Hi,

Thank-you all for the replies.
All of the books I've read seem to contradict each other, and the opportunity for a learner lizard keeper like me just to talk to some one is much appreciated.

I'm using a heat mat which covers about half of the cage wall which is on constantly, and a standard 60W lightbulb during the daylight hours. The heat mat gives an area of about 80F-ish next to Gordon and Eddie's hide and humidity box, but it doesn't seem to do much about the ambient temperature in the tank during the night, which drops to around 70F at the hot end by the time you get about 6" from the mat.
To sort this out I was using the bulb, but this gets turned off at night.

Based on all your advice, I'm going to go out after work and buy:-

1) 60-75W Red/Day&Night heat bulb, which I will leave on 24/7 to keep the ambient temperature up (I am sure the other end of the tank will be cool enough).

2) A deeper sided food bowl, because my crickets are dispersing around the tank straight away despite me chilling them and breaking one of their hopping leg each.

Which leaves me with another question:-

If I use Red/Day&Night heat bulb all the time, do I need a seperate standard bulb to keep them day/night cylce? They are kept in a room with plenty of natural light during the day, and darkness at night, so I'm thinking that should be enough without additional bulbs?

Thanks again for you help

Jim

[ Hide Replies ]

• Temperature and Feeding Questions. - withey, Mon Oct 11 07:39:56 2004
• RE: Temperature and Feeding Questions. - tim5580, Mon Oct 11 09:33:47 2004
• RE: Temperature and Feeding Questions. - gothra, Mon Oct 11 20:18:22 2004
• RE: Temperature and Feeding Questions. - withey, Tue Oct 12 03:26:32 2004
• RE: Temperature and Feeding Questions. - gothra, Tue Oct 12 19:24:50 2004
• RE: Temperature and Feeding Questions. - withey, Wed Oct 13 02:59:59 2004