Reptile & Amphibian Forums

As you all know I changed my uro's substrate last night from calci-sand to soil/sand mixture. I dug my uro out this morning in fear that he was stuck or dead... Anyway, I uncovered him and he just opened his eyes and tilted his head looking at me wondering "why are you bothering me again". I put him under his basking light this AM before I left for wonderful work. I had my mom run over and check on him. He was in the area by his food but she didn't know if he ate anything. He is def. cold because the basking bulb burnt out after I had left...

I have to go to home depot tonight. I am going to try out the 45 watt flood bulbs for basking. Is it wise to buy a ceramic heat emitter to get the heat up in the tank? Any thoughts? I need advice on how I can efficiently get the ambient temps up to the 90's... He is currently sitting in the 80's. Nice time for the basking light to burn out...

I am hoping that if I get the temps up, he will figure out how to burrow........

He's an unhappy little camper right now...

Thanks for all of your help! You guys have been GREAT!
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Lisa

1 Mali Uro - Spike
1 Leopard Tort - Herman
1 Shih Tzu - Jake

lisasmith@optonline.net
Monroe, NY

Is there a problem is using just a regular ole basking bulb from zoo med??? Just wondering...I've not ever used any of those other lights for basking so have no personal experience with them. However, I have heard from some others that they don't give off as much heat as teh actual basking bulbs. Kinda like those ones that are colored "night lights". They just light up the place but barely any heat.

Hope you find something to work! Glad to see in your post below he's coming out a bit!

Renee

>>Is there a problem is using just a regular ole basking bulb from zoo med??? Just wondering...I've not ever used any of those other lights for basking so have no personal experience with them. However, I have heard from some others that they don't give off as much heat as teh actual basking bulbs. Kinda like those ones that are colored "night lights". They just light up the place but barely any heat.
Plus, the basking bulbs will give you (the uro) the needed UVA. You should still have a source of UVB as well. Though now you may not notice, but in the long term...

Hi,
I have THREE 150 watt ESU night lights and you are right, it doesn't give off enough heat. What else can be uses in place of those? I was thinking about getting a ceramic heat emitter with a thermostat... That is what I have for my leopard tort. Do any of you use those for uros? I also have a repti glo 8.0 uva/uvb bulb that I have on during the day- it's 15 watt. I also have a heat pad under the warm side of the tank. I did have a zoo med basking bulb but it burnt out this morning (only 2 months of use) so that is why I am trying the flood bulb. I read in previous posts on this forum that they do the same as the basking bulb (heat wise) and it seems to be true...but mine is even getting a better temp... I usually got the basking area up to 110 degrees max but with this 65 watt flood bulb- I am up to 120 degrees. I am experimenting with it.

I am happy to announce that Spike is very active once again but has not figured out what the dirt is for... I built him some caves but when I got home from work tonight he actually filled the enterance ways up with dirt and was sitting on top of them. I dug them back out but he has taken liking to the cave on the cool side of the tank. The ambient temp there is 80 degrees...however inside the cave it's 70. I will watch him tomorrow and see how everything goes. I added some water tonight to the mix and it brought the humidity level back up to 65 but it's slowly decreasing.

He is still "glass dancing". I thought that if he had new surroundings and a substrate that he could dig down into, he wouldn't dance as much. I am going to take a pic of my set up tomorrow and post it for some thoughts...

Thank you. Let me know if I should be doing anything differently. I will go out tomorrow and pick up another basking bulb from zoo med, maybe get a 75 watt. Maybe it was a faulty bulb or something...
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Lisa

1 Mali Uro - Spike
1 Leopard Tort - Herman
1 Shih Tzu - Jake

lisasmith@optonline.net
Monroe, NY

Sounds like you've got the uva and uvb thing covered, though in my opinion (and that's all it is) that the Zoo Med basking spots are better for the uva than the strip lights. I read it somewhere, but I don't know it for a fact. Don't forget, the strip bulbs are only good for up to 6 months. Though they still may turn on, their effects diminish(sp) within that period.

If the cave's at 70F on the cool side, and the basking is at 120F, I think you've got a great gradient of temps. As for the glass dancing, they may not ever stop. It's not any indication of being unhappy or stress, just something they do.
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What exactly is "glass dancing"? I don't think I've ever experienced this behavior with my uro.

Glass dancing is when the uro tries to climb the glass. Looks like he's dancing. Most uro's I've seen do it from time to time. Mine does it everytime he sees me so I take it as a compliment.
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Kane

3 150 watt heat lamps? Jeez, that's gotta be bad for the power bill. Glad you are getting things figured out though. My powersun bulb burnt out the other day, and I used to have to use that (160 watts) and a 150 watt heat lamp on a dimmer. The thing about this that was strange though, is that it seemed to heat my room up more than it heated up the tank. Not really, but you get the point. The temperatures in my room were ungodly. After the powersun bulb burnt out, I figured Sam's bones were probably strong enough now to switch to a lighting setup like my bearded dragon's, which is a flourescent UV and a 100 watt zoo med spot bulb on a dimmer. This setup only takes 115 watts of power at the most (when the dimmer is up all of the way) and it heats the basking spot better than the other setup I think. She seems more active now too for some reason. By the way, I thought she might have weak bones because she was a rescue from some bonehead that kept her in a 10 gallon tank with no light, a hot rock, and just plain iceburg lettuce for food, and it appeared as though he never cleaned it (I must have said that a million times on the forum by now).

Good luck. i think I may try dirt some day, but I don't think my tank is big enough right now. I'll have to see what happens. Do you have any pics of your setup?