Even though I consider myself "experienced", I would still be considered a youngin' by most pros(I'm 23). I started keeping herps back when I was 7 and I didn't get out of them until I was 15. I dappled a bit here and there but didn't get back into them full force until about 6 months ago. I'm using what I learned back then and I'm trying to season myself on the latest info out there. My old Reptiles magazines aren't helping. I'm much more anal than a few fellow herpers of mine when it comes to environment and general care of my herps. I don't focus so much on the little things like temp & humidity, I just follow with a few basic practices and so far so good, then I learn about this dehydration/gout/lower wattage thing. I wonder what happened to make herpers want to increase the heat in their cages? It sounds to me like they were better off at the 90F hot spot way back when. How were captive monitors developing gout then with a lower temp basking spot? Were they still providing too much ventilation?

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