Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I live in the uk so keep my rhino inside an enclosure which is inside an insulated garage. I often worry about the heat bulbs will blow and it'll get too cold for my rhino so would this be an option, heat wise, for a rhino- I'm thinking of putting a thermostatically controlled heater in the viv for background heat and then for basking purposes a pig blanket controlled so the surface temp is about 130F with some good quality uv strip lights above the pig blankets. If it won't work, I'll stick with the lights, it is just an idea to try do away with flood light bulbs.
Many thanks
Dan

that might work. I have mine in my garage too. For heat, I have a space heater, a basking lamp and a pig blanket in the hide. This has worked for years for me. One thing to consider is that they instinctually find their basking site from the sun, overhead light.
They are not dumb and will figure out where they can find heat
but I think they can thermoregulate better being able to move around under a light. I guess you would have to try your idea and play with it.

jf

Thanks. Yes I thought about the association with light, hence why I would put two 4ft high output T5 12% uv strip lights above the pig blanket, which I'm hoping would work.
I may give it a try. Thanks again
Dan

I would keep a heat light. Remember all the animals that got severe burns from the old heat rocks? I know the pig blanket won't burn them, but the reason that the heat rocks burned the animals is because basking animals don't sense heat from below very well. Hence all the burns associated with heat rocks. Furthermore, I don't feel the strip lights will be enough UV for your lizard. If you don't have a UVB meter, buy one! You will be shocked how close you have to be to the light to get sufficient UVB.

Thanks for the reply.
the pig blankets would be thermostatically controlled to ensure that they cant get to a temp to burn the animal. also the uv strips i use are the new(ish) high output ones from arcadia. these give off the same uv or more than MVB's and over a bigger area, so are the best available in the UK.
Obviously they will never replicate the sun but we dont get much of that in the UK anyway!! ha ha
I'm still very much undecided what to do, i may even look at using over head ceramic heat emitters as they usually last a long time and would take some of the worry away of bulbs blowing

what do you mean by bulbs blowing? burning out or actually blowing up. I have never had a bulb blow up.

Sorry, yes I mean when it burns out. Blows is a term we use in the Uk for burns out( doesn't actually blow up!)

Instead of using heat mats, I recommend heat panels. I have just ordered 50 of them for my iguanas and in my opinion, they are much safer than heat mats. I hang them from the top of the cage, so the iguanas do not come in contact with them. I also worry about low sperm count on males when they sit on the mat too long.

http://www.helixcontrols.com/RadiantHeaterPanels.htm

Ty

yeah a good option, I have used the same panels when I had greens, worked great in the set up I had.

jf

i use both i have a pig blanket on 1 side and the lights on the other. i have 2 rhinos so this also helps with some dominance issues as well. if i was using garage id use a space heater as well. and get a god generator.

Unfortunately in the uk we don't have any manufacturers of heat panels. As for the space heater, I have one of those to keep the ambient of the garage up already.
Thanks for all the replies

are you heating the entire garage or just the cage?

has any one tried this heater from target on reptiles? 150 watt heat panel for $51.99.

http://www.target.com/p/cozy-legs-radiant-heater-panel-beige/-/A-10803357?ref=tgt_adv_XSG10001&AFID=Google_PLA_df&LNM=|10803357&CPNG=Home Improvement&kpid=10803357&LID=PA&ci_src=17588969&ci_sku=10803357#

I heat his cage ( obviously) and then keep the ambient in the garage at 25C as I have some frogs in there too.