Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I was wondering what is a good heat emitter. We are ussing a ceramic infrared heat emitter 150 watts, but still not enough heat in his tank, can get the one side to about 106, sometimes 110, I think we may have to do something about his screened top, someone said maybe getting some plexiglass and covering a bit so that the heat wont escape so much.

I am also using right now a neoddmium daytime basking light65 watts for heat, and I have a proper uvb bulb, but I cant remember the brand, but I would like to know what uvb bulb is the best.

I am asking because as far as I know we have a wild caught red niger(saharan) uromastyx. We have had him since december-january. But recently he has been trying to escape like crazy, my fiance was at home and he was taking running leaps at the glass. I dont want him to get hurt. She put her hand in and he actually ran to her hand, which he usually doesnt do. He just curled up and rested. I was thinking this may be do to the heat problem. But my other though was we bought desert snow substrate, could that be dehydrating him? Normally when he wasnt like this he snoops around the tank, basks, does sometimes lean up against the glass and tries to climb. And when we hold him he likes the side of his jaw, almost underneath petted gently with your thumb. I know Ive said Ill get a picture up soon, and I havnt yet, but today I will. Any help here is appreciate, on the bulbs, and his behavior, maybe its just he is wild.

I mistyped, the other bulb was a neodymium daytime basking light 65 wats used for extra heat right now and some balanced light. Like I said any help with the above problem for heat and his behavior, much appreciated.

guys same problem, I have a exo terra 150 watt bulb but it's not getting job done...any suggestions for what bulbs to use?

okay here are the pictures of the little guy.

Uri actualing posing

Again

Heres a back shot for you, he was rubbing his face into my hand

And here is his tail.

I hope these pictures work. And Im not sure if anything is too wrong with him. I guess when he was curled up and just not really active, my fiance forgot to tell me it was in the morning, and usually before the temp rises they are pretty easy to hold and like to be in a warm hand. But him running and then jumping into the glass that is one thing that is getting me. Maybe I need to make most the glass not see through and just the front for viewing?

I caught some crap for recommending these in a post further down, but they work wonders. They are basically the flood bulbs you see over garage doors and such. They fit in most dome clip lamps. I use a 50 watt one in one of my uro cages placed about 8-9" away from the basking site to reach surface temps (measured with a temp gun) of about 130-140f. My other uro tank has a 90 watt halogen flood until I get more dirt in there (which will bring the basking spot about 8" closer to the bulb...planning on doing that this week). That one's about 14" away from the basking spot and I just got a temperature off the top of the basking spot of 157f.

These are just the regular sylvania halogen flood bulbs (the ones made with big thick glass). Make sure you take a look at the lens before you buy them, because some of them now have little clear hexagons or circles in the middle of the lens, and that tends to cause a hot spot in the center of the basking spot (that may burn your reptile if you aren't careful). I have used them in a pinch, but I try to find the ones that don't have the clear part in the center of the lens.

Don't get the spot bulbs either. They don't make a large enough basking spot.

The reason I use these bulbs: Cheap and very effective! I also don't use any screen tops. The tops of all of my cages are solid, with the exception of one that has a couple of 2" circular vents. Screen tops will let most of the heat out of your enclosure before it even reaches your reptiles, especially if you do not have the bulbs close enough to the basking spot.

>>I caught some crap for recommending these in a post further down, but they work wonders.

I don't remember any crap flung on this point. I use halogens in many of my cages as well (though not exclusively). They can work quite well.

Your little geyri is quite a cutie - I like them when they're little. A good UVB bulb is the Mega Ray - quality UVB with low decay. You can get them in self ballast (produce more heat) and external ballast (little heat, but longer warranty) designs.
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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)

You can also try additional bulbs. When I had a 40 gallon breeder tank set up (with a screen top), I had a UVB light, a basking bulb (100-150w depending), and a "nighttime" bulb that stayed on all the time. During the day the UVB and basking spot light would come on, and at night go off. In the winter, because the house was so much colder, I occasionally added a ceramic heat emitter instead of the night time bulb. In my current cage I have 3 lights, a heat emitter (hmm or 2, I can't remember), and 2 UVB bulbs. Which I DO get crap for, lol, but I am afraid of the halogen bulbs since I have a wood cage. I am sure they are probably safe, but I am very paranoid. For a while Mercury vapor bulbs (MVB) were popular, and have some of the same caveats as the halogen bulbs, regarding being VERY careful you get one that do not have a "lens" in the center. There have been at least a few uros on here over the years that have had severe burns on their backs from basking under one of these kinds of halogen or MVBs. My issues with the MVBs actually stem from bringing anything with additional Mercury into my home (yes they really do have Mercury in them).

Elizabeth
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1.0 Mali Uro Archimedes (May he rest in peace)
0.0.1 Egyptian Uro Zuberi Mosca Khu (Mosca)
0.1 Sulcata Minnie
1.1 Iguanas Flik and Loki
Madison, Wisconsin

Since moving my egyptian yesterday to a larger house, he's been out and moving around. Today I changed the halogen to a mercury vapor bulb, thinking he would love the stronger uv, instead.. he freaked out! He ran like he was on fire and tried to get as far away from the basking area as he could, the temp was only 110. He acted like it was hurting him to be in the enclosure. I thought it was just the strength of the bulb, but now I'm not so sure. In the 30 mins that I was working in my reptile room, I started to get a headache and I wonder if its related to the bulb. I changed the bulb back to the halogen and with in 10 mins he was out of hiding and back on the basking rock, sunning beautifully and acting like he was earlier. Has anyone had this happen?? After this.. I am not using these bulbs anymore, I am sticking with the uv fluorescents that I have always used. I'm not an expert but think the mv bulbs might be hurting our reptiles.

What brand of MV bulb was it? Some require a burn in period (where the light is on, but NOT over your lizard cage or shining on anything else living) to get the UVB levels down to a safe level.
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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)

Powersun 100w
It was originally purchased a few months ago for my Australian Water Dragons, but it gets way too hot for them. It didn't specify a burn off period on the box. I couldn't believe the way my uro looked at the light, it was like the light was a predator and he was gonna get it. He's fine now.

Check out the following link for everything you ever wanted to know about UVB and more. I currently use an Arcadia compact flourescent. However I'm seriously planning on switching to a ReptileUV MegaRay EB bulb kit.

Craigo
UVB guide