Reptile & Amphibian Forums

What is the logic behind keeping the basking light on 24/7? I always thought it interferes with phsychological wellbeing of the animals when a period of darkness isn't available for them...at least this is true for humans which suffers chemical imbalance when sleeping during the day and work at night. I want to be sure on this before turning on the light for my monitor 24/7, so I've been using red lights to keeps the basking area at about 120-130 degree even at night, and I turn on flourescent during the day to simulate day time.

Also, I've been keeping the ground he's on damp, but not wet, to raise the humidity, but I also use the humidifier, the one that gives off cool steam. Has anybody ever use the humidifier? So far, his urates are white everytime he goes to the bathroom. Although Savannah monitors are from a dry area, I find mine always soaking in the water bowl, so I went out and got a small kiddy pool and he loves soaking and drinking from it, and unfortunately, defficating in it, too. Is this odd for a Sav to love soaking in the water?

What's the humidity in it like?

It stays about 60-70... I try not to let it get to wet since this is an arid species...besides, I don't want mold problem in the cage, which can cause helth problems for the monitor and I.

The 24 hour light cycle allows the monitor to choose when and how it uses temperatures. Of course you must provide a wide range of temps and places of total darkness. Deep burrowable substrate will allow a monitor seclusion and darkness when it chooses. My monitors still come out during the day and go under at night.

Roger

24/7 light is for the convenience of the keeper, when you have multiple cages it is easier to walk into your reptile room and determine which heat source isn't working. 24/7 heat is most important, how you achieve that is up to you.

Having said that, it is important if you use 24/7 light as your heat source that the animal have access to dark places both cool and hot, I also think it is more appropriate if the heat comes from overhead as opposd to underneath the animal.

Along the same lines as what has already been posted…monitors don’t care about light cycles like you think of them. Lights are just a convenient heat source easily identifiable as functioning or not by us captors. They care about the heat, we care about whether it is working or not. That is it. Provided the correct thermo options the light and dark will be worked out by the monitor and is largely irrelevent. In fact I believe Frank mentioned he has tried various light cycles, including 24/7 light and 24/7 dark with no difference in the results.

I think our tendency to apply our own needs & weaknesses with respect to light cycles is anthropomorphic (guilty myself until coming here).

To put it in perspective, what light cycles are required for a mole? Leopard gecko?

Tom