Any reptile fans out there?

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FireBrewer

FireBrewer

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We bought a leopard gecko the other day along with the 10g aquarium/terrarium/whatever, thermometer, day and night lights and an stick-on under-the-tank heater. Having trouble getting the thing to stay above 75F. Any suggestions? What to buy? What not to buy?

Thanks.
 
Please ditch the daylight(unless it's not a heat lamp), they are super bright and can damage little gecko eyeballs. Just get a ceramic heating element with a thermostat, it will provide all the heat necessary.


_
 
I agree with wildwest, get rid of the day light. Since they are nocturnal they don’t need the light and it can hurt their eyes. If you want a viewing light use a low wattage bulb and keep it on 12 hrs a day. My recommendation would be either ceramic heat element or a radiant heat panel paired with a rheostat to keep a constant temp. By the way what’s the ambient temp of the room? When I kept snakes I used to keep the "reptile room" at around 76 degrees in case a heating element failed and I was gone. You should also have (if you don’t) a hide on the hot side (86-90 deg F) of the terrarium with some moist moss or coconut coir inside for shedding or chillin purposes. If you have any other husbandry questions you can PM me and I can go into more detail for you.

Ryan
 
Do you have any idea of the humidity in the tank?

Keeping the humidity in the proper range will help keep the temp stable.

Is the tank an open screened top?

Covering the majority of the top, and still alowing some airflow, will help also to hold the temps stable inside the tank.

And yes, ditch the daylight lamp. LG's don't need the UVB. Use either a ceramic, Infra red, or Higher wattage Night lamp.

What size heating pad are you using?

I find that a 10+ gallon tank needs the 18" pad at minimum to provide enough heat.


I am currently working on a new 100g Paludarium for my community of Firebelly toads, tree frogs, Anoles, and Golden Geckos (when they become available).
 
Congrats! +1 to the ceramic heater.

Our Bearded Dragon of 8 years died last month. Cool pet, loved to run around the floor hunting for spiders.
 
Tbone66 said:
By the way what’s the ambient temp of the room?
Click to expand...

72F or so.

You should also have (if you don’t) a hide on the hot side (86-90 deg F) of the terrarium with some moist moss or coconut coir inside for shedding or chillin purposes.
Click to expand...

Have a hiding place with moist moss, hides there most of the day.

If you have any other husbandry questions you can PM me and I can go into more detail for you.
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Awesome, thanks!

GilaMinumBeer said:
Do you have any idea of the humidity in the tank?
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50% right now, trying to get it lower.

Is the tank an open screened top?
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Yup. Gonna address that next.

And yes, ditch the daylight lamp. LG's don't need the UVB. Use either a ceramic, Infra red, or Higher wattage Night lamp.
Click to expand...

Got it.

What size heating pad are you using?
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6x8? About that size.

Ok, going shopping today. Ceramic heater, bigger heat pad.

Thanks for the help, guys! Wish the people at the store were as helpful as hoembrew store staff. :mad:
 
FireBrewer said:
Ok, going shopping today. Ceramic heater, bigger heat pad.
Click to expand...

If you have some coin to drop, look for the ZooMed ThermoHygrometer and ReptiFogger.

It has a digital interface and will constantly monitor temp and RH of the enclosure. Plug the larger heat pad in the heat side and the ReptiFogger in the humidity side and you heat and humidity become automated.

Plus, the controller has a nightime temp drop feature to allow the enclosure to cool off overnight.

If you thought gear******ry was intense in brewing, just wait til you learn all the crap available for habitats.

Have you started reading into breeding crickets yet?
 
GilaMinumBeer said:
Reading suggests keeping the humidity no lower than 50% to keep the skin moisture up and promote shedding.
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Got it.

GilaMinumBeer said:
If you have some coin to drop, look for the If you thought gear******ry was intense in brewing, just wait til you learn all the crap available for habitats.
Click to expand...

I'm starting to see this. :drunk:

Have you started reading into breeding crickets yet?
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No but I have alcohol and can get a Barry White CD. ;) How long is the cycle and how complicated is it?
 
