Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello,

I have a whole room dedicated to my herps. Each cage is individually climate-controlled with Herpstat2's. The monitor, being uncaged, warms himself under an array of electrical heat emitters up six feet on a long shelf on the wall. My inverts have three or four tanks in the living room, all tropical with herpstat 2's. So I'm using a lot of electricity. A solution occurred to me.
I can run thermostat wire up the hall wall, across the ceiling, and down about 4", and then through the wall into the herp room. As an experiment, the surface-mounted red and white thermostat wires won't be too ugly to live with temporarily. I'll mount a setback thermostat on the herp room wall, so the room will be the only temperature-controlled room in the house. Then I close all the heating vents except for a few; each bathroom, and the herp room. I'll set the thermostat for 85 during the day, and 75 at night.

Since the BT is so used to warming on his shelf, I'll make a false plank under his emitters, with a switch that turns on the electrical heat emitters when he puts his weight on it. I'll need electrical basking-zone heat in one large, colony-type habitat. My furnace will run much less than it would to heat the whole house. Cutting back on the square inches of registers will raise the pressure of the warmed-air pipes, possibly burdening and possibly ruining the furnace motor. But I think three or four open registers will keep the furnace healthy, because the heat demand in the herp room will be only enough to bring the ambient temperature up to 85F. So it will start up, run for five minutes, then turn off, allowing the furnace fan motor time to cool off. I won't know how many times it will cycle per day until I actually make the changes.

Putting the inverts in the herp room will make their heaters obsolete. 85F is just fine for them.

Doing this will dramatically reduce the utility bill for my house. I'll have to dress warmer to live comfortably in my house. That's a Jimmy Carter wet dream. For those of you who don't know, he was President during a huge energy cost upturn. On TV, he told the nation's people to cope by putting sweaters on, and received deserved major outrage and derision. But I'll be doing that voluntarily. In my house, reducing the temperature is easy to get used to. At least the bathrooms will always be cooking.

Does this interest anyone? If it does, I'll post readings of amperage from the furnace motor to prove whether the motor is over-burdened during an average "on" cycle.

Roger

Really no offense, BUT WHAT THE HECK ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT. What your doing is the opposite of efficent.

If you have lots of cages in that room, you should not have to heat the room at all.

Leaving a blackthroat out in a room full of cages is about as dumb as it gets. That will end in disaster.

FYI, heat emitters are about as wasteful as it gets. Two 45 watt halogen flood lamps put out way more heat then a 250watt heat emitter. Maybe even one.

Hey let us know when your house burns down. Cheers

"Really no offense, BUT WHAT THE HECK ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT."

Thats precisely what I was thinking. haha

uh u leave a large monitor to roam freely in a room of cages that have in them "tasty treats". probably not a good idea seeing a monitor will pretty much eat any living thing it can fit in its mouth. to me a better idea would be to build a cage for the monitor (that would be number one for me) then get 2 or 3 room heaters (the ones that blow hot air around) plug them into a helix type thermostat set the probes around the room set it to those temps . tat would work the same and u wouldnt be chilly in your own house...lol

im pretty sure he's not letting a freakin monitor just roam the room.
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0.2 leopard geckos (Sally and Paris)
1.0 crested gecko (Theo)
0.0.1 ball python (Vlad)
0.2 fancy rats (Bella and Ava)
0.1 cat (Sara)
1.0 dog (Buster*RIP*)
www.strikeferalchildren.net

I think most of us got the indication that his "freakin" monitor was free roaming the room because he said, "The monitor, being uncaged, warms himself under an array of electrical heat emitters up six feet on a long shelf on the wall."

