Reptile & Amphibian Forums

..about being sure I have the right temps with this repti-carpet. I have a digital thermometer in all my tanks with an outdoor sensor. Is mounting the sensor to the inside of their hides good enough for a temp reading? I am concerned that the "air" temp inside the hide my be 88-90 where I want it, but the ground is actually too hot... are these temps very close to each other? My plan at this point is to put down repti-carpet. Inside/Under the hide I will use a swatch of Bed-A-Beast for a bit of nesting material. If I just put my outdoor sensor into the nesting and it's 87-90 should I be set? The reason I ask is, because once this switch is complete and they are given time to adjust I want to hopefully see more activity from my leos at night. Right now I have a couple that never, and I mean NEVER leave their hide. They only eat if the food wanders into the hide...

Jeff

Jeff that sensor can go onto the bottom of their hide or ontop of the nesting material you plan on using. For example in my rack system I set them at around 91 degrees but the sensor is located under the individual rubbermaid containers. Considering the slight insulation effect of the container itself I get the temp very close to 88-90 degrees. Leopards while inactive are laying on their bellies. So what I like to call BOTTOM BELLY HEAT is what your looking for. You get a surface temp of anywhere from 86-90 degrees where your little guys spend most of their time and you should be set. Hope this helps.

Exactly, that was my concern. I didn't want to mount the sensor to the inside wall of the hide and have it reading 89 degrees and think I'm the king of the world when in actuality the belly heat temperature is like 100... so I wasn't sure how to get an accurate reading from the repti-carpet without having one side of my hide looking like it was on hydraulics, lol.

Jeff