I am setting up a temporary holding enclosure for our rhino thats on the way. What is the ideal basking temps for the rhinos? I have read they like it warmer than what I kept my greens in the past but how much warmer? Like for example I keep my large monitors basking site at 92-93 air temp and 130 basking surface temp.
My other question has to do with the bulb I am using. I bought a 160w mercury vapor bulb. What is the ideal distance from the animal for ideal uvb absorption, that and what distance is too close to the animal or unsafe for the animal? I have no experience with these bulbs, like most monitor keepers I dont use uvb, that and 23 years ago when I started keeping green iguanas I used the florecents and did so for the entire 19 years I kept them.
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setting up temprary enclosure
Replies (3)
Hi, I use the merc vapor bulbs as well. They throw uv for some distance. When I had Diego in a 65 gallon tank I had the merc vapor on the screen on top and it was about a foot from her. She basked on a low cave thingy as opposed to a branch. A branch would have brought it too close to the light. I believe the basking temp right there was 120 degrees. Like with the monitors you have to be careful to make sure he can get away from it as well. Diego used to sit right there quite a bit. I would notice her move off from there after several hours of basking activity. At night I used a CHE bulb on her. Had them both on timers. When the light would go off the che would switch on.
I would say 110-120 degrees as long as there is plenty of space for him to get away down to the 80s.
In this pic you can see the low cave thingy she basked on. The branch was short lived in there.
Take care,
Carole
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www.reptilecare.com
Hi, I meant to mention that you want to go for temperature with the merc. vapor bulb as opposed to uv measurement. When you get it to a distance where it is like 110-120 degrees it should be close enough so that he gets way more uv than he would out of a tube. It probably wont be able to be any closer than 1 foot away as it would get too too hot any closer. Also keep it out of the cage so that he cant climb on it. (but you prolly knew that).
Carole (who babbles too much)
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www.reptilecare.com
Yeah I know all about that, just new to the mercury bulbs. Now when you say 110 in the basking area, are you talking air temp or surface of the basking site? Either way easy to achieve. The baby rhino will only be in the temporary bin (its a livestock drinking bin) about a month. Then we are going to build her a new enclosure we are thinking 8Lx4Wx4T. We were going to move her into my soon to be ex-monitors enclosure but after looking it over last night after I posted my last message I decided to just take the old one down and build a brand new one.
