Basking light went out this morning..How long until?

so I am freaking out because my heat lamp blew out this morning and now I cant get a new bulb in until I am off in 8 hours..

I have to wake up pretty early to get to work and unfortunately, the pet stores aren't open by then. Will my baby bearded dragon be ok? He is a few months old and the house temperature when I left was at 76 degrees F (live in San Diego, so its bound to get warmer).

I refrained from feeding him crickets because I knew it would case impaction if he can't digest. But I am wondering if this situation is dire enough for me to have to leave work to get him a new bulb??

I am very new at this, he is my first beardie and I have only had him a month so I know for next time to have spares. Please just let me know if he will be ok for 8 hours without heat during the day?

Will be fine.... your beardie will still bask (under the UV if it's still warm) and he''ll be none the worse for it.

kingofnobbys":1nc8eyy9 said:

Will be fine.... your beardie will still bask (under the UV if it's still warm) and he''ll be none the worse for it.

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Thank You!

Yes, he'll be fine if your house is that warm.

For future reference, you never need a "reptile specific" basking bulb, not ever, only your UVB tube must be a reptile specialty light. You can use regular, household, halogen lightbulbs as his basking bulb, as long as they are bright white or clear, and not "frosted" white or colored, like yellow, blue, etc. I've been using normal, household, halogen indoor flood bulbs as my basking bulbs for the last 6 or 7 years, when I finally did the research and realized that if you're buying bright white "reptile basking bulbs", such as the ZooMed Intense Basking Spot bulbs (in the white and black boxes), which are very good basking bulbs, you are paying $10+ for exactly the same bulb as a halogen indoor flood bulb like you can buy at Walmart, Lowes, or Home Depot for half the price, if not less.

Just recently, as an FYI, in the past 2 months I've purchased several halogen indoor flood bulbs at Walmart in their "Clearance Aisles" for anywhere from $0.25 to $2 a piece, depending on the wattage and brand, which is usually either GE or Phillips. I've purchased anywhere from 30 watts, 40 watts, 48 watts, 65 watts, 75 watts, 90 watts, 100 watts, etc. and I keep them on hand for future custom enclosures I build. I typically use a single 90 or 100 watt indoor flood bulb over the basking spot and then a second indoor flood bulb over the Cool Side that is very low wattage, as my custom enclosures are 4'x3'x2', and need a 30 or 40 watt bulb over the Cool Side to keep the temp around 80 degrees. So the bottom line is, if your basking bulb ever blows out, you can grab a normal 100 watt halogen lightbulb and pop it in.

You should be fine. Just get a new bulb asap