GoFast":b1be6 said:I was under an assumption that the basking light should be on all day until about 5 minutes ago when I read blood bank dragon's website. On his caresheet link it states:
Temperature
80-85 degree ambient temperature with a 90-95 degree basking spot is ideal. Dragons can tolerate temperatures up to 115+ degrees but that is FAR from ideal.
Don’t run your basking light all day long. 3 hours in the morning and 3 in the evening is all they need. Excessive basking temps for prolonged periods of time cause the dragons to dehydrated (especially baby dragons). Over heated males can get very neurotic
Is this right?? If i can save 6 hours a day of energy then I would be a happy camper!
G'day mates,
Going back to the OPs original question:
Yes it is possible to do this as wild dragons only really bask at dawn and dusk. The rest of the day they hide in the shade or burrows, it's to hot to be under the blazing Australian sun. What people seem to have noticed is that they stated that 90-95F is ideal with the ambient temp of 80-85F, nowhere in their statements does it say to let it drop below these temps. I know it seems like by turning off the basking lamp it means the temp will go below that, but from what is written they don't say to let that happen, and without all the info we can't say how exactly they keep the ambient temps that high (CHE, heat mats, heat cords, whatever all speculations unless we get it from the source) without the basking lamps on.
GoFast":b1be6 said:Interesting. I suppose that I did not realize that Savs typical countries of origin like Ghana, Kenya, Togo and Tanzania had the same environment as Australia, the country of origin for bearded dragons. I suppose that my ignorance on that fact and your statement would make me wonder; if the environments are so much alike, then why do you not find bearded dragons in places like Ghana, Kenya, Togo and Tanzania or why do you not find savs in Australia? I would assume that if the environments were so similar that both species would be found in all of those places.
The environment are nothing a like, Australia is arid not a desert. These countries inlands consists of deserts and savana plains, high humidity although dry and generally devoid of rains. It floods in inland Australia in the rainy season (though right now we are in the grips of a prolonged drought). Australia does not have those varanids, but we certainly have a higher species concentration of varanid species than any of those countries, with new species or sub-species continually still being classified to date. So asking why are there no savs in Australia is a failed point as we have our own varanids, so does South America and tropical East Asia. There are no bearded dragons in Africa but there are certainly more agamid species in Africa than Australia which is the phylum bearded dragons belong to.
JUST AS A REMINDER HUSBANDRY IS NOT AN EXACT SCIENCE WHAT WORKS FOR SOME MAY NOT WORK FOR OTHERS