Reptile & Amphibian Forums

If I got everything to work right this should show you a picture of my rhino's current setup. The daylight temperature ranges from 95-105F on the hotside(next to the window) to 80F in the hidebox. At night with the lights out the temps drop to 75-80F. My lighting consists of three separate fixtures(one normal spotlight over the hotest corner, one long 7%uvb, and another long 7%uva with 4%uvb). He's eating well and defecating at least once a day.

As far as his diet i'm trying to keep it varied. So far i've offered mixed baby greens, collard greens, green bell peppers, acorn squash and a few grapes. I've been offering alot less mixed greens because he seems to favor them the most and leave everything else. The acorn squash he doesn't touch, so I think i'm going to try some other squashes, or maybe i'm preparing it wrong.. I just blended it all up, except the stem. Is there a certain way you prepare your squash(seeds/skin removed)? I've also been sprinkling D3 calcium supplement on his food every 2 to 3 days.

That's all I can think of now, i'll attach a couple pics of my rhino if this one works.

Thanks for everyone's advice so far!

Sorry for the bad angle on that cage picture. I had to stand on an old desk in order to get a full tank shot.

Here's a picture of my little whipper snapper. He's a bit flighty when I reach for him(i would be too if some giant reached into my roof), but once out he's fairly calm.

One more before I go to bed.

N/P = No Post

n/t

That baby looks a little spindly to me too. Nix the mixed greens and stick with Collard, Dandelion, Mustard and Turnip greens. You can use varied winter squashes. I run mine thru the shredding blade on my food processor so that it looks like shredded cheese. You may want to add some greens beans to the diet for added protein and I give my younger Rhinos some soaked RepCal adult iguana pellets a few times a week on top of their salads.

John gave some good advice on the UVB. Those fluorescents are really useless unless your animal can get very close to them. I also recommend the Mercury Vapor lamps.

You can see the baby chub on Loofah in this photo of him at 3 weeks of age.

Sounds like you have the basics down. Here are some suggestions:
You can definetely add some furniture. Add some branches to climb on, and a structure to climb on. The UVB bulbs look like florecents which typically do not put out much uvb. If you want to stay with florecents, it is best if your iggy can get within 6 inches of the bulb. Use large guage screen on the top and make a perch within 6 inches of the bulb. Otherwise switch to a merc. vapor bulb as they put out a higher level of UVB at greater distances.
As for diet, follow green iguana diets such as MK's or iguana den diet. Dark leafy greens can make up 60-75%. Leave skin on squash as it has nutritional value. Most recent studies on d3 supplement suggest that iguanas cannot absorb it, so it is probably a waste. Your rhino has nice color, but looks a little lean. You can supplement his vegy diet with occassional meal worms if you want. Enjoy and good luck !

Where do you find these mercury lamps? I'll check with my local petstores tomorrow, but I don't remember ever seeing any in stock. As for the mealworms, they seem like they'd help add a little meat to his bones, how much substitution for his leafy diet do you suggest?

Thanks again!

hi, your pet shops will ask an absolutely ridiculous price for mv lamps, in the neighborhood of $65-80. Go online and get them at www.reptiledepot.com or www.reptiledirect.com or even lllreptile.com for about $35-45 plus shipping. Order a couple of other things or two lamps and the shipping is pretty much absorbed.

Carole
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Check it out. www.reptilecare.com

I don't have any experience really with lighting heat. I just measured the height of my enclosure to be 14 inches. Would you recommend the 100watt flood or spot light for this? There is also a higher watt, but I doubt i'll need so much.

Davidd