Hi everyone, after doing extensive research I decided to buy a bearded dragon. I purchased the vivarium on Black Friday with a accessory pack from pets at home (UK) which included 25 watt reptiglow fluorescent light tubes, a medium glow light reflector, daylight basking spot lamp 100w and a 30 watt double light unit. It included 2 Exo terra digital thermometers also. We set up the vivarium and left to settle for 3 days and we returned to pets at home seeking advice on how to get the temperature to the correct warmth as both warm side and cool side were showing around 22 degrees, they suggested a heat mat. I have read up on how bad these can be for dragons but the sales assistant insisted they were not bad at all. Then the temperature raised to 33.2 on the warm side and 22.1 degrees on the cool side. We thought these temperatures would be suitable as they told us in pets at home 20 degrees for cool side and 35 degrees on the basking side. We returned to pets at home seeking more advice on how to raise the temp again they said buy a thermostat, we purchased the microclimate ministat 100 and got home followed instructions to connect it to the heat mat and finally felt as though we were getting somewhere as the temp on the cool side was 30.2 degrees and warm side was 35.6 degrees. However when we turned the lights off the temps did not change whatsoever and we now believe our thermometers are not working. We later found out the thermostat the heat mat is connected to has stopped working also. I suppose this is our own fault for going to pets at home as we went to two different stores who both told us different temperatures for the viv which were not warm enough and one store said no heat mat was required. They seem to have no idea what they are talking about and look uncomfortable when we ask questions. We are getting disheartened now as we have no idea what to do and don't want to give up on the idea as we have bought so much equipment whether it is of good quality we have no idea. We will not be purchasing our dragon until this is sorted as we want the perfect environment for it. Suggestions would be great on what to do, sorry for the long post.
-
Hello guest! Are you a Bearded Dragon enthusiast? If so we invite you to join our community and see what it has to offer. Our site is specifically designed for you and it's a great place for Beardie enthusiasts to meet online. Once you join you'll be able to post messages, upload pictures of your dragons and enclosures and have a great time with other Bearded Dragon enthusiasts. Sign up today!
1st time owner - heating problems need advice!
- Thread starter adele
- Start date
- Messages
- 5,574
Welcome to the forum!! I am glad to hear that you are waiting until the temps are good before getting your dragon as no sense in adding to the stress of a new home with off temps..
Heat mats and heat rocks are both dangerous as dragons can burn themselves while laying on them as they don't sense heat very well on their bellies..
There is a very good lighting link that will help give you more info:
http://www.reptilesmagazine.com/Reptile-Health/Habitats-Care/Reptile-Lighting-Information/
basking spot that gets to 110 degrees (little more is okay) and a cool side that is 75-80 degrees. At night the whole tank can drop to 65 degrees with no problem. When getting your light think about how big of a tank he's going to end up in. You want the UVB light to cover at least 2/3ds of the tank. Mine actually covers the whole tank and they have hides to get away from it. The Reptisun 10.0 HO bulb is good. If you have your light resting on a mesh top you should really go with the T5 size fixture and bulb because it penetrates the mesh more than the T8 size bulb. As far as mounting the light it can either rest on the mesh top or attached to the underside of the top. You want the light over them not on the side of the cage where it could hurt their eyes. Along with the UVB light and fixture you need a dome light fixture for your basking bulb.
Heat mats and heat rocks are both dangerous as dragons can burn themselves while laying on them as they don't sense heat very well on their bellies..
There is a very good lighting link that will help give you more info:
http://www.reptilesmagazine.com/Reptile-Health/Habitats-Care/Reptile-Lighting-Information/
basking spot that gets to 110 degrees (little more is okay) and a cool side that is 75-80 degrees. At night the whole tank can drop to 65 degrees with no problem. When getting your light think about how big of a tank he's going to end up in. You want the UVB light to cover at least 2/3ds of the tank. Mine actually covers the whole tank and they have hides to get away from it. The Reptisun 10.0 HO bulb is good. If you have your light resting on a mesh top you should really go with the T5 size fixture and bulb because it penetrates the mesh more than the T8 size bulb. As far as mounting the light it can either rest on the mesh top or attached to the underside of the top. You want the light over them not on the side of the cage where it could hurt their eyes. Along with the UVB light and fixture you need a dome light fixture for your basking bulb.
The ReptiSun 10.0 is a better tube bulb than the Reptiglow. You want something that is going to mimic natural sunlight. As Hdrydr31 said heat mats and rocks are dangerous. Not only because they don't feel heat real well on their belly but because they have a high rate of malfunctioning. If you want to up the temp in the basking spot you can also get something to bring the basking spot a bit closer to the light without being too close.
