Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Not sure I should enter this topic, but thought I'd give my two cents worth. My iguanas are maintained outdoors, so different than an indoor cage.

In Arizona my rhino's have experienced temps from 20 degrees to 122 degrees. They are provided a heated hide during freezing winter temps. During the summer we often have temps over 110 degrees. The rhinos never bask at these temps. They bask in the morning or when temps are cooler, however their body temps will still reach 110-115 degrees. If they basked when the temps were over 110-115 degrees their body temps would quickly exceed the air temps and they would over heat. I generally spray their cage with water when temps exceed 115 degrees because they have their mouths wide open and are obviously hot even in the shade.

For indoor temps, I think the key is where you have UV lights and temps throughout the entire enclosure. If they warm up too quick and retreat to an area which is covered or UV is not available, that could be a problem. If they bask longer with 110-115 degree hot spot and get more UV, that would be a good thing. If the enclosure is maintained in the mid to upper 80's
I believe a basking site at 115 is plenty. (I do raise hatchlings this way)

In observing them in the Dominican and observing my own, they are most active on warm rainy or overcast days. When it is hot & dry, they retreat to burrows, shade etc.

I just think there are factors other than temps to consider, UV lighting is important.

I guess I've said enough.

Link

No and i agree like diet lighting etc,i keep my basking end between 97f to 100f and i keep mine indoors,i use megaray uvb bulbs and i have a cool end of 78f to 82f and if my rhino dont want to bask and is getting to warm he can retreat.On the other hand i check my rhino's body temps when he's basking and his body temps right around 92f to 95f and he seems to like it.Now my cuban his basking spot i keep at 90f and he loves it and he also has a cooler end as well,and both cuban and rhino get the same diet.This works for my cyclura's.

It works for you, got it, but how do you know they like it. How do you know your cuban loves 90 degrees? How do you check the body temp of your lizards?
just questions...

jf

His basking spot as of today is right at 94f, the averages range is only between 70°F (21°C) and 82f in cuba,summer the temp has been recorded as high as 100f.www.cubavacationstravel.com/cuba_weather
How do i check his body temp with PE2 Infrared Thermometer Temp Gun from Pro Exotics.How do i know he likes it well i cant be 100% but he grows well eats well very healthy,bask under his basking spot for most of the day.Another thing if u dont agree with my post do reply GIRLFRIEND!!!!

His basking spot as of today is right at 94f, the averages range is only between 70°F (21°C) and 82f in cuba,summer the temp has been recorded as high as 100f.www.cubavacationstravel.com/cuba_weather
How do i check his body temp with PE2 Infrared Thermometer Temp Gun from Pro Exotics.How do i know he likes it well i cant be 100% but he grows well eats well very healthy,bask under his basking spot for most of the day.Another thing if u dont agree with my post don't reply GIRLFRIEND!!!!

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Hey jf disregard the end of my post i about dont reply to my post,i read your post wrong.Sorry i came off like a ass.

touche' In your Mar 2214:00:44 post you referred to me as "she", I was just returning
the favor. Based on what I read, its becoming clear that you base you basking temp on the ambient temp of the home island. So how does an adult cyclura keep an average body temp at 100-105 on a island that averages about 84 degrees?
Core temps are measured by sticking a thermometer probe in the vent of the lizard because measuring the skin has been deemed unreliable in the scientific community
fortunately most of those temp have been documented.

