I bought Sticky Tongue Farms Miner-All I for him. I am getting the light very soon. I am still deciding between the ZooMed Reptisun 5.0 UVB Fluorescent Bulbs and Zoo Med ReptiSun Compact Fluorescent UVB Lamp. Any suggestion which would be better? Would the bulb type be all that bad being only over a portion of the tank? I like the idea of it not being so much in the way as a long light strip.
His hot spot under the heat lamp is reading 90F. Should I kick the bulb up from 75 watt to 100 watt? I do heat my room at night so the room air temperature doesn't really go below 75-80F. I would say he spends less than 1/4 of his day under the heat lamp... the rest of the time he is running around the glass sides thinking of escape. I am about to use some dark colored paper 4" tall or so along the side so he can't see out and hopefully will stop trying to make a break. Probably also going to put a background on the backside and one of the sides for some privacy.
As far as substrates go, I don't plan to use astro-turf or reptile carpet. I have had bad feedback on toes getting stuck on little guys as well as ingesting the materials. I know the bark and soil mix can probably be ingested when he eats, but I try to feed him in his water dish so he is less likely to intake his substrate. He wasn't keen on being fed in a seperate container just yet... But items like mealworms and veges are provided in bowls in his cage... not his water dish (and he doesn't eat his veges at all...). I am going to get him some earthworms once I read up a little more about how to care for them and make them nutritious for him to eat.
Anyways, from my readings, it seems they need humidity so the soil/bark is easier to keep humid than say artifical items. I stuff I use is all natural coconut husk parts... I spot clean his enclosure whenever I find droppings to hopefully help.
How often do I use Miner-All btw? Every other feeding? If I start feeding him earthworms do I stop using Miner-All or just cut down to once a week or something (depending I suppose how much earthworms he eats or if he likes them).
Since variety is the key to good health (most often), is there a percentage of earthworms I should attempt to feed him? Then how much crickets and mealworms? How much of it should be veges/fruits? Can he eat pelleted diets as a supplement?
When it comes to crickets, is it possible for me to gutload them for 24 hours and then freeze them for later feedings? Or do they lose a lot of vital good stuff when freezing them? Assuming he will eat them once thawed... (obviously if he won't eat dead prey, it is pointless to bother trying to feed it to him like that, but what if he does accept dead prey?).
