Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I was reading pro exotics care sheet and they mention that they use a 24/7 day cycle with there waters, anyone else do this? I currently have a day/night cycle, just curious. Have had my water for about 3 weeks and notice a huge difference in him, I can now change his water with out being whipped and he is eating all his fuzzies from my tongs. Still using cypress, I found a soil that is natural but has pine in it would that work, feels really nice and is cheap too. Thanks Jason

Its not about day and night cycles, its about having a range of options, of temps, and humidities.
When you have a low wattage bulb or 2 burning in one end of the cage, for 24 hours, and no other light of heat sources you produce a range of temps from hot to cool, the monitor (or any reptile) can make its own mind up as to what works best for it.
The sun is the sun (as FR says) and not a bulb, there is no bulb on the planet that can make a reptile think that it is the sun. A bulb is a tool to produce heat, it also makes enough light to see, light and dark cycles do not matter. The idea is that if the animal is in an environment that allows it to escape the heat, and find cool, damp places in the dark, you do not need to turn the lights off, therefore your care becomes so much easier..

Light cycles do alot to regulate sleep patterns and even breeding cycles. The light itsself is also very important for basking and proper digestion and metabolism but try to get the light cycles as close to the natural environment as possible. You will have a less stressed and more happy reptile that will be healthier and more willing to breed come that time of year.

FR uses no Day/Night cycles, and judging how he has breed and hatch more monitors than anyone on this forum combined, It's best to go by what he says.
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"FR uses no Day/Night cycles, and judging how he has breed and hatch more monitors than anyone on this forum combined, It's best to go by what he says."

Yeah, Frank keeps his lights on 24/7 but he has also been fine tuning his husbandry for many years. Keep in mind that he is more advanced than many keepers out there, and if everything else is not in sync, 24/7 might not be the best idea. Make sure there are enough hide spots/dark places because not being able to escape the light and heat could possibly be very stressful for the monitor. Also consider the electric bill.

Try different options out and use what works best for your monitor and setup. Ideally, there should be lots of ranges in the cage, light to dark, hot to cold, dry to humid...etc Monitors are very intelligent, so let it choose the conditions it wants.

I have many cages with the lights on 24/7, I have many cages where the lites are on time clocks, no specific hour settings, just sort of off at night and on in the day. I also have many outdoor cages with natural photoperiod. I also have outdoor cages that use the sun in the summer and lites on 24/7 in the winter.

So you can say, I use IT ALL. Many individual monitors, are started up with lites on a time clock, then moved for years in cages with lites on 24/7, then kept outside.

I see no difference in performance, breeding, or anyother dang thing. As in, THIS IS NOT A(the) PROBLEM.

Yes, I breed/have bred lots of monitors, maybe more then anyone single individual or zoo in the world. And it makes no difference which set up I use. The lites and how and when they're on, IS NOT the deciding factor.

The problem/s appear to be LACK of choices. My monitors have choices and they pick them wisely. THAT IS WHAT WILD MONITORS DO. THEY PICK THEIR CONDITIONS.

Others think they set conditions like nature, yet, they have no friggin idea what a monitor picks in nature. This method has been failing for decades and decades. Monitors do not use one set of conditions, even if it reminds YOU of nature. They pick from nature what supports their life. YOU GOT TO UNDERSTAND THAT. I offer conditions, they pick what they want and do not pick what they do not want. HOW FRIGGIN EASY IS THAT, both to do and to think about.

You folks got to get away from egotistical keepers(train of though) that think they know what monitors want. Especially when its so easy to offer a range of offerings and let them pick what the heck they(the monitors) want and when they want it. The monitors are the experts at being monitor, we do not have to know anything. Just provide for their needs.

With 24/7 lites, many individuals choose to bask at night, after a while the reason becomes very clear. Even thought we precieve them to be tame, they do not want to bask in front of people. PERIOD. Monitors captive or otherwise, will stop basking when anything odd comes around, and boy howdy, your odd(to them)

They may also split time with other monitors, some will bask peacefully in the day while others in the same cage will peacefully bask at night. How cool and good is that. Of course, it would be more natural to MAKE THEM FIGHT. hahahahahaha or would it.

Lastly and I am getting real tired of saying this. REPTILES DO NOT SLEEP 8hrs at night, then are awake all day, HECK, dogs don't do that either. They sleep during periods of day and night, most pick dark areas. GIVE THEM DARK PLACES TO SLEEP, even in the day. What is wrong with some folks???? hahahahahahahahahahahahaha Cheers

Light bulbs do not, nor will they ever equal the sun, so therefore a lightbulb does not, nor will it ever effect or change sleep patterns, or anything else about the animal.
Besides when they have places to go, as they do in any environment, they are not effected by the sun even, other than the limit on when they can bask in it.
Keep this in mind, no lightbulb available will ever change a sleep pattern in these animals.
There was a post once about light intensity by a prominent monitor biologist, I saved the info somewhere.
He said that when measured, the ambient light intensity at the time almost all monitors have been long asleep outdoors (in the open better yet) at around the time when the sun is going down.
The light intensity measured about 10 times what the most powerful mercury vapor area lighting could ever provide from only a few inches away from the bulb.
About 25 times more intense than the most intense office lighting measured a few inches away from the bulbs.
About 60 times more intense than a halogen flood bulb.
Also consider about 100 times more intense than the average household bulb.
So no bulb will ever imitate the sun.

Melatonin. Light does affect all living organisms and its not just uv rays that do this. Please read.

http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0027-8424(19831001)80:192.0.CO;2-6

A paper such as what you linked to, is suppose to help you in your effort. But it does not know what your effort is. Only you do.

Is what your doing in context to that paper? Is that paper about what your doing? Is that paper correct? As I mention all the time here, research is not finding that paper and reading it. But researching that paper and seeing if what was done is appliable to your application, or simply right or wrong. Most papers on any subject are proven WRONG. In time, with RESULTS.

In this case, that paper and any paper can say anything it wants. As just ME alone has set that on its ear(proven it wrong). At least in this one little confined area, with these animals. As we are amoung the cutting edge is varanid success. Don't get me wrong, there are others too. But our results are equal to the best out there. Yet, we do not follow your thoughts.

Using lites on 24/7 has achieved superior RESULTS. Has is an important word. Do you know what results are. ITS the product of an equation. The equation is, the husbandry. Our results are superior. We raise many generations of many species in such a way, OVER AND OVER. WITHOUT a problem.

Yet, your finding papers on something that HAS to be out of context because IT PRODUCED NO RESULTS IN THIS AREA. Doing that is not all that smart. To compare something with no results, to something with superior results is a very poor approach, who the heck taught you that?

The reason is has to be out of context is, regular litebulbs on a 24/7 schedule, has already produced superior results, over and over. On a regular repeated basis. And hoping for WHAT?

Now, I believe your hopes are to allow your monitor to grow up, without problem, live a full healthy life, etc. Our practice is past that, we do not worry about that, in our system that is normal. Our monitors grow up and NEVER have sleep problems. They are the most normal, growing, pairing, nesting, breeding, living long lives, digging, climbing, swimming. Being a neonate, a subadult, an adult, an old adult, etc. This is the norm. Yet, your linking to a paper that has DONE NOTHING in this area, and about this question. Good on you. Your a heck of a researcher.

IT appears there are many like you, you seemed to learn how to goggle up papers(is that really research?) Even PHD's are doing that. But the problem is, you forgot to make sure it applies to you question. In that you failed. Cheers