Hi. I am a teacher and want to bring my bearded dragon up to school with me this coming year as our clasped. However, I need to find a way to keep the heat lamp from being assessable to the children (I work in a public preK in a daycare center and so I can't have the heat lamps anywhere that the children can touch). Does anyone have any ideas on how to accomplish this? I just have a glass 40 tank with a mesh top. The heat lamp currently sits onto of the mesh top. Thanks so much.
You could use a lamp stand so that the heat bulb is secured to that. Would the kids be able to get close enough to the tank to really get to the heat bulb if it was resting on the lid?
It will be difficult to secure the lighting away from kids in a setup like that. Your best bet might be to either install it in a cabinet or build a custom enclosure out of a cabinet so you can close/lock an upper portion containing the lighting. Second best bet might be to use an adjustable lamp stand to hang the fixture from (and tie it somehow to secure it) and install a cage over the bulb to protect it. It's not a guarantee that the fixture or cage won't get hot enough to cause burns if touched though.
No, they won't be able to touch the heat lamps unless they climb up next to the tank. However, my boss is being difficult about it. It may. not be worth the effort to figure something out and I may end up keeping him at home but I am required to have some kind of a pet in my room.
Does anyone know if it is possible to build some kind of a lid that can have the heating bulb inside the tank or would that be to dangerous for my beardie? I think I may end of with a fish. Fish aren't as fun and I hate cleaning the water.
Lots of us build our own custom enclosures. If you build your own, you can mount all of your lighting inside the tank!
The most common is a 4x2x2. With 2 feet of height, you have plenty of space to mount the uvb bulb and the heat bulb inside, which just wires coming out of the back. There are a couple of posts in the DIY section and also some videos on youtube to give you an idea.
You can have the bulbs inside the tank, but it requires sufficient space. I advise at least 12'' between the basking lights and the main basking surface, and the lights should stay well out of reach of your dragon. Perhaps it would be possible to build some sort of collar along the top that would hold the lights. If it's a top opening enclosure though, you'd need to rig it so it wouldn't be heavy to lift and the lights would easily lift off with the lid.
I like the idea of keeping the dragon at home --- little kids can get into to much trouble and things can go wrong real fast ------------ sorry just my opinion !
Karrie