Maybe none of us know how to read? haha

The first water monitor I ever got was a gift from my wife (at the time my girlfreind.) It was 4.5 ft and about 40lbs. This was a case of having the cart before the horse as I did not yet have a cage for it. Dumb idea no 2 (no 1 being getting a lizard I was not prepared to house yet.) Was to put it in a room by itself while I built a cage. This lizard found a hole in a wall the size of my fist and how it managed to fit in it still amazes me to this day. Anyway I had to rip the wall out to retrieve the monitor. It was an old wall (lathe and plaster not dry wall) so it was not easy and it was my parent's house so they were not happy but not unused to my many reptile mishaps as a child. When we bought the house I live in now our move was rather sudden and I had to dismantle most of my cages for transport. I had two water monitors both about 4ft at the time and decided to put them in a bathroom upstairs while I moved in and reassembled cages. No problems for the first 2 weeks so I got lazy and kept them in there and took my time rebuilding cages even though at this point I should have known better. My wife and I come home from work one night and a freind we had living with us at the time had doors and windows open and several fans going and I am wondering what in God's name he is up to. The monitors had crawled between the spickets on the bath tub and turned them on and flooded our new house. Thank God nothing was seriously damaged but I finished reassembling their cage REALLY fast. The moral here is don't let your monitors run loose like Frank said it is just an accident waiting to happen. Build a cage. You can build a half-***ed cage that will work for less than$500 which is much cheaper than the damage that can be done.

4.5ft and 40 lbs??? That would be shaped like a basketball at 4.5ft long.
Every 4-5ft water monitor I know of or have ever seen in 20 plus years, is about 8-12 lbs at most, they are after all 2/3 rds tail. A very large adult water monitor around 6ft plus may weigh about 30 plus pounds.
I used to help a good friend with a reptile rescue, it was common to be called out for so called 4-6ft niles, water monitors, 4-5ft boscs, etc to find 1-3ft monitors. It was really common to get calls about 5-8ft gators, when we got there they were 1-3ft baby gators.
How someone mistakes a 4.5ft water monitor as being that heavy, I dont know. That would be about 6 lbs heavier than my 6ft 8 inch albig. As an interesting experiment, I had several people look at Sobek in person, and pick her up in the past, they assumed that she weighed about 75lbs, this is more than double her actual weight, about the weight of my freighting husky.

I know what she weighed because I weighed here several times. Although this monitor was overweight she did not look like a basketball. She was the FIRST water I had (About 15 yrs ago or so now.) I have basically kept waters almost exclusively since then (with a couple other exceptions.)as far as monitors go so I am aware of how overweight this monitor was. You apparently missed the point of my post which was to point out some of my mistakes of allowing monitors run loose in a house. as Frank said this guy could burn his house down. With my second incident in MY house that I own I got away with nothing more than some water stains on the ceiling ( it was an Upstairs bathroom). As I said I own it And I am not selling so I'm not worried. But what if this guy rents and something happens or if his house does in fact burn down. I think one of the points of this forum is to help others with advice which includes examples of mistakes to help others not make mistakes. I am not ashamed of mistakes I make, with a lot of things I do reptile keeping and otherwise they come with the territory(when I started there was no internet no vivarium,no books by Devosjoli just whatever fieldguides you could find and you had to figure it out on your own from there.) I try to learn from them. BTW those are nice Huskies especially the low-content with pink nose.

I still cant see a 4.5 or even 5.5ft water monitor ever being 40 lbs, in fact someone not long ago had a nice healthy, but a bit chunky water monitor posted on here and another forum, it was 15 lbs, that lizard was over 5ft long.
Even though they become big heavy adults, a water monitor weighs more than an albig at adulthood, they arent that drastically much more. In fact at 5ft I can fit my thumb and middle finger around their tail bases without squeezing at all. I believe John A has a few 30-40 lb water monitors, I dont think a single one is shorter than 6ft, some of them are larger. My entire hand barely fits halfway around Sobeks tail base.
Ive been using a digital fish scale and a canvas bag to weigh mine for years, a friend and I discovered it to be a very accurate method.
Thank you for the comments on the pups, they are such a blast, and I cant thank them enough for the exercise they provide me with. The mix breed (husky, possibly white shepard, and malamute) is now 81 lbs and only 11 months old.
Good luck

Thanks!!!
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"And the rest is all in his head"

Close the vent in the herp room. Open all other vents. Set for your comfort. Close the door to the herp room. Heat it with an oil filled radiator type heater and use a ceiling fan to circulate the air for an even temp.
Put the BT in a cage = build a cage around the existing basking shelf.

