Red night heat lights okay?

[miguelcruzjr]

I was wondering if what I've been told about red light being invisible to leopard geckos is true. Will having a low watt red light on for night time viewing and not as a primary heat source (I use a uth) for a few hours a day cause unnecessary stress to my geckos?

this is my boy Poncho


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[Neon Aurora]

There is evidence that reptiles can see red lights, but if it's low wattage and isn't heating up the air too much, than I can't see it doing that much harm.

 

[Ruvik]

Sadly I would go against using a red light at night. While leopard geckos my not see the color red, they see the light in the form of a bright white light. By putting a red light in their tank at night it would cause them to think it's day time all the time. They also wouldn't have any escape time from the light at all. I would just not use the light at all. I find it would disturb them too much.

 

[Neon Aurora]

Ruvik, that's not true. A dim red light does not become a bright white light just because an animal doesn't see the color red (Edit: I originally hypothesized that leopard geckos can't see red light, but I was wrong). A light like this would not cause the animal that does not see red to think it's day time all the time. White light is a mix of the different wavelengths of light in the visible spectrum, which is simply not the case with a red light. Red light is very low frequency. Cite your sources for geckos seeing red light as bright white lights, or don't say things that aren't true.

I also prefer to not use lights, but I don't think it would be terribly detrimental to use a dim red light for night viewing (probably gets turned off when the viewer is done viewing since the OP said "for a few hours a day"). The only problem I could see is if it raises the temperatures in the enclosure too much.

Let's not forget about the presence of the moon. It's not like geckos live in 100% darkness in their natural habitat when it becomes night. A small bit of light is not harmful.

The insensitivity of rods to long-wavelength light has led to the use of red lights under certain special circumstances – for example, in the control rooms of submarines, in research laboratories, aircraft, or during naked-eye astronomy.[6]Under conditions where it is desirable to have both the photopic and scotopic systems active, red lights provide a solution. Submarines are dimly lit to preserve the night vision of the crew members working there, but the control room must be lit to allow crew members to read instrument panels. By using red lights, or wearing red goggles, the cones can receive enough light to provide photopic vision (namely the high-acuity vision required for reading). The rods are not saturated by the bright red light because they are not sensitive to long-wavelength light, so the crew members remain dark adapted.[7] Similarly, airplane cockpits use red lights so pilots can read their instruments and maps while maintaining night vision to see outside the aircraft.
Red lights are also often used in research settings. Many research animals (such as rats and mice) have limited photopic vision - as they have far fewer cone photoreceptors.[8] By using red lights, the animal subjects remain "in the dark" (the active period for nocturnal animals), but the human researchers, who have one kind of cone (the "L cone") that is sensitive to long wavelengths, are able to read instruments or perform procedures that would be impractical even with fully dark adapted (but low acuity) scotopic vision.[9] For the same reason, zoo displays of nocturnal animals often are illuminated with red light.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purkinje_effect
http://www.cis.rit.edu/people/faculty/montag/vandplite/pages/chap_9/ch9p1.html

Edit: I became interested in this topic and have been reading about it today. It appears that reptiles have 4 or 5 cone types (we have 3) so actually do see red and also many other colors that humans don't. My hypothesis that they don't see red was incorrect, and leopard geckos do see the red light. The red light looks red, not white (it wouldn't look white even if the geckos didn't see red). So based on more accurate evidence, I changed my mind. I agree with Ruvik and would not use a red light during the times when it's supposed to be dark for the gecko. Not because animals who don't see red see white instead, but because geckos actually can see red (unlike most mammals).

The quote I posted above is actually mostly for mammals, who typically have red-green color blindness. Only some primates (us) and marsupials have all three cone cell types. For a mammal that does not see red, the animal would see a difference in contrast detected by rods (so light or dark), but not a color.

Nocturnal geckos also have the ability to see light in dim conditions. They have much better eyesight than I thought they did!

How interesting. I had no idea that reptiles could see more colors than us! =)

Now what I'm wondering is how the light being colored affects an animal's circadian rhythm.

I apologize for jumping on you a little bit, Ruvik, but you should check your facts before you state them as such.

 

[miguelcruzjr]

Thank you for your responses Ruvik and Neon Aurora


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[randomsketcher]

Wow, I was wondering about red light and happened upon this post. It was interesting to read through