Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hey people, I was just wondering when should I start turning off the heat light at night. My beardies are now 5 months old and the heat light has been on since they were four weeks old. Should I have the heat light turned off at the same time the UV light goes off? I got the UV light on from 6am tp 8pm, should I change this? I have noticed that my beardies have their eyes open or they're catching down crickets at one or two in the morning, is this normal? I feel that the heat light is now keeping my beardies up all night? Any info on this would be a great help to me. Thanks

Yes, turn it off. They like it dark and a bit cooler to sleep. Better yet, if you don't have one, get a light time for a few bucks and put them both on it. That way they'll turn off together and you don't have to do anything.

Hey griffinej5, thanks for the helpful info, just a couple more question, if I had some babies, how old do they have to be for me to change the heat light from 24 hours to 14 hours?? What do they means when they say "1.1 yellow or 2.1 sandfire? What does the numbers means? Well thanks again. Rico

They should never be on a 24 lights on schedule. That doesn't allow them time to sleep. They should be put on 14/10(day/night) right away. As it gets colder in the Fall and winter, you may choose to change it to 12/12 or 10/14. That's up to you. I leave mine 14/10 unless the beardie brumates. No point running lights for a sleeping beardie.
Anyway, the numbers tell you the sex. The first number is the number of males, the second is the number of females, and if there is a number in the third it means that the sex is uncertain. For example, I have 3 males. In the number format I have 3.0.0. If you have an adult pair, and say from your pair you 25 hatchlings which you could not determine the sex of, you have 1.1.25. Does that make sense now? If there is any name, such as Sunburst, Tiger, HypoRed, that is what someone has chosen to call the color of that dragon. Who decided, I do not know.

Yes I would turn the lights off at night together. At their age the house temps at night sould be fine down to 65-70. If they are chasen crickets at 2 in the morning the heat is keeping them up. Just make sure at 8pm when the lights go out you take any uneaten crickets out of the cage, cause crickets can bite, and stress out sleeping beardies. The crickets if left in at night will stay around the dragons head all night, not sure why they do that, just noticed it when I use to keep lots of wood and hide spots in the cages. I since have made the cages a lot simpler in design, and it's been so much easier to clean, and find the crix.

Thank for the info guys.