Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I recently (April 12th) got my ackie and he's a juvenile of about 7-8 inches with a reasonable heft to him. He has over a foot of 60%dirt 25%sand 15% sphagnum moss substrate in the enclosure. The ambient temps on the warm side are at around 100F ambient, his basking spot is at 143 max surface, and his cool end is at 80 ambient. The humidity hovers around 60% and his substrate can hold a burrow very well. The tank was somewhat spartan and offered only two hides when I got him, but this was remedied after a couple of days when I "renovated" his enclosure.
He lives on a screened-in porch in Tennessee and it's been somewhat cold, but the temps in his tank never dropped below 75. Since the addition of flexwatt and insulating panels to his tank, his temps don't drop below 80's in the deepest of substrate on the coldest of nights. I regulate the rheostat to ensure that it won't cook him and he has a reasonable cool side. Since the renovations, which required that he be placed in my 10 gallon "soaking tank" for about 45 minutes, he has become even shyer. He runs at the sight of me and won't emerge even when I'm not watching. He seems to love his new hides (a hollowed out log, some partially buried flat rocks, and a piece of "half-pipe" bark that's almost 3 feet long) but he just won't leave them. In his old enclosure, he was exploring on a daily basis and taking dubias from his dish on day 2. Now, he's more skittish than ever and I don't see him even scurrying to a hide.
He was taking 2-3 dubias a day from his dish with the old setup, but I've only counted two taken since his renovations, which happened on Thursday April 14th. He's just being cripplingly shy. Is this normal from a juvenile ackie? I'm worried it's a sign of poor health.

Having him on a screened in patio sounds risky to me to many variables better to keep it inside to allow as little change as possible. Also if you keep your husbandry right you shouldn't need to soak the animal. I to did that out of thinking it was neccesity and had a some what bold animal learn to hate and fear me. Its in there nature to be scared of you. Make sure you have all the living arrangements as best as you can and give the animal some time. It sounds like more research is needed on how to take care of these guys properly.

In the world of the baby monitor nearly everything wants to eat them so they have to be shy. The soaking is up to you, some people do it, some advice against it. I would defineatly bring the cage in the house not on the screened in porch.

You can do the outdoor cage thing when you get more experience. You want to keep the experience as positive as possible when first starting out.

Well, since the addition of the insulation and flexwatt, my temps don't vary much at all. Seeing him is still a rare occasion, but he certainly isn't shy about eating, pooping, and using his water dish. I find dirt everywhere in his water dish at some point in the day, poop in the same hard to reach corner (Thanks), and his dish empty of all but one roach (I leave 3-4 in there each time and they can't escape the dish). The temps are actually great since I got the insulation. Never TOO hot but never too cold either. Some digital max/min hygrometer thermometers and a temp gun are maybe the best husbandry tools ever.