Other than the BT, what else are you keeping? If they are not tropical, let the room temp drop and let the Herpstats do their work. You might be surprised how much some herps will use the cool temps. Do not do this with tropicals!

Ive had my black throught roaming free for 5 years and I have snakes and beardies in containers and never had a single problem with "Hank" getting into them. I have a strict feeding regiment and I find this to subside any impulse to go looking for food and so far so good..... well there was the couch cushion that got destroyed 3 yrs ago from Hank and the dog.
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The cake is a lie...

Or if so you must a tiny BT. I have kept albigs for years, several in fact, every one of them would tear open any cages not practically bolted shut and eat any animal close to their size or smaller (except my cat, he scares them). In fact Sobeks birthday just recently past, she just turned 6 and SHE is 6 ft 8 inches long now. A free roaming monitor is nowhere near what it should be living in, simply put our houses are made to keep us warm, or cool and dry. Their environments should have hat, warm, cool, dry, damp, and wet spots. In the past (many years ago) I kept a few monitors in cages with little humidity or moisture available, they dont live very long, or after so many years they start to suffer from health problems that associate from the long term lack of a proper environment.
Its your choice to do as you please, but personally I would rather move forward in monitor care, and keep them healthy, not go way backwards to the way they were kept by so many in the past.
About dogs and monitors, I know that even with the size of Sobek, the speed of my flaviargus, neither one would be safe with either one of my dogs if they so chose to play rough or get defensive with the monitors, even just giving into instinct they would kill the lizards in a hurry.



Just think both are each 2.5 times the weight of Sobek, one is still only a puppy.
Any albig I have ever had, even small 2ft long hatchlings would have ripped most cages open and eaten any snake, turtle, close to their own size, or lizard they find.

Well SHvar I've allways loved your posts and respect you above all here so I wont argue with ya but my dog is diffenitly not ur dogs haha. And Hank has a cage, I just give him the ability to come out if he chooses. Its cold here where I live right now and sure as hell he isnt comin out much at all.
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The cake is a lie...

Well, most of the times.
Mine are very gentle with other animals, but being typical canines they greet, introduce, play, and communicate, very rough. Being husky, they are rowdier, rougher, growlier and more playful than most canines seem to be.
Recently I had a male ackie escape for the 4th time in months, usually something impedes the top closing on occasion, he takes advantage. He was out for 4 days at least, in the basement, on the cold floor, in a drain around the wall. That bugger is within a few feet every time of where he was last time, my cat visits him and hangs out, I think he helps to keep him warm on his adventures sometimes. The little bugger eats escaped crickets (very few, but finds them all in no time at all), in fact sometimes he seems to gain weight when he gets out, lol.
I dont trust the dogs with the lizards, but thats because instinct is a strong thing, and it teachs many parents an unforgettable lesson, even a 4.5 lb pommeranian has a human fatality to its record in the US (an infant).

people respond or if you really like to complicate things.
I live in upstate NY.....4 hours south of Canada. I have an oil filled electric heater in my herp room and I use it at night (lower rates then) for two months of the year....Jan and Feb. All the rest of the year the heat is fine or too hot and has to be vented. That is with only a couple lighted enclosures for the monitors and bearded dragons....all else on heat tape. Not that huge a wattage drain.

And how the loose monitor hasn't torn the room to shreds can only be explained by him being cold or obese. My fat savannahs have made a mess the rare times they have been able to do so. (babysitters forgetting details)
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Sonya

I'm not mean. You're just a sissy.
Happy Bunny

Where do you live in N.Y.? I was living Between the Port Leyden and Old Forge areas (in relation to winter and Summer jobs.) before I moved to Fla. The House I was referring to my water going through wall in was my parent's house in Port Leyden. It's funny that I still have animals that were purchased in N.Y. state that I could not move back to N.Y. state with (like I'd ever want to) as I would now be a criminal for owning them. BTW I miss the people of N.Y. but I definitely don't miss those cold winters.

...I was wondering if you were related to Nikolai Tesla. It kind of reminds me of one of his inventions. Still a BAD idea to let a monitor run loose but the heat thing is reallly different. Have you tried building one of those nut-crackers yet???