opinions on heat buld wattage - Page 1

Greetings everyone,

I was just wandering if anyone had an opinion on what watt heat bulb to use for puppies?  theres 25, 50, 75, and 100.  I was thinking about the possibility of to hot of a bulb and burning the pups up.  anyway any opinions will help.

thanks

mine is a 250, and the fixture has an adjustable arm with a clamp on the end.   this helps regulate distance of heat source from pups.

I use a 250W infra-red bulb, ceramic holder with protective grate, (poultry lamp) also mounted on adjustable arm, positioned in a corner to allow Mom & pups to move away from heat. My whelping box is in the somewhat warm (70F) basement, enclosed sides for no draft, so I keep the bulb up at least 40" from the floor of the box.

SS

heat mats are better. search online, there are special heat mats for dogs that come with a chew proof cord. as long as ambient temp in the room is adequate for the pups, they can crawl off and on to the mat as needed. with heat lamps you often see pups scattered in the whelping box, meaning its way too hot. you still want the natural behaviour of them bunching up in a puppy pile and be quiet (if they are noisy they are usually too cold even if in a pile), which they often do not do under a lamp. there have also been some concerns raised of the constant exposure to these high power lamps possibly causing cateracts later in life. If you sit in front of such a lamp with your eyes closed for just afew minutes you can feel and see the power that light gives off, even through closed eye lids. the pups are exposed to that 24/7 though, not just a few minutes.

Good point. I am probably going to use a heat mat from now on. They aren't too expensive, come in several sizes, but my old one finally died after 15 years so I went the easy route the last couple litters and bought a heat lamp at Walmart.

Time to upgrade.

SS