Ha, most people think it's easy to keep reptiles, when it's a ton of work and money to do it properly. My Iguana ate healthier than I did, and I spent big money on a snake enclosure.

Anyone can throw a lizard in an aquarium with a light bulb over the cage, but that's no way for them to live, kudos to you for asking questions.

_
 
FireBrewer said:
No but I have alcohol and can get a Barry White CD. ;) How long is the cycle and how complicated is it?
Click to expand...

Bwahahahaha.

I use the Barry white line all the time when people ask about breeding crickets.

It really isn't all that difficult but, there are TONS of mistakes to be made. And, it's a separate "hobby" in and of itself. Of course, I have 8 critters to feed so, at $.10 a cricket retail, it makes sense to breed my own.

My set-up consists of (1) 25 gallon "brooder" for housing the feeder crickets. And (1) 15 gallon incubator tank (Aquarium). I set pans of peat moss in the brooder for 4 days at room temp and then trabnsfer those pans to the incubator at 90*F. Within a week or two I have pinheads. I keep the heat at 90*F for another week to ensure all the eggs have hatched, then drop the temp to room temp and leave them in the incubator until they are about 1/2" long. Then I move them into the brooder and start the cycle over again.

I go through 100+ crickets a month with my pets. Those damned Firebelly Toads can eat!

Mistakes I have made;

Starting out I thought it would be easier to just use topsoil in teh brooder tank and let the crickets breed naturally. I learned that (1) adult crickets prefer pinheads to cricket feed, (2) I should have sterilized the topsoil prior to layering it in as cricket bedding, (3) Phorid flies reproduce MUCH faster than crickets, (4) Phorid fly larvae will eat anything!
 
wildwest450 said:
Anyone can throw a lizard in an aquarium with a light bulb over the cage, but that's no way for them to live, kudos to you for asking questions.
Click to expand...

Gotta do the right thing, even for a little gecko. My assbag neighbor where I used to live was that kind of person, she'd buy her little brat anything she wanted as long as it shut her up. And their attention to their pets was about as extensive as their attention to their kid. :mad:

GilaMinumBeer said:
Within a week or two I have pinheads.
Click to expand...

I work with a lot of those. :D
 
wildwest450 said:
Ha, most people think it's easy to keep reptiles, when it's a ton of work and money to do it properly. My Iguana ate healthier than I did, and I spent big money on a snake enclosure.

Anyone can throw a lizard in an aquarium with a light bulb over the cage, but that's no way for them to live, kudos to you for asking questions.

_
Click to expand...

Ha. Too TRUE! I find the Paludaria experience more addictive than brewing. Of course, it's nice to sit back and stare into the tank while quaffing some brew too.

I quickly learned that to do it right I would need to automate. Fogger, mister, temp controls, lighting controls, etc...

Started out with a $6 lizard and spent hundreds on gear to keep it alive!

Now I am working on building a DIY foam treescape for a 36x36x18 paludarium. Just doesn't seem right keeping my friends in a small rectangular box with a few live plants. I want to give them some room to explore. Even if all they choose to do is sit in one spot.

At the least, the larger enclosure will force them to "hunt".
 
FireBrewer said:
Gotta do the right thing, even for a little gecko. My assbag neighbor where I used to live was that kind of person, she'd buy her little brat anything she wanted as long as it shut her up. And their attention to their pets was about as extensive as their attention to their kid. :mad:
Click to expand...

Whatever you do, don't start looking into Poison Dart frogs!


Bwahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahah, ack, ack, hahahahaha.
 
GilaMinumBeer said:
Started out with a $6 lizard and spent hundreds on gear to keep it alive!
Click to expand...

Same here, a $20 Iguana in a $600 cage. Bought fresh vegetables every week to feed it. Made me sick when people just fed their's "lettuce". And even sicker when people would tell me how cute their Iguana was when it closed it's eyes when you pet it.

It's scared to death you moron.


