Posted by:
el_toro
at Thu Apr 2 01:06:23 2009 [ Report Abuse ] [ Email Message ] [ Show All Posts by el_toro ]
Step one is to find a larger enclosure - the sooner the better. Bare minimum would be 36" x 18". Much larger is better.
You don't need a night time bulb. They need darkness and a cooler period (mid-70s is great). If your house is colder than that at night, a ceramic heat emitter (or a Mega-Ray heat projector) is a great option since these don't put out light.
Your daytime temps are both too low and too high - hence the need for the larger cage. Your basking surface temp must be raised up to at least 120F or he won't be able to digest his food properly, which will lead to health problems. The cool side needs to be mid-80s. A 20L, unfortunately, makes it extremely difficult to get such a wide temperature difference, and impossible to get this difference into a usable gradient. As a side note, make sure you have a quality digital or infrared thermometer. Sometimes people use analog dial or strip thermometers, not realizing how inaccurate they can be.
Mega-Rays are fantastic lamps and well worth the money, IMO, but using one on a cage that size is a very bad idea. You DO need a good UVB lamp, though. For heat only, any old household halogen does very well, and they're fairly inexpensive. When you get a larger cage, the Mega-Ray self ballasted lamp does produce heat, but usually not enough on its own to provide an entire temp gradient. That's where the halogens come in.
But I can't stress enough - you NEED a larger cage. ----- Torey Eugene, Oregon, USA 1.1 Saharan Uros (Joe and Arthur) 3.0 Mali Uros (Spike, Turtle, and Tank) 1.1 Ornate Uros (Scuttlebutt and Shazzbot) 1.1 Collared Lizard (Ripcord and Rorschach) 2.0 Green Anoles (Bowser and Sprocket) 1.1 Chubby Housecats (Roscolux and Jenny)
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