Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I'm a noob, just got a liz for christmas

Okay so the best way to heat a Lizard is threw Radiant heat, and not convection. Or in other words using infrared (like the sun) to heat your pet.

But which way is the best? I've bought a CHE thinking it would do a better job than the red bulb to heat, but i was noticing that it barely produced any heat (150 watt, from medzoo) and it can be dangerous. I also know of using heating panels with a quartz dish that I bought (a.k.a. radiant heater, follow this link to see an example:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B00006OAM6/qid=1104702721/sr=1-4/ref=sr_1_4/102-7545507-4464932?v=glance&s=kitchen )

It really safe, and the grill doesn't get hot.

But from what I know there is no pets version using that technology to produce infrared (it has a safety device so you have to have it parallel to the ground {can't tilt it}, and it is huge, the dish is about two feet in diameter. Is there a smaller version already made for pets?

Also what technology does the Pro-production Heat Panels use to produce Infrared? Ceramic, or Radiant heater?

No! Infrared lights are everything but a good idea. They warm up internal tissues stronger than the skin and since the herps do not recognize that they may end up with severe internal overheating.
This can cause enormous health problems or even death if you are unlucky.
Full spectrum lights are the most natural way to heat a herp tank.
Since our tanks in any way are dimly lit in comparison to nature, it makes no sense to waste energy with dark heat for diurnal herps. Its much better to install enough bright lights, to reach the necessary temps. The closer the spectrum of the bulbs is to the sun, the better works inborn thermoregulation of our herps.
Hence I strongly recommend metal halides with a colour temp in teh 5-6000K range as a major source of light.

Ci@o

Ingo

Wow, I really didn't know that enough 5000k lights can raise the temperature to a noticable degree. How many do you have?

I have a few vite-lite bulbs, it is 5000k, and gives off a little bit of uv, about how many do I need to get the right amount?

Also doesn't sunlight have a little bit of infrared? So wouldn't it be best to have a little bit of infrared (like keeping a small infrared bulb like this one

http://reptileuv.tripod.com/megaheat.htm#

a pretty far distance from the cage) to mimic sunlight to get the fullest effect?

mercury vapor does it all. if you want to buy one bulb and have it last 1-2 years it is your best bet. i don't know all the specs of the bulbs but you should check them out if you haven't already. cost is 30-50 dollars per bulb but can achieve your desired heat with 100-200 watt bulbs and all the uv your lizard will need.
i've been using them on my chameleons and frilled dragon and they work great.

Hi,

of course all bulbs do emit infrared light as a part of their spectrum. Thats of course OK and needed.
I do heat all of my tanks mainla by lights. Even the high Uromastyx temos can be reached by combining metal halides with mercury vapor bulbs.
Only my rainforest setups with animals which avoide bright lights (Gonocephalus, Gekko species, Acanthosaura) do receive less intense lights and those I do additionally heat.

Best regards

Ingo