Reptile & Amphibian Forums

For those who have reptile rooms: At my old house I had the pleasure of having a furnaced heated reptile room in which the furnace worked great. At our new place, I have a separated building in the back that is 12wx20lx8 tall. Im in california so winters are not severe but its been getting into the 40's at night and the building is getting down to 68 with an electric oil heater. Is there a better way to heat room? My target temp is 72 to 75 for night temps. Thanks

This one is easy enough, use two of those electric oil heaters. The you can balance it out by starting with both on low, then adjusting from there.

They are very inexpensive, inexpensive to run, safe as anything out there. and last forever. No exposed elements to burn things or animals.

Also, I don't know what you have in your room, but your on a colubrid forum, so I will assume its colubrids. For low base temps, anything from 55F to 65F is a wonderful range to winter colubrids at. Heck even lower and higher works too. They simply are not that critical. Best of luck

Thanks Frank, Im keeping about 10 different species of ctenosaura. I asked on this forum because the monitor people seem to be a little more serious about lizard keeping and usually have larger collections than iguana people hence needing a dedicated room for their collection. My previous room used forced air from a furnace and that is the best if you can do it. I'm glad you said electric oil heater because I'm running one now on a thermostat. I guess I will have to run two. Thanks!

Nice!

How about a few pictures of your Ctenosaura? They are really cool lizards!

Lots of pics but out of respect, probably shouldn't be posted on this forum. if you get Petsy....I mean Reptiles magazine -lol, I think November 2007, my article has lots of pics "A Look at the Genus Ctenosaura: Meet the World's fastest lizard and its kin", Reptiles Magazine 15 (11): 64–73

as a related thought, if you're in the L A area they are now offering solar panels, installed, i believe, for no money down providing your bill is over $150 per month.i would assume the power generated offsets the payment. this might possibly reduce one's overall herp heatin expenditures, as well as facilitate not burning petroleum based materials, thus helping all the lizards of the world take yet another breath. or not....
guy