Are rocks ok for a cave?

[bmwools]

Hey. I want to make a new hide for my beardie. Are rocks ok to use? I wasn't sure if they would get to hot for him to lay on. Any help?

 

[anwyn]

should be fine just keep an eye on the temperature if they're under the baking lamp. My Mort has rocks all over her viv (geologist here!) and the only thing I had a problem with was a very thick local shale/slate piece. It's fine away from the basking spot though. It was her favourite sitting spot as a youngster so I put a sock around it until she outgrew it.

 

[bmwools]

Thanks for the