NEED ADVISE- GOING ON VACA FOR 3 DAYS

Hi,

My family and I are planning on going on vacation for 3 days and I'm nervous about leaving my baby Ryder so I need some advice... My mom normally comes by my house to feed my dogs after she gets off of work in the evenings but since he is only about 3 months old and needs more care with the feeding schedule, lighting and misting I told her that I will just take him to her house. The problem I am having is that I don't want to take his whole tank to her house since its a 40GB and way too heavy and big to move. I was wondering if I can use put him into something temporary for the 3 days when he is over there? I missed out on the $1 per gallon sale at Petco which just ended so don't want to spend that much on another tank. I could purchase a 20-29 gallon tank which isn't too expensive at Petsmart but worried that he may get stressed out because its smaller and not what he is used to. I do plan on setting it up the same as the one he is in now. The only thing I will probably need to change is the heat lamp especially if he is going into a smaller tank. Any ideas on what can be used for a temporary tank or if the 20-29 gallon will work???

I'd just get a big rubbermaid/plastic bin for him and set his lights up on an adjustable lamp stand. That should work well as a cheap, temporary tank. If she doesn't have any animals in the house you shouldn't need to bother with a top for it as long as the sides are relatively tall.

He will be stressed by the smaller tank but he will fit in it temporarily. He will be stressed by the moving to another location so there's a good chance he might not eat at all if he does it will be a little just because of the move. I moved my dragon Darwin to a bigger cage and to another room and after a week he started eating better again. But 3 months old will do perfectly fine in a 20-29 gallon tank. I had my dragon in a 10 gallon until he was 4 months old or more. That wasn't good, but it worked and he was fairly happy in it. So the tank size is fine, but because of the move he wont eat as much as he should because of stress. That should only last a few days and he should start eating normal.

CooperDragon":qdnmz8j0 said:

I'd just get a big rubbermaid/plastic bin for him and set his lights up on an adjustable lamp stand. That should work well as a cheap, temporary tank. If she doesn't have any animals in the house you shouldn't need to bother with a top for it as long as the sides are relatively tall.

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Unfortunaly she has 3 cats...I will be putting the tank in her office and closing the door so they cant go in. Its too bad that I cant just bring him with me...lol

joef":qdnmz8j0 said:

He will be stressed by the smaller tank but he will fit in it temporarily. He will be stressed by the moving to another location so there's a good chance he might not eat at all if he does it will be a little just because of the move. I moved my dragon Darwin to a bigger cage and to another room and after a week he started eating better again. But 3 months old will do perfectly fine in a 20-29 gallon tank. I had my dragon in a 10 gallon until he was 4 months old or more. That wasn't good, but it worked and he was fairly happy in it. So the tank size is fine, but because of the move he wont eat as much as he should because of stress. That should only last a few days and he should start eating normal.

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That is what I'm afraid of... It will be 3 days so If Ryder is stressed out and wont eat then when I get him and move him back to his tank he will probably be stressed out again and not eat...Thats a lot of days on not eating for a baby...We are not leaving until next weekend so I'm thinking that I will pick up the new tank today and put him in there tonight so that way he can get somewhat used to it by the time we leave. That way It gives me a whole week to make sure the temps are right. I'm thinking that should help a little bit. He never even goes to the cooler side of the tank that he is in now. He spends most of his time in the basking area and middle where he has a branch to hang out on.

Just an update...I went and got a 20L tank and so far he seems okay. Ive been monitoring him over the weekend to make sure all his lighting is okay. The only thing I hate right now is putting the UVB on top of the screen. Would it be okay to mount his T8 ReptiSun 10.0 UVB inside of the tank or would it be too much UVB for him? The tank is only about 13" high and if including his basking spot he would be about 5" from the fixture. I do have a T8 Reptisun 5.0 UVB bulb that I can use if that is too strong...

5'' is a little bit close. Probably OK if you can provide plenty of room to the sides but the 20L has such limited space, I'd just put it on top of the tank. I used to have the same thing for a travel tank and it worked well enough. Shouldn't be a problem at all for such a short time anyway.

CooperDragon":38e9st4a said:

5'' is a little bit close. Probably OK if you can provide plenty of room to the sides but the 20L has such limited space, I'd just put it on top of the tank. I used to have the same thing for a travel tank and it worked well enough. Shouldn't be a problem at all for such a short time anyway.

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Thats what I figured. I seem to be having a issue with getting the basking bulb and UVB fixture to overlap in his basking spot. Its so much easier to attach it to the inside back of the tank which gives me more room to place the basking bulb where is needs to go. After measuring again it looks like his basking platform is only 4" high which means its about 8"-9" away from the fixture when placed on top... Even if I swapped the 10.0 for the 5.0 would it still be too much UVB?

I wouldn't bother with the 5.0 as it would need to be too close to be effective. The 6'' distance is kind of a safe bare minimum because the lights can be pretty intense visually. I understand the issue mounting it close by. I used to leave the mesh top off and just let it sit at a diagonal while the basker hung from an adjustable lamp stand. I've since moved to MVBs for travel and portable basking. I don't like them for whole tanks, but they're great for portability. Don't stress too much about it for 3 days though. They can go 3 days without lights at all (in emergencies) and it won't really harm them long term.

This is his temporary one.

The basking bulb is on a adjustable lamp stand and you can see from the picture that the heat is going on to the UVB fixture. It gets a little hot and Im worried that it will melt the case. If I place the UVB fixture diagonal instead it doesnt look like it is over his basking spot.

That's a super nice travel tank. It's OK to keep it at a diagonal. The UVB radiates outward a bit. I've found that putting some foil around the plastic of the UVB fixture will protect it from the heat of the basking light.

CooperDragon":1hithjm3 said:

That's a super nice travel tank. It's OK to keep it at a diagonal. The UVB radiates outward a bit. I've found that putting some foil around the plastic of the UVB fixture will protect it from the heat of the basking light.

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Okay I will try putting some foil and see how it goes. Thanks again for all your help!

If it's only 3 days, I would just load up his worm bowl and greens and put his lights on timers. I've been gone longer than that and my beardies were just fine.

kelleym530":1wof05gq said:

If it's only 3 days, I would just load up his worm bowl and greens and put his lights on timers. I've been gone longer than that and my beardies were just fine.

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Even when they were babies? Hes only 2-3 months old. I have a light timer and it is awesome but I still like to monitor his basking spot temps everyday and even though I feed him Dubias I still remove the left over ones from his bowl because I don't want to risk him eating anything 2 hrs before bedtime to guarantee he digest his food properly. Plus he has been shedding so needs baths and misting too.