Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi,

I have started leaving my Sav's halogen lights on all the time and just wanted to ask if anyone thought this was a bad idea. Last winter I used a space heater at night to keep the temps in the mid 70s but this winter I was thinking I would just leave his cage lights on. If anyone has opinions on this please let me know.

He is doing great, in no small part from the help I have gotten here.

- Phiff

I do both, the key is, try it and see for yourself. If you leave the lights on 24/7 you may experience more growth, it will eat more, and poop more, etc. If thats what you want, then you may want to leave them on.

On the otherhand, that may not be what you want. Good luck

Hell yea, bring on the poop and the growth!

Certain hormones are produce at night when it's night time which is th key enzymes that allows the cells in the body to function properly. The body knows when it is dark. There are things going on in your body right now that you can't see and know, and it is also true with other animals. It also takes this time to regenerate...like healing of wound and allowing it to grow better. My friend is a truck driver and the combination of sleeping often during the day, not eating right all the time and bad genes cause him to develop irregular heart beat. He's on medication and he needs oxygens at night because he can't breathe very well when sleeping as a result of the irregular heart beat.

I just use red bulb in combination with space heater.

Thanks for your thoughts. I am pretty reluctant in applying your story about your mammalian friend as we are talking about a vastly different type of animal!

It does get darker outside the cage so maybe that would trigger some of those darkness hormones. Also, for instance, he is currently in one of his hide spots for the night which cuts out a fair amount of light from above.

You can sleep with very thick curtains over the windows during the day, but your body still knows it's light out. Most vertebrates require the same vitamins and minerals...it's just what source they are untilizing it from that's different. So it wouldn't be hard to say that most of them need day/night cycle. That's just my opinion! Food for thoughts, I guess. [chuckle]

Paradon, you so full of beans. Can you proof any of that with monitors.

On the otherhand I have generation after generation of many species, that have expressed superior growth, reproduction and longevity. And I use lites on 24/7 with lots and always with neonates.

Its that kind of bull beans that you spew that sets back the keeping of reptiles for decades.

So put up results, or shut up.

oh thats right, you had a Sav for a few months. Good on yea.

Answer this! How do plants know which grow? Naturally, they will grow from the ground up...towards the sun. Maybe if you were a plant, you'd grow into the dirt! Haha! I'm done!

Monitors are not plants, they have legs and they live in burrows, dark burrows. They can move to lite or move away from lite. Thats what they do in nature and in captivity.

No monitor in nature is out all day, they spend most of their time in cracks, burrows, and crevices dark ones. They can get dark anytime they want.

in our cages, they can also get dark anytime they want, day or night. They can just go down a burrow or hide in bark or whatever shelter WE provide and we should provide shelter To all our varanids, lites or 24/7 or not.

I have to say, there is something seriously wrong with you paradon. We have done this exact same "discussion" before.

Why you feel the need to say st$%$ stuff is beyond me.

This was mention on another forum recently about 24/7 lights, for the most part most lights even hals are dull compared to day light so is probably more like a sunset/rise to monitors when their up & around.

I don't use 24/7 but it has crossed my mind for creating & ensuring a nest site been created below the surface of deep substrate at 86f??

The centre of this pic is filtered day light through 1 sheet of glass, 2 sheets of 6mm poly & the left is halogen spots flood.

Hello,

I think I explained it fairly well above. Captive monitors require deep shelters, no matter what their lite situation is. Is is also true for wild varanids. The spend the majority of daylite hours in burrows, cracks, hollows, etc(shelters)

Its not like someone is tying a monitor to a post and not letting it escape the lite 24/7.

I guess what gets me is, I cannot believe folks can be that blind, that they cannot see how this works.

Besides the fact that we have used lites 24/7 for over two decades and not had a single problem and have recieved lots of great benefits.

And your situation with nesting is exactly one of the benefits. Good luck and best wishes

I really hope this wasnt a serious statement.