Reptile & Amphibian Forums

quick question...is anyone heating their cages at all at night, and if so, with what? is it really even necessary to?

Chris and Diego
p.s. made an appointment with a new vet for next week!

I've always provided heat at night. I recommend at least to have a small under-tank heating pad or something simliar under the hot side. I leave it on all the time. I also have a "black light" reptile light (20 watts or so) that "simulates the moon's glow" on the cool side. It's very pretty and temps are around 80 cold 85 hot at night.
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-reptilian9

I leave a 40 watt light on 24/7.

I have a Ceramic heater on the same side as there hide boxs that comes on if the temps go below 78 Degress. There also on one of those esu thermastats. Russ

My vet had always warned me that undertank heaters were bad since there's too great a danger of the reptile burning himself. I know that this can be remedied by placing something between the substrate and the heater. So here's my question...I'm ordering a large freedom breeder display cage today and it comes with teh option of a HEAT PANEL undernetah the tank, you can also get a temp LED control, too for $120 to regulate it. But do I need one if I plan to use a PowerSun during the day and one of those Night Glow bulbs at night? And if I do, what do I place between the substrate and the heater (it comes with a 5 inch removable tray for substrate)?

Chris and Diego
LOOK AT THE NEW PIC! (see the eye problem i was talking about, though???)

Did you ever find out what was wrong with his eyes??/ I really still think that its shed, the shedding is really thick, thats exaclty what mine looked like.

Mike

Actually I made a vet appointment for Tuesday, I'm going to tell them exactly what you told me and see what they think...I'm not really sure if I trust myself to try and pull it off, the last thing I want is to blind my tegu. Thansk for the concern though Shad.

HOW DID YOU SAY THEY PULLED THAT SHED OUT FROM HIS EYE AGAIN? WITH JUST TWEEZERS? TELL ME AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE AGAIN SO I CAN TELL THE VET ON TUESDAY WHEN I GO...THANKS!

Well, I did it myself...At first I thought he was tired all the time but I knew something was wrong because it was only like that on one side. I just put him in warm water to soak and work around the edges of the eye. But I it ended up being just pulling that thick eyelid shed piece with a pencil, it was really think like plastic. You need to make sure that it is his eyelid shed and not that his eye is swollen. But if youve given him antibiotics then what Im telling you probably is it. Try to get his eye lid to go down with something soft. If it does and then goes back up to the original position then that supports my theory. Have your vet play around with that skin portion...I suggest soaking him more..>WAIT A MINUTE!! weren't you the guy that had to soak his tail becuase it had not shed? This is another shedding problem...SOAK HIM before you bring him to the vet, try to leave him in there for an hour before you go and try to wet his eyelid too.

GOod luck
Mike

WEll, I think it all depends on what brand of underthetank heater you get. Some of the better ones stay at 98-100 degrees and the heat is distributed throughout the mat. The cheaper ones tend to have hotspots. I bought a dog heating pad for my savannah monitor that I have inside the cage that kicks on at night. It is supposed to stay at 98 degrees. I've had it for over 6 months and have had no problem with any burns. I think it was around $45 or so. It's a tough plastic. If you're going to get a heat mat, or need to control something thermally, I would get an Alife Thermostat (around $35-$40). They are good up to 1000watts, and they have a probe that is used for temperature control instead of placing the whole unit in the cage

Is that eye problem just on one side???

Just trying to decide if I shoudl get a heat panel factory installed on my new cage with temp control or not if im already going to have a powersun

yeah its on his both his eyes, but one eye is worse.

c and d

This is actually about the eye problem I have been away for a while so I am sorry I did not catch it. I have a blue and she has the same issue with one eye. It looks to me as if her eye has fallen down in the socket for lack of a better description. The eye is there just not functional. Is this the same with yours? I wonder if this is a trait that the blues have. However she is as sweet as can be and I would not trade her for the world.
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Beau W.