_
 
I will warn you that having reptiles can get addicting. I currently have a seperate room to house mine. I have an iguana that is about 4ft right now, 2 bearded dragons, a ball python that is about 4ft, and a red-tailed boa. Gets kinda expensive tho and some if then are big enough that I had to build custom enclosures for them. Good luck with your gecko.
 
wildwest450 said:
It's scared to death you moron.
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Ayup. The ONLY time I handle my animals is when I need to do a tank transfer. It's tempting tho'. Every time I put my hand in the enclosure to clear out waste one of my Whites Trees frog inevitable jumps on my hand.

Very docile creature and very trusting. Of course, I am sure ot was tank bred and knows nothing of human harm.

cruizer8 said:
Gets kinda expensive tho and some if then are big enough that I had to build custom enclosures for them. Good luck with your gecko.
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THIS!

I was very tempted to buy the wee Iguana and hesitated remembering a glimpse of my fathers lizard when I was a kid. Damned thing was too large for the tank and could move a mountain to get out. So, I read before I bought and realized I was not ready to handle a, potentially, 6 foot long animal.

But, there is also some value to the fools that leap before they look. Most all of my equipment has ben bought from people who want to liquidate because they got in deeper than they could handle.
 
GilaMinumBeer said:
I was very tempted to buy the wee Iguana and hesitated remembering a glimpse of my fathers lizard when I was a kid. Damned thing was too large for the tank and could move a mountain to get out. So, I read before I bought and realized I was not ready to handle a, potentially, 6 foot long animal.
Click to expand...

My iguana is a red iguana and I got him cause of the fact he would get about 6 ft. The one thing I didn't know till after I got him tho was that they can live up to around 20 years of age or so. My puppy that I just got will be dead long before my iguana. Now that's a long time commitment.
 
cruizer8 said:
My iguana is a red iguana and I got him cause of the fact he would get about 6 ft. The one thing I didn't know till after I got him tho was that they can live up to around 20 years of age or so. My puppy that I just got will be dead long before my iguana. Now that's a long time commitment.
Click to expand...

Ayup.

Same thing happens to a lot of bird fans too. They buy into the pretty colors, and call sounds, get it home and later read that the species they bought is a highly social animal that can live to be 20+ years old.

I've lost more frogs than I care to admit amidst my learning stage. Which may not have anything to do with what I did or did not do. But, I also like to garden and realize that if I learn over time that keeping frogs and small lizards is not for me (meaning they die) I can always keep the equipment for an indoor garden of tropical plants.

I'd love to get some real fragrant Jasmine for my paludarium but am just not entirely certain it's compatible with the animals.
 
cruizer8 said:
My iguana is a red iguana and I got him cause of the fact he would get about 6 ft. The one thing I didn't know till after I got him tho was that they can live up to around 20 years of age or so. My puppy that I just got will be dead long before my iguana. Now that's a long time commitment.
Click to expand...

I don't have any reptiles but I can relate to that part of it. I am going to be inheriting probably at least 2 birds that most likely will even out live me.
 
Can you use the ceramic heat emitter in one of these:

6981


or do you have to have a wire cage fixture for it?
 
FireBrewer said:
Can you use the ceramic heat emitter in one of these:

or do you have to have a wire cage fixture for it?
Click to expand...

I have had no issues doing so in the 3 cages that I use them on.
 
Ok, so in terms of heat, do I need anything other than a ceramic heat emitter and the under-tank heat pad? Should I throw the "night time" black light out?
 
FireBrewer said:
Ok, so in terms of heat, do I need anything other than a ceramic heat emitter and the under-tank heat pad? Should I throw the "night time" black light out?
Click to expand...

All depends on how warm the tank gets.

A quick google on general care says 78 to 88 degree gradient and a 95 degree basking area. No mention is made for night time cooldown temps.
 
As long as it is warm enough in the cage at night then there should he no need to have the night light.
 
I never needed under tank heaters with ceramic elements. They do need a "cooler" place be from time to time, with that small of a tank, I wouldn't waste the electricity with one.


_
 
wildwest450 said:
I never needed under tank heaters with ceramic elements. They do need a "cooler" place be from time to time, with that small of a tank, I wouldn't waste the electricity with one.
Click to expand...

The one we have on the smaller side. But the temp is looking good on the hot side, if I can keep the heat up I'll unplug the under tank heater.

Thanks again! :mug:
 

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