Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hey all, I've been on an extended internet vacation, ha! I come to you with a strange situation, maybe you guys have some thoughts on it.
Roz (Roswell) is a healthy, fat, ACTIVE collared who has everything a gal could need, including her boyfriend/housemate Hurley. I got em together at a Tampa show, assured they could live together. (They can, they get along great).

So a few weeks ago, I noticed that Roz hadn't been out in daaayys. I went in, lifted the cave, and there she was, looking quite groggy. She came out and moved around a bit, but went to to bed/cave.

I started noticing noise at 2am. More noise than a lone baby kingsnake makes in the middle of the night. I get up... here's Roz running around like a maniac. When she tires herself out, she heats up on her rock and goes for another round. She apparently slips back to sleep before I get up. As I type this at 2:50am, she staring me down.

Any thoughts on why my collared has suddenly gone nocturnal?!
Doesn't seem to be hurting her health.
Just keeping me up (literally!).
~Tiff
-----
"Were the diver to think upon the jaws of the shark, he would never lay hands on the precious pearl."

You said, she lays on a heat rock at night. That might just be your problem. In general heat rocks are bad for you reptile. Why they make them who know.

What happends is your reptile will lay on the heat rock until it burns and blisters his/her self. They cant feel temp. changes on there belly. I ONLY use a basking light for temps. in my cage. Also a good UVB light for health.

Also they need a cooling down period between each day. That why I guessing she up and running about 2am. Her body temp. is 90 degrees in the middle of the night. Its ok for room temperature at night to get about 70-80.

I would ditch the heatrock asap. (I used to have one myself before I found out how bad they are.)

Well, perhaps I should have been more specific.

First of all- of course I have a UVB.
The collareds are in a 40 gal br with a 13watt UVB and a 100watt sunglo heat lamp on timers; they are in front of a window, so they start getting light whenever the sun rises, then the lamps click on at 7am, click off at 7pm. The sleeping cave is on the cool side of the cage, and it stays cool in that cave, especially overnight, so the heat rock stays on to provide some ambient warmth in the cage, since they are also unfortunately opposite the a/c vent (though it is 15feet away, it's on all night). Heat lamp is over their basking rocks on the opposite side of the cage.

It's a pretty straightforward collared setup. I've been using a heat rock for 5 years now and have never had a problem with it, the collareds never hang out on it for long since they enjoy basking in their light better it seems.

When I got Roz and Hurley they were very particular about their schedule. They'd wake up before the lights came on and warm up on the heat rock, then move to the bask spot, and once they were full of energy they'd take off running around the cage waiting for food. They'd eat then relax, wander around the cage, bask, dig, whatever. Back to sleep by 4pm for Roz, much later for Hurley. I had to turn their lights off earliier and earlier to get him to go to sleep when he should.

Hurley has kept his schedule, Roz now wishes to flip it. So for that reason, I think if it was the heat rock, it'd affect them both.

I'd be very interested to know who exactly determined the heat rocks were so bad. Is there a scientific report on heat rocks, or did somebody who had a bad experience just say they were bad and have a bunch of people jump on the bandwagon? If the rocks were THAT terrible, wouldn't they have stopped making them, or put specific directions on the packaging as far as what reptiles should/shouldn't use them? What did *you* read to change your mind?

All of that aside, her body temp just can't be 90 degrees at night. If I need to take her temperature I will, but she's sleeping in a cold cave. She's living her normal life, just backwards it seems. Afterall, she sleeps the whole day when it's far warmer in the cage as if it's nighttime... she's not waking up and running around cuz her body temp is 90 degrees; if that were the case, she'd simply never go to sleep.

-Fee

>>You said, she lays on a heat rock at night. That might just be your problem. In general heat rocks are bad for you reptile. Why they make them who know.
>>
>>What happends is your reptile will lay on the heat rock until it burns and blisters his/her self. They cant feel temp. changes on there belly. I ONLY use a basking light for temps. in my cage. Also a good UVB light for health.
>>
>>Also they need a cooling down period between each day. That why I guessing she up and running about 2am. Her body temp. is 90 degrees in the middle of the night. Its ok for room temperature at night to get about 70-80.
>>
>>I would ditch the heatrock asap. (I used to have one myself before I found out how bad they are.)
-----
"Were the diver to think upon the jaws of the shark, he would never lay hands on the precious pearl."

Well I have somethings that I agree with and some things that I disagree with after reading this thread. First, the heat rock is totally fine in the cage. In the wild while I've been out studying C. bicinctores I took the temperature of the rocks that I caught them on and some where as high as 120 degrees Fahrenheit!!!! So the lizards won't burn themselves. As for the night time temperature it can drop down quite low. I've spent many nights camping and literally freezing to where it kept me awake, only to go out as the sun came up and find collareds sunning themselves. So turning the heat rock completely off at night wouldn't hurt even if your house gets down to 60 degrees at night. Why she's up at night and asleep in the day I don't know and to be honest I don't think anyone knows for sure.
-----
Today is the first day of the rest of your life.

Thank you verrrry much for the informative post. I see lizards laying on the asphalt down here midday too hot for my feet, but know when to get back in the shade; they aren't stupid creatures. They know when it's too hot!
As far as the nighttime temperature, that's really good to know. Though I've never lived in/been to the desert at night, I've heard it does get quite chilly overnight. I was afraid I'd freeze them out, but knowing from somebody who's been there and has the experience that 60 overnight is harmless, I'll put the heat rock on a timer.

The mystery of nocturnal Roz will have to remain a mystery for now. Thanks!
~Tiff

>>Well I have somethings that I agree with and some things that I disagree with after reading this thread. First, the heat rock is totally fine in the cage. In the wild while I've been out studying C. bicinctores I took the temperature of the rocks that I caught them on and some where as high as 120 degrees Fahrenheit!!!! So the lizards won't burn themselves. As for the night time temperature it can drop down quite low. I've spent many nights camping and literally freezing to where it kept me awake, only to go out as the sun came up and find collareds sunning themselves. So turning the heat rock completely off at night wouldn't hurt even if your house gets down to 60 degrees at night. Why she's up at night and asleep in the day I don't know and to be honest I don't think anyone knows for sure.
>>-----
>>Today is the first day of the rest of your life.
-----
"Were the diver to think upon the jaws of the shark, he would never lay hands on the precious pearl."

Nice to see ya back stop disappearing on us !

LOL, well I would have to add a couple things. First yeah I would turn off the heat for the night.
And I know many who do use heat rocks for collareds with no problems, as collareds can tolerate alot of heat.
Heat rocks have been known to be dangerous to SOME lizards that have soft skin ,,, so on.... and have caused burns. I personally do not, have not, used them.

* Seems atleast as you were typing this, there must have been a light even a dull light on , you said you were being watched. I would make sure she is in total dark.

Also ever check for outlaw crickets? Sometimes a couple or even one may hide and come out and torment your scaly kids at night.
I have some in the reptile room that will be awake when I go in if I leave a small light on someone elses tank (for whatever reason) Maybe I will have one sick or a baby I'm keeping warm and want to check on so I have a dim light on.
I will see movement in another tank and see somebody looking back at me.

So I would make sure there is NO light or cover the tank with a towel and see if she sleeps.

Otherwise give her a good book, a bag of chips, and a kiss goodnight. As you go to bed, tell her to turn off the lights when shes done, hahahahahhahaaa LMAO
-----
PHEve / Eve

Contact PHEve

Keep in mind I have no personal experience with this, so take it as you will. As I understand it, the hot rocks aren't a problem so much when they're working correctly. The problems supposedly come when they malfunction. They go wrong and end up with one or more small extremely hot spots, which are what can cause the severe burns. Just my two cents.
-----
Torey
Eugene, Oregon, USA
1.1 Saharan Uros (Joe and Arthur)
3.0 Mali Uros (Spike, Turtle, and Tank)
1.1 Ornate Uros (Scuttlebutt and Shazzbot)
0.1 Collared Lizard (Rorschach)
2.1 Green Anoles (Bowser, Sprocket, Leeloo)
1.1 Chubby Housecats (Roscolux and Jenny)

I promise I'll check in more often.
I just unplugged the heat rock and covered up with a blanket; it'll have to do until I can fashion some sort of cage skirt, lol. As far as the collareds tolerating a lot of heat- they SURE do! I've taken them out of the cage sometimes to hang out and they're hot little critters!
Speaking of little critters, I'll be sure to start turning logs for renegade crix.

I'm starting to think that Roz may just take after Mommy. Seems we're both candidates for Lunesta; HA! I see her running around and I feel sooooo bad about leavn her in there, she looks so lonely... so I take her out, and Justin always says "How's she gonna sleep if you take her out?!" Well.... she doesn't sleep anyway, so we should just keep each other company, lol.

So I'm going to give this cage covered, heat rock off thing a try for a week and see if it can't get her back on track.
Thanks!
~Tiff

>>Nice to see ya back stop disappearing on us !
>>
>>LOL, well I would have to add a couple things. First yeah I would turn off the heat for the night.
>> And I know many who do use heat rocks for collareds with no problems, as collareds can tolerate alot of heat.
>> Heat rocks have been known to be dangerous to SOME lizards that have soft skin ,,, so on.... and have caused burns. I personally do not, have not, used them.
>>
>>* Seems atleast as you were typing this, there must have been a light even a dull light on , you said you were being watched. I would make sure she is in total dark.
>>
>> Also ever check for outlaw crickets? Sometimes a couple or even one may hide and come out and torment your scaly kids at night.
>> I have some in the reptile room that will be awake when I go in if I leave a small light on someone elses tank (for whatever reason) Maybe I will have one sick or a baby I'm keeping warm and want to check on so I have a dim light on.
>>I will see movement in another tank and see somebody looking back at me.
>>
>>So I would make sure there is NO light or cover the tank with a towel and see if she sleeps.
>>
>> Otherwise give her a good book, a bag of chips, and a kiss goodnight. As you go to bed, tell her to turn off the lights when shes done, hahahahahhahaaa LMAO
>>-----
>>PHEve / Eve
>>
>>Contact PHEve
-----
"Were the diver to think upon the jaws of the shark, he would never lay hands on the precious pearl."