Reptile & Amphibian Forums

while the desert monitors are hibernating for the winter i decided to refurnish the cage. so i stripped it and put 1.5 tones of masonry sand and about half a tone of rock. hot spots are 115-125, ambient hot side timp is 95-100 and cool side is 75-80. i am going to wake them ( v. griseus) up the 22 of february. hope u liked the pics.
cheers
jake

-----
1.1 v. griseus

another pic.

-----
1.1 v. griseus

one more

-----
1.1 v. griseus

It's almost identical to my set up!

tahts cool! can u post same pics? do u keep griseus?
-----
1.1 v. griseus

No griseus... Savs in the setup that is like yours, nile in another. See pics a few posts above^^^. Now that I look at it, they are not really that much the same... maybe the dimensions are pretty close and all of the hanging lights... What size/ watt bulbs do you use? I am still working on getting my lighting perfected, I need to line up like 3 in a row with a rock under it so they can bask their entire body's and not just partial sections. Mine is 8hx8wx5tall.

i have 3 250 watt brood bulbs that help the ambient timps and then use 4 90 watt holygen bulbs(if thats how u spell it) and they are about 16in from the rocks and sand, but ill check tomorrow! the timps were up to 137 this AM... that was the hottest. the coolest hot spot was 110 and the ambient hot side is 95 to 100. cool side is the same. i hope this helps!
cheers
jake

-----
1.1 v. griseus

Hi,

I saw how much watts you use for your enclosure, and that's a lot!
750 380 W, I don't know about the energy prices in the US, but that has got to cost you at least 1000 dollar a year i think.
I have a pretty large enclosure for my rudi's and I use about 240-340 W total depending on the season. I think if you isolate your enclosure and adapt your lightning the 4x 90 W alone should do the trick for you. It will save you a lot of money.

Jasper

thanks for the input! i keep my animals in my basment and it stays around 65 year round:/ i have tried lower watts but it doesnt seem to get the timps up. the 90 watt bulbs seem to work well though, so i might change them all to that... but they only have a 25* beam as to the 75* beam that the 250w bulbs have. i dont know how much $ it uses ill have to check!
cheers
jake
-----
1.1 v. griseus

Sir the cost of that is far more then $100.

This may help.

Energy is sold per Kilowatt Hour (kWh). It is defined as using 1000 watts, for 1 hour.

The US average price of electricity per kWh (2007 I believe) was 11 cents. Simple math is all you need from here.

If your enclosure uses 3 buls at 250 and 3 at 90 your total power consumption is 1020 watts. That means you use 24.8 kWh per day. From here it is very simple, you do 24.8 times 365 for a yearly figure of 9052 kWh's. Now take 9052 and multiply it by 11 cents.

$995.72 Per year, at about $83 a month.

Insulation is your friend. Keep in mind, depending on the size of your basement and your method of home heating it could quite easily be cheaper to heat your basement hahahaha. If that is not an option, look to insulation for your cages.

Goodluck,
Mike.

Hi,

There are some flaws in your math I think.
He has griseus, they hibernate, so he can cut the power for 2-3 months (?).
And I don't think he has his lights on for 24 hours a day, probably 12-12. There are a lot of keepers using 24 hours of heat, but at night 1 or 2 lights will be more than sufficient.
I keep 1 bulb on for 24 hours, not all of them.
so it is a little less expensive than I thought, I just checked energy prices here in Holland, and they are more than twice as high! About 20-25 eurocent per kwh.
But still insulating the cage is wise.

Jasper

Sure I dont know what he is doing with his lights. But my math is not flawwed, if he were to leave those lights on 24/7 - the cost is what I listed per 11 cents per kWh.

All he would have to do is account for his cycles and reinput the math the same way.

Thanks,
Mike.

my lights do stay on 24/7 done it that way for 4 years. i like to give them the choice. and they like to get up around 5 pm and go down around 2 am. and yes they do hibernate. they have been down sense november.
when i got home today one hot spot was 157f so i think i may lower that spots wattage. but the others were around 110-140. im going to watch very close to see which one they use the most.

here is an old video i uploaded.
-----
1.1 v. griseus

Hi,

I am not saying you should change your temps or the way you keep them, all I am saying is that there is a much more energy efficient way to get those temps. for example by completely closing of the top with thick plates and have ventilation in the sides. Some insulation on the outside of the walls will help too.
Insulating the bottom is also a good plan, if you haven't done that yet, but it will be quite a job with all that sand in it, maybe something for next year....
Have you bred them already, or will this be the year?

Jasper

yeah that will have to wait for next year! haha
im really hopping this will be the year! iv been working on them for four years and this will be the 2nd year to try. last year I had them a little to warm I think they were at like 65f and they still dug a lot. so they didn't breed( well I didn't see them breeding) this year I am keeping them at 55 and they are very still though still responsive. if I open the top they both hiss profusely! haha typical! but breeding doesn't seem to be the hard part with these guys its getting eggs that seems to be the hard part. but if someone has more experience on that subject please let me know!
cheers
Jake
-----
1.1 v. griseus

I hope you be succesfull with them this year.
How are they to keep anyway? I have never seen one in the flesh,I heard they are a bit of a handfull and quick to bite, is that true? How are they towards each other, and do they hide a lot?

Jasper

they are ery easy to keep! just keep them hot and they do great! they will eat any thing and do seem to enjoy killing for fun. though I don't like it to much! my female is ready to bite though my male is not. they both come to me for food readily but if I have nothing to offer they react with a negative response. the best thing is to not move quick and they will except your presence, though I never hold them so don't ever get bit. they do seem to have a social nature. like if there is a mouse in the cage and one gets to it first the other will turn around and leave and let it eat... that happens 99.98% of the time. the other .01% is bad! though it only happens if the mouse gets away and the other monitor is to close, then it may get mistaken for food! though the fight only lasts for like a sec. then they brake up. no bad injuries have happened. the other .01% the mouse gets ripped apart. other than that they don't acknowledge the other is around. they dont hide alot at all! i leave my lights on 24/7 so they stay out for about 8-9 hours though mine come out late in the day and through the night but that may change this year. hope that helps!
cheers
jake
-----
1.1 v. griseus

i DO NOT recommend them for beginners! they do demand respect!

here is a vid showing as far as u can go with my male. the female would not stand for the cam. and went under her hide! this was added 10 months ago.
-----
1.1 v. griseus

I think your griseus and my nile share the same temperament. My nile is only 12 inches right now though, I think he will end up eating me by the time he is full size, or he may just bite my nads off. Gotta love em.