jf

Hey Jerry...thanks for the info...very helpful. I liked you book on iguana by the way. I would however like to give an another view point. As you have said the body temperature of rhinos will go as high as or even slightly higher than 115. i think the high basking spot is as important or more important than providing UVB. Frank used to tell me that he doesn't believe in UVB as long as you give them enough heat and to a point he is right as without the proper heat UVB will be useless. More than 20 years ago, I kept a large group of uromastyx in a large (12X10) open top enclosure with two 300 watt heat lamp 8 inches above cinder blocks as hot spot. The surface was so hot, i could barely keep my hand under it for more than 30 seconds, yet these uromastyx were basking for hours a day and thrived in this situation. As you know, proper UVB bulbs were not available back then and yet they did very well under this condition in Chicago. I would guess the hot spot would have been at least 200 and some times they were basking under it and looking straight at bulb without a blink....i was really in owe as how much heat they could take. Of cause key to this is the large pen with ample cool areas as well. These thermophilic lizards are accustomed to these high temperatures in their micro-habitats and they know when they had enough heat and choose to move away from them to a shady area....or they would not exist as a species. Having said all this, I understand that with hatch-lings we want to protect them from the extreme as much as possible...thus most of us raise them in smaller cages indoor. In this situation, i do not recommend that the hot spot should be at 130 to 150 as this would be difficult to provide given the small size of the cage. However, i always strive to give my lizards as close to what they get in nature (large space with close to their natural temperature and humidity) without the negatives such as predators, etc. and to me that is giving them both cool spot

and hot spot close to what they get in nature...which in some cases are hot enough to "broil an egg" on the pavement. Just my two cent.

That's a good point. My Uro do better when it is hot. This is very important in keeping ectotherms. My Uro is much more active and eats more when I keep the basking spot hot. I also keep my reptile room ambient temperature at a reasonable temp. at around 75 degree during winter. My animals seems to thrive this way. Heat is very important to these animals...especially, Uro.

As Jerry has pointed out, body temperatures of rhinos do reach 110 to 115 and from my experience with Cycluras, it is very important that they can get their body to that temperature and it would be hard to do that with any hot spot that is less than 120....i would prefer at least 130.

Ty
I have mentioned this a few times. On Little Cayman we came upon a Ig that was sitting on the road. The temp was 86 and on the road at the exact spot the Ig was sitting measured 148 give or take a degree. We watched and photographed him for awhile before we approached and he moved off. It was then that I took the temp of the pavement. We saw igs moving on and off the road all day.

jf

"moving on and off" is the key. I have seen set ups where iguanas are spending most of their time under the heat lamp..... just getting off once in a while to feed. The hot spot should be hot enough so that they should heat up relatively quickly and then they would do what they do naturally in nature, either rest in shade, feed or/and explore. There should be balance between basking and other activities. If they are spending more than half (not derived scientifically....just a number i feel is right) their time under the basking lamp, I would raise the temperature of the hot spot.

All correct Joel. I was reading all this temp stuff and had to laugh. It is so damn hot in the islands its not even funny. I have recorded ground temps well over 200 degrees at mid day. Take a look at the pic of the carinata being temp-gunned in my Cyclura book - I wanna say its 114, but don't remember for sure. I bask baby Cyclura as high as 120 on the basking surface and up to 160 on the surface for adults. The big thing to know here is that surface or skin temp is not the same as ambient temp. There is a paper (T. Grant) that compares cloacal temp to surface skin temp in juvenile Cuban iguanas.

Thanks for your input Jeff....loved your book but I don't know if you are expert enough on Cycluras....lol. Thanks for your great work with Cyclura conservation.

Ty

Ty,

Thanks for the comments on the book. It at least provides some of the basics and information on what has worked for me. I continue to learn and modify things, everyone's situation is slightly different. If the lizards are reproducing for multiple generations, we are likely doing something right, but I know I still have much to learn.

There are lots of factors for healthy iguanas and I agree UV is not as critical to a rhino as for example a ctenosauras. A couple post down also mentions at 86 degrees a road was over 140 degrees. My rhinos in outdoor pens don't bask when temps exceed 110-115 degrees because surface temps can be extremely high. I spray the enclosure with water and provide plenty of shade so they don't over heat. If my iguanas didn't have shade they would quickly die in the sun with temps over 110 degrees.

If a cage is too small and the rhino could not cool down, a 150 degree basking spot could be a problem, but if they have an area in the mid 80's no problem. The other problem I have seen is basking lights next to a screen cage and the lizard will hold onto the screen right under the basking light and literally cook their belly.

Good luck with all your iguanas. I did get a clutch of infertile C. alfredschmidti eggs, hopefully I'll get some good eggs from another female.

Jerry
My website

Thanks Jerry. Dibs on those alfredschmidti....when they hatch....lol