McBeck":338osrfb said:
KarrieRee":338osrfb said:
This is how I found this Vet. Lol
Unfortunately I live in the middle of nowhere. This was the closest Vet to me, about an hour away. The next closest vet is an hour and a half away. I guess if I do my job, and create the right environment, I won't need one. I'll just keep reading on here and ask questions...
Never say never. IMO it's best to have one lined up just in case, even if it's a bit of a haul. :wink:
Regarding the discrepancies:
1: multivitamin and calcium every day.
2: Raise my humidity to 70%
3: Use a heat emitter at night and keep night time temps no lower than 82 degrees.
Opinions are like heinies; everybody's got one (and sometimes more than one. :shock: )
This can--and does--include veterinarians, and they can get confused/make mistakes like any of us.
It's possible he sees more birds, ferrets, & other types of exotics than reptiles, let alone BDs.
In the end (no pun intended), you'll have to use your own best judgment & common sense.
1. Care sheets and opinions & practices here (this forum) vary on this. With care sheets, check what ages their recommendations are for. I feel more comfortable with a consensus of opinions, so I tend to research a
lot of sources I trust/respect, and go with the most prevalent answers--or average them using common sense. YMMV. Many sources do caution about dusting too much w/ either (vitamins in particular).
2. Common sense tells me to look to their natural habitat. BDs have quite a range, and temps & humidity can likewise vary. Personally, I like to use Alice Springs as a reference point because it's very close to the exact geographical center of the country/continent and BD
range. There are many excellent sites that break down climate statistics by region, month, time of day, and other factors.
Here's just one that reports the
average humidity (by month) at Alice Springs ranges from 19%-35%. This isn't too far off from a
search consensus of 30%-40% during the day, and up to 55% at night (which makes sense--as temperatures rise, RH falls, and verse-vica). The Australian Outback is an arid region, and humidity in arid regions isn't typically 70%.
3. Again, looking to climate data at/near Alice Springs, average nighttime low temps range from 4.0C to 21.4C (~40°F to ~70°F). Even in the warmest months, night temps don't average in the 80sF. A search consensus suggests a nighttime temp no lower than 65°F, and a CHE is only recommended if temps fall below that. Most room temperatures (68° to 72°F) should be fine without a CHE.
The only place I question your temps is:
Temps peak at 108 degrees at 11am cools to 103ish degrees by noon
Is that air temp or surface temp? :?
As I understand things, the 95° to 110°F (or so) range applies to basking
surface temperatures. Enclosure ambient (air) temperatures should be in the neighborhood range of 80° (cool side) to 90°F (warm/hot side). I'll leave it to readers to reconcile these figures with climate data or consensus searches. YMMV.