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Any heating ideas? (hopefully inexpensive)

Allthingsterrarium

Juvenile Dragon
3 Year Member
Messages
246
Hey guys! I don't know if my temperature gauge might be slightly off but it's brand new so I doubt it. I think one of the reasons my bearded dragon has lost 90% of her enthusiasm when hunting, ignores anything but live food and eats very rarely these days is because while most of her tank is in the toasty 80s, her basking spot is also in that temperature range while apparently it needs to be in the low 100s or at least upper 90s. It should be because I'm using a very strong powersun mercury vapor bulb that has worked very well for me in the past. It might just be that the tank is a little higher than most but this hasn't really been an issue into the past couple months. She was cool to the touch the other day and quite aggressive so this is a problem I want to address quickly and cheaply. my family keeps our very cool this time of year which makes it difficult to raise terrarium animals because our summer becomes their winter but I closed the vent to the room which seems to have fixed 80% of the problem and the warm weather outside is taking care of the rest except for when it drops into the 60s sometimes. It's still a few months too early for me to turn on the heat or run the space heater in that room and I also want to know the same thing because I'm going to start raising orange head roaches soon and they won't really breed under 80 degrees and the 90s are ideal but the heat emitter I have over their 20 gallon is only topping it off at about 75. She's refused enough food as it is and I want her to stop brumating so can anybody suggest an economical and simple way to make her basking spot a lot warmer and also heat a roach enclosure into the 80s and 90s?
 

Honeybadger

Hatchling Dragon
Messages
57
I use an cheramic heat lamp as an inexpensive way to heat my tank, if you want to go even cheaper I suppose a normal non-LED spotlight will raise the temperature slightly, but it will not work as primary heat source.
 

Allthingsterrarium

Juvenile Dragon
3 Year Member
Messages
246
I use an cheramic heat lamp as an inexpensive way to heat my tank, if you want to go even cheaper I suppose a normal non-LED spotlight will raise the temperature slightly, but it will not work as primary heat source.

Yeah a heat emitter is definitely starting to look like the way to go. Maybe I could get a stronger one for the roach colony and use the small one currently over that tank to reinforce the basking bulb. I might be able to solve both problems at once.
 

Honeybadger

Hatchling Dragon
Messages
57
I simply have the roach colony on top of the cage (I have a massive cage) and they are thriving, that's Dubia roaches though. If it gets to cold for them you can get a heat mat to put under the container.
 

BeardedHippy

Bearded Dragon Veteran
Messages
672
Location
Scarborough UK
You could try a more powerful basking bulb, that would bring the temp up. The mercury bulbs are all in one though right? yeah, a che then
 

Hdrydr31

Bearded Dragon Veteran
Staff member
3 Year Member
1,000+ Post Club
Messages
5,574
You could try a more powerful basking bulb, that would bring the temp up. The mercury bulbs are all in one though right? yeah, a che then
yes the mvb are all in one bulbs, so if raising the wattage of basking bulb doesn't work the CHE should just make sure you get a dimmer switch and appropriate base to handle the heat being emitted.
 
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