Reptile & Amphibian Forums

i am posting again cause in previous post i was told it was ok to unplugg the UTH at night since they like it cooler at night then a day or so later someone else posted sayin i shouldnt unplug the UTH so i dont know what to do now or who to listen to lol...im askin cause my place gets really hot i get sun all day and it just bakes in here for us humans.. can just imagine it for my poor lil leo...can anyone clarify this for me please????

I cannot emphasize this enough: get a digital thermometer (or two) for inside the terrarium, at the very least for the warm end. If it's exceeding 90 degrees Fahrenheit in there by much during the day, it needs to be cooler. I will say that during the summer @ my place (in Minnesota), I tend to leave the UTH unplugged most of the time, as otherwise it gets very hot in there (and that's even with the fact that all the windows in my apartment face north).

If it's uncomfortably warm in the room for you, it's probably uncomfortably warm for the gecko if there's additional heat on it. The only way to truly be sure though, is to get an accurate reading from a thermometer.

I don't mean to sound too harsh, but I think it's somewhat irresponsible *not* to know what the temp is in there - both too hot and too cold can be bad for them, and it's your responsibility to maintain an safe environment for them.

A good digital thermometer shouldn't cost you too much (I think I paid

ok point taken...i was in process of getting one but i didnt have the money till now i am getting one tomorrow for sure but i dont understand one part of yr post u said on the "one side"? how can one side be warmer? it looks like the UTH covers the whole bottom of the tank..................also yes it is uncomfortable for me and this is way i was posting i got two different answers for to unplug or not...and i just learning how to care for my leo..(not using that for excuse) but i tryin to get all info i can by doin research and forums to ask questions..but ty for the reply muchly appreciated

Sounds like your UTH is too big for your tank. Typically they're only supposed to cover at most 1/3 of the tank area, on one end. This provides a temperature gradient, with a warm end and a cool end, allowing the gecko to regulate its temperature by moving to the area it's most comfortable in. I'm sorry to tell you that you need to spend more money, but if the UTH is covering the whole bottom of the tank, you need to pull it off and get a smaller one.

BTW, same deal with lights - if you use a light or a ceramic heat element for heating, it needs to be at one end of the tank, for the same reason the UTH does. I have both, but I don't have them on simultaneously. As I said before, in my climate, I usually have the UTH off during the summer, but in winter, I have them on a timer so that when it cycles to night and the light shuts off, the UTH comes on.

Here's hoping this is helpful, and not too expensive for you to handle.

Good luck with your gecko!

ohhhhhhhh ok yes that is helpful thank you...i got this leo from a friend only few weeks ago and everything he ever told me is turning out to be wrong soo i dont mind spending the money per say just didnt have it till recently... and thought i had everything.....i wondering if i can maybe use a different tank so the UTH will be more smaller for a bigger tank i have a 30g i think it is??!!..and thanks again u were very helpful

Unfortunately peeling a UTH off the bottom of a tank means throwing away the UTH. At least that's what the packaging of all the one's I've ever used/seen says - basically once you bend it, you can't trust it not to start a fire.

A 30 gallon tank for 1 gecko? A UTH that completely covers the bottom of a 30 gallon? Wow! That's huge, in both cases. My leopard was recently upgraded to a 20 gallon long tank, and she probably would have been fine in her original 10 gallon for her whole life if we hadn't just wanted to give her more space. (Not to say that a 30 is bad - more space doesn't hurt them in any way.) A UTH that covers a 30 completely would have to be huge - seems somewhat unlikely, but I guess it's possible. Do you by any chance have any pictures of your setup that you could post?

umm no the UTH wouldnt cover the whole 30g i only mentioned the 30 thinkin i could take this UTH on my leos 10g and put it on the 30g but see i didnt know that once taken off that i couldnt use it anymore..i was tryin to figure out how to get on side heated and one side cooler cause the UTH is covering whole bottom of 10g with maybe an inch not covered ....and yes i have one pic but pic was takin when sand was still in there i took that out

just repostin with some updated pics of my setup... hopefully it shows up in my signature
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Tank size looks fine, but like I said before, I'd only run a light on one end or the other to allow for a thermal gradient.

Also I'm happy to see that your gecko appears to be a healthy adult - adults are obviously more hardy than babies or the very old, so it's likely that he/she will be able to tolerate a few missteps in temperature, etc better than a baby would.

It's definitely good that you thought to ask questions - I'm sure everybody here is happy to help! One thing that might be a big help too is the Leopard Gecko Manual - I've found it to be a great source of info on just about everything related to leos, especially with regard to correct setup of their enclosures. It even goes into how to breed them if you ever become interested in that. (So far, I haven't, but it's nice to have the info just in case I ever decide to.) I even found one for cheap on eBay for you. I think amazon wants like $25, but this auction is

Hm, I must have exceeded max message length or something with that one.

Anyway, like I was trying to say before I was so rudely interrupted , amazon wants $25, and the auction i found is

durr, nope, it's just that I'm being a moron about html:

the auction I found is < $10.

http://cgi.ebay.com/The-Leopard-Gecko-Manual-by-Brian-Viets-Roger-Kling_W0QQitemZ170002688603QQihZ007QQcategoryZ378QQssPageNameZWD1VQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

oh ok well thats good to know ..not that i want to make missteps in temps but like i said i been told all the wrong information poor lil guy is probably thinkin holy get it right!!!...and i take it u saw my updated pics of setup? i unplugged the UTh last night cause it was 33c here yesterday and was hotter in my house then it was outside after it cooled down at night but i wanted to get confirmation it was ok to do this..yes i knew it was hot but they from hot area so wanted to ask...thank you very much u been very helpful (my leo thanks u to lol)
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