Reptile & Amphibian Forums

How high should basking lights, etc. be from, say, the bottom of the enclosure?

although I turned off the possibly damaging UV coil light yesterday, Silver's eyes just puffed up for a second and a red film closed in front of them.

Then just as fast, they were back to normal and he started eating his greens again.

???

The UV bulbs should have instructions, depending on what type/brand of bulb, on how far away they should be from the animal. As for basking/heat bulbs, it's a good idea to get an IR temp gun to measure the actual basking surface temperature, aim for 125-135 degrees surface temp. To adjust that, you can raise or lower the basking area to get the right temps.

Your Uro really needs a UV light, you can get an inexpensive 18" fluorescent fixture from a hardware store and use a 10.0 UV tube light in that, make sure it's suspended inside the enclosure, not sitting above a screen top (if you're using a screen). If you're worried about the UV coil, this would be a better way to go.

Hope this makes sense... I haven't had nearly enough caffeine yet today LOL!

That totally makes sense!

I am getting a better enclosure for him this week too---ohhhh new mom syndrome.

At least he is eating and relaxing and playful and aware. I myself need to go take a break from all this new lizard mom worry and get some caffeine myself!

And take care of my other 4 pets. Whew!

2 cats, 2 dogs--very happy Boston Terriers.

Thanks for all your help, you are awesome!

Oh, new mom syndrome! Yep... I've been through that a few times myself ... Twin girls (the human kind), three cats, one ancient hamster, one aquarium frog, dozens of pond shubunkins and comets, and three Saharan Uros... I feel like I'm running a zoo sometimes LOL!

Andi

doublemom? Sounds more like nantuple or decahedronal or some mathmatical term that I wouldn't know.

Ah, the zoo thing. Yes, I think I have just about gotten there myself--but without the human babies!!

Silver's appetite is really great today.

I don't really know how much food is the right amount for them for one day. Any thoughts?

I don't want to over stuff him or starve him!

Thanks!

The thing you said a few posts ago about the eye puffing and then the red film over the eye- that is perfectly normal

all the agama lizards -beardies and uros, horny toads, collard lizards, etc. "poof" out their eyelids as I will call it. It's not in most beardie books but i had read about it on a forum years ago. It's freaky to see them do it the 1st time b/c it looks like their eyes are going to buldge out of their head! The lizard somehow pushes air into their eyelid and poofs it up like a little balloon, i guess it's their equivalent to how we rub our eyes sometimes; it feels good to them, just stretching the skin. Then after they're done with the "eye buldging" you might see this film on their eye as they readjust their eyes back to normal. I forget what this is called but even alligators have it, it's like a clear double eyelid, under their outer one so they can go underwater or in sand and protect their eyes.

Strange huh? If you never sit and spend time watching your lizards you'll never see these things but the eye buldging still even freaks me out!! soo cool

kristen

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4.1 Bearded dragons (Lee,Stumpy,Blackie,Spazz,Lynn)
1 Egyptian Uromastyx (Niles)
(Papa Kunja and Uri have recently passed..we love you)

Thank you for your advice!

Aha!! You know it is funny--I thought that puffy eye thing might be normal--my gut told me not to worry about it--but since I have never had a lizard before I still had to ask!!

Thanks so much for the info!

I guess I am more concerned that his pupils seem kind of permanently dilated. An expert on Allexperts said it was the dangerous UV coil I was using. I need to get him the regular long fluorescent bulb deal. I plan on going to the hardware store tomorrow for that.