Ugh...Temperatures!!!

[tcruz]

Can you tell me what's wrong here now and how I can fix it? A different bulb? I'm using the ZooMed lighting fixture. I stopped using the red bulb at night., but the white bulb is a 100watt. I took a pic of the thermometer and where he is basking. Its too hot, right, for Fahrenheit temps?

 

[jarich]

Well that would depend on what you are measuring. Are you measuring the cool side temperature? If so, thats a little high, you want the cool side closer to 80 F. However, if that second picture is showing where you have the probe measuring 87F, then it doesnt mean much of anything. That wont be the coolest part of the enclosure, nor the hottest, or even a place your dragon will ever go. Put the probe down along the ground as far away from the basking light as you can get, and that will tell you the cool side temperature.

Also, as a side note, you want to move your UVB light over next to the basking light so that when the dragon is basking, its also getting the most UVB it can get.

 

[tcruz]

It's starting to make a little sense, but I'm still not quite sure if the reading of 87F represents the hot side or cool side. I thought he is basking under the hot side and that is where it needs to be hottest...Eeesh!!! Let me keep this guy in good health...

 

[PatsyB]

The probe needs to be ON the basking spot. Wrap some velcro around it or a twist tie, but the basking area is right where your dragon was sitting and your probe is attached to the glass in the corner. Also what Jarich is saying, move the basking spot so the light is directly above it. I bet if you make those two little tweeks, you'll be golden

 

[jarich]

Ya, like Patsy said, that little probe only tells you the temperature of the area directly around it. So in that picture where you have it stuck to the back glass isnt really helping you understand what the dragon is experiencing. If you want to measure the temperature of the basking spot, then it needs to be right on the basking spot directly. If you want to measure the cool side, then it needs to be down on the ground, at the point furthest away from the basking light. Those are about the only two temperatures you need to know. Everything else is a gradient in between those two temperatures.

 

[tcruz]

Sweet! I'm golden!!! Just one more question for tonight, I promise. He's coming with us in a large critter carrier with some reptile carpet and a log for him to hide if he likes. But how ling can he be out of his enclosure without his lighting? We'll probably be gone for at least a couple of hours.

 

[jarich]

A couple hours is not a problem as long as its not somewhere that gets cold (below around 60-65F). Careful though that the log doesnt move around and squish him though.

 

[tcruz]

Thanks again! See ya soon!!!