Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Just got a 2013 BRB and have him set up with a 40 gallon, heating pad, hide, large water bowl (large enough for him to soak completely), 2.5' grape branch, and some plastic flowers and vines for decoration. His substrate is 50/50 bark/repti-bark (I think?) to keep humidity up. It got coooooold last night and he has buried himself in his substrate. Is a heat lamp necessary? Would that compromise humidity? Should I be misting?

Awesome! Thank you so much for the detailed response. I have since gotten him a 100 watt black-light (sorta) bulb in a ceramic 8" lamp. I can keep the temperature anywhere between 75 and 90 and I'm taking that temperature 4 inches from the bottom of the tank (12 inches from the bulb itself). I'm misting twice a day to compensate for the drying from the lamp.

NOW he's submerging himself completely in his water bowl, all day and all night. Every once in a while he'll make a cute but obnoxious little fart noise because he goes under again. Haha! Is this normal? Is the humidity too low?

Thanks again for your help and support! I'm excited to get this all ironed out in time for his first feeding at home on Thursday!

Hey there! Thanks again for all the help! It's been a couple weeks and now he's starting to act a little funny... Late at night the other day he started making screaming noises- like really loud wheezing. His purple heat lamp was on at the time and when we turned it off, he stopped almost immediately. Today he started making loud-ish whistling noises, without the lamp being on. Any thoughts? No foaming at the mouth at all so I'd like to hope it isn't an RI.