If you ask me, every reptile needs a clear day/night cycle. This basically means your animal should have light during the day, and no light at night. However, specific lighting isn't necessarily a requirement for corn snakes. It's commonly agreed upon that corn snakes are crepuscular (most often active at dawn and dusk). Sunrises and sunsets naturally do not let off much, if any ultraviolet rays, meaning UVB (ultraviolet B) lighting is definitely not a necessity. With that said, many people have noticed positive changes and effects when their corn snakes are given this UVB bulb.

​

​

​

The second debate, however, comes in when dealing with albino corn snakes. Albinism cause animals' eyes and skin to be more sensitive to light, so it's possible UVB actually irritates your albino corn snake, more than benefit him or her.

​

My personal suggestion for this would be to stay on the safe side, and keep UVB off of albino corn snakes, at least for now, since we know it's not required, but there are still questions as to whether it does harm the more sensitive morphs.

​

Anyway, yes, give your corn snake some lighting. Whether this is done by adding an LED panel or fluorescent light bulb on top of your enclosure, or simply giving your snake indirect window lighting. Just giving the animal some way of telling night from day is great.

​

Using bright lights at night is also something I highly suggest you avoid. Even if that red bulb is marked as a "nighttime" bulb, reptiles can, in fact, see this, and are probably not appreciative of it.