Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hey all,

We are moving soon to a house with a fire place. It looks like there isn't going to be alot of extra space for our two dragons (as least not where they can be apart of all the activities ). One of the location for the two dragons we were considering is on either side of the fire place about 6 or so feet to the sides on each side. Has anyone done this? Aside from temp considerations are there other problems I should be aware of? Or is this just a generally bad idea all around?

~Mrez

I don't see a problem. I have a fireplace in my family room that I occasionally use. (wood) But, my dragons are in the living room. (now known as the dragon room) I have sometimes worried about smoke but I don't use it too often and rarely get smoke in the room. Around my fireplace doesn't seem to get warm enough to be a problem if I wanted to put dragons there.

What is your concern?

I think my biggest concern is over heating. I'm worried that the tank will just get to warm in the spring and fall when we'd most likely use it. I can't imagine we would use it much over the summer and the fire place is pretty deep so I'm not to worried about smoke inhalation.
I guess I am just wondering if I should be concerned. Our dragons watch tv and people all the time and if we put them in the basement they won't be as part of the environment.

~Mrez

I don't see it being a major problem. If you set up the tanks so the warm end is near the fireplace, leaving the dragons a cooler area of the cage to retreat too, there shouldn't be any problems with overheating. The only way to know for sure is to place the cage where you are considering, have a fire and monitor how the temps change inside the cage.

For the most part, unless you are making a huge fire (ie using it to heat the room) the temps shouldn't increase too much in the cage, especially if its 6 feet or more away from the side of the fireplace.

Smoke shouldn't be a concern, unless you have a blocked chimney or leaking chimney, in which case the smoke can come billowing out of the fire place or carbon mon-oyxide. This can be prevented by simply making sure the chimney is clear and the chute (flew? whatever that thing is called in the chimney you can open or close to adjust air flow, the name is eluding me right now) is open. To find out about CO, a CO detector in the same area as your dragon will alert you if there is a problem.
-----
PHLdyPayne