.

Space heaters have come a LONG way in terms of safety. Many of them shut off automatically when the unit senses sudden changes that might pose a fire hazard. I'd vote for a nice space heater.


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