Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have had my uro for about 2 weeks now and am worried about tank temp. I have a daylight bulb that i have on during the day and i had a heat lamp but then yesterday i picked up the ceramic heat lamp. as soon as i got home last night i pluged it in and by this morning her cage was not nearly as hot as it was with the light bulb. Is it supposed to work better then the light bulb? and what else shoud i do to make the cage up to temperature? I am going to build her a new cage in the next week or so. Right now she is about 11 inches long. the cage i got for free when i got her. Any information would be great.

Do you have a way to measure the temps in the cage? If not I recommend you get a temp gun, they run about $25, so not too bad. Worse case get a digital thermometer, I got one with a probe for "outside" I put under the basking spot light, and put the readout part (the "indoor" sensor) on the cool end of the tank.

Ceramic heat emitters (CHEs) are good for ambient temperature, but definitely not basking spots. During the day I use a 150w ceramic heat emitter, a 150 watt basking spot light, and a fluorescent UVB light. At night the CHE is left on just to keep the tank temp at an acceptable level, but definitley not hot enough, or bright enough, for day time. (as a note I am heating a really, really big cage, most people do not need to use those wattages).

What is the light setup you are trying to use? Cage size, wattages, when lights turn on and off, etc. These bits of info will really help us help you. Also what type of Uro is it? Since some of the subspecies have slightly variant temp preferences.

If you have not found it already there is another great forum that has a ton of phenomenal info on cage building, in fact they recently helped me with a cage I built for my Uro.

This forum is great at helping people get their set ups correct, as well as answering general Uro questions. We love to see pictures and they really make it easier to understand set-ups, and Uro conditions.

I look forward to hearing more about your Uro and setup! What is its name?

Elizabeth

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1.0 Mali Uro Archimedes
0.0.1 Egyptian Uro Zuberi Mosca Khu (Mosca)
0.0 Fish
0.1 Sulcata Minnie
1.1 Iguanas Flik and Loki
0.1 Newfoundland Jasmine
0.1 Feline Winter
Indiana & Wisconsin

Sorry, I thought that was the picture of the finished cage...
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1.0 Mali Uro Archimedes
0.0.1 Egyptian Uro Zuberi Mosca Khu (Mosca)
0.0 Fish
0.1 Sulcata Minnie
1.1 Iguanas Flik and Loki
0.1 Newfoundland Jasmine
0.1 Feline Winter
Indiana & Wisconsin

Very NICE to have you. As you have already seen, there are alot of great people here eager to help in anyway they can.

Elizabeth seemed to give you alot of info on lighting for your basking area, and how to read and achieve proper temps.

So I would just like you to know we are glad to have you, and hope you will enjoy the forum.

Learn, have fun, and add your experiences as well.

We will be waiting for a pic, and your uro's name, hehehehe we like to meet all of our scaley new friends also,

ENJOY !

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Eve / PHEve

Thanks for the help. I have a small cage and I have the ceramic heat and a basking light. No uvb at the moment. the cage is in my living room and there are enough windows to last a life time. So there is pleanty of sunlight. I have one of those temp guages stuck to the back of the cage. The hotest it has registered is 110 degrees.
Her name is Medusa (greek for protector of women)hence turning men to stone with one look.
I will try and send some pictures up here by this weekend.
Love your cage. Did you build it yourself?
Thanks for your help.

If the sunlight passes through the glass in your window, it is filtered sunlight and no longer emits UVA and UVB rays (the rays are stopped by the glass in the window), just heat. If your windows are open and the sunlight is shining directly on the uro (ie. not through the glass of the tank), then yes, it is beneficial. I would still highly recommend getting some sort of UVB light for your uro's tank.

Hope this helps and welcome to the forum.

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1.1 Mali Uromastyx (Ra and Isis)

Well with that explaination I would have to say it is filtered.
Looks as though I am going to have to get a nicer cage soon.