Posted by:
Lucien
at Mon Mar 6 19:23:38 2006 [ Email Message ] [ Show All Posts by Lucien ]
to your questions you;ve been asking:
Personally, I'd remove all lights and use only an under tank heater. Leos are noctural. Ambient lighting in a room is plenty of light. Heat is another matter. Heating with an under tank heater fixes that problem and makes them more comfortable. In the wild leos live in rock piles and large rock outcroppings. During the day they wedge themselves into cracks and deep crevices where the temps will stay between 80 and 82 and the humidity will be somewhere in the 60-80% range. They leave these hideouts when the sun goes down and the rocks are still at about 120 degrees F to warm up and get their body to a good operating temperature. Then they hunt... and then return to the rocks for a last heat soak before returning to their hide areas. They do NOT live on sand. They see fine dust scattered on rocks and stuff where they pick up minerals but any sand they encounter is merely in hunting and in moving from rock pile to rock pile in search of more food, humidity, better hiding places, etc. They may get impacted in the wild from any encounters with sand, but its almost a certainty to happen if kept on the stuff 24/7 in captivity, whether that takes 2 weeks or 10 years. Impaction happens through instant or slow buildup of foreign materials in the intestines. Think about what sand does when exposed to water.. it clumps.. naturally.. this same thing would be happening in your leos stomach. Nor are the calci-sand or vitasand brands digestable at all. They do the same thing..and worse encourage the leos to eat the substrate for minerals. You want a safe and good looking substrate use slate or ceramic tiles from home depot or a home supply place.
Keeping their humidity up is a good idea. They may be desert creatures but they're thin skinned and can dehydrate easily if given improper conditions. A humidity of 75% is actually a very good thing for them. If you observe leos in very low humidity situations, they spend a lot of time inside a humid hide. Humid hides are generally 95% and above in terms of humidity levels. Keeping reptiles hydrated and properly supplemented are 2 of the most important husbandry keys in the hobby.
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Lucien
1.1 Columbian Redtail Boa (BCI)(Sutekh and Isis)
5.11.Leopard geckos (1.2 Blizzards (Caine, Phoenix, and Mirage), 0.2 Tangerine Albinos (Tequila Sunrise ...Tiki for short, and Casper), 1.0 Tremper Albino (Mycah), 0.3 Poss. Het. Albino (Annika, Lace, and Aris), 1.1 dbl. het blizzard x tang albino (Malice, Malfeas), 1.0 Full Stripe Chocolate Tremper Albino (Discord), 0.1 pastel (Raven) and 1.2 Normals)
0.1 Savannah Monitor (Kiros) (R.I.P. November 18, 2005)
13 rats (plus pups)
2 Dogs (Loki and Storm)
2 cats (Ashe and Hercules)
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 For Nighthawk_, some answer... - Lucien, Mon Mar 6 19:23:38 2006
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