Posted by:
FR
at Tue Nov 6 21:17:31 2007 [ Email Message ] [ Show All Posts by FR ]
Hi Mike, again they can post all they want. But again, this topic can be very questionable and very controversial.
For instance, snakes are very good at regional heating. That is, only heating part of their body at a time. I have tons of pics if this in nature.
Some lizards are also very good at this, like a close relative of varanids, the gilas, I also have tons of pics of them regional heating as well. Monitors do this in nature as well.
ALso boas and pythons are very good at regional heating, but they too burn under the same conditions as monitors. They burn from lacking a gradient from cool to the extreme hot spot. So its not the temps that are too low that are the problem, but the immediate placement into a very hot area, with no intermediate heating.
A wide basking area does in effect cure the problem as it heats the greater mass of the animal evenly. Also not allowing those lower temps also is, in effect a cure.
So, about the arguing, we could each take a different stance and be right in our own views and argue until the sun sets and raises again. But it will not matter as its what we do IN OUR CAGES that will effect both the cure and the understanding.
For instance, your nice cages. If you drop the low temps below sixty, then your monitors may burn themselves in the exact same set up they have grown up in.
Just a thought, their increased mass plays an important part in conjunction with the cooler temps.
If I may add, in nature, it would be difficult to find a spot that was 150F after a cold night. What causes it in captivity is the lack of a middle ground, its cold, then hot, in nature, they can graduate up to a hot spot, on their own accord.
An example is, with RETES boards, we never see burns as they can increase their temps by moving up the layers, a little at a time. Even with narrow basking areas of 200F.
With larger monitors, this is often omitted. And yes, I know from experience.
So its not really about "what" they do in nature, but instead, "how" they do it, and more specificially how they do it in our non-natural setups.(consider, a lite bulb of any kind is not natural to monitors).
The reality is, Its not really about their natural behaviors. Its about their un-natural behaviors. Cheers
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RE: Nasty Burn or worse? - FR, Tue Nov 6 21:17:31 2007
