Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Just picked up a male and female yellow(niger/geyri) uros. They are in a 40 gal breeder. the male is about 13 inches the female is like 7 inches and alot thinner. They are different ages...I have them on a bird seed substrate... It's a mix that I bought at walmart. I do not have a UVB yet...I need to get a reptisun soon. But my problem is I can't get their basking spot over 100 degrees. I have two 120 Watt floods and a 150W ceramic heater...still its 95-100 they are about 15 inches away. Clipped on to top of tank, I do not know how to get the temperature up. Please respond FAST

THANK YOU

So RAISE the basking site.

Without being mean, or at least not trying to be mean. You first need to meet basic space requirements for each uro. Your male will likely kill your female seeing as the age and size difference in addition to dominance issues. Get two new enclosures that will be proper sizes, and while ordering, get your necessary UVB bulbs, and plenty of different wattage heat bulbs and CHEs to fiddle with temperatures. Also, temperature readings should be with digital meters. You likely still have some other issues that need addressing, but I can't suggest anything without that information. Good luck with your husbandry fixes.

I have the uros now. I have them set up with 123 temperature at the hottest spot and the rest of hot side about 105 and the cool side at 85. They have eaten their first meal and I'm going to give them a warm-hot couple minute bath to get them hydrated. I think I will separate the female to make sure she is getting nutrition.

Elevate your basking spots to achieve proper temperature basking sites. This can be done creatively in many ways, natural or simple. Natural would be create a rock crevice structure that raises upward toward the light, or go with my personal favorite and make a retes stack for the uros. I found the Uro's use the retes stack as a resource constantly and when not hiding in a burrow, they hide between the stacks. If your interested, I can go into more detail, but for now Proexotics also goes into detail about the retes stack on their website, http://proexotics.com/FAQ2.html#8

Also you can achieve proper temperatures without using massive wattage bulbs, a mistake that I used to make my self. Proexotics offers a type of halogen flood bulb that comes in 50 and 85 watts. With elevated basking spots, I've achieved temperature gradients ranging from a hottest of 145 degrees to a low of 75 degrees. They not only saves money on the electricity bill, but works efficiently for the reptiles heating requirements.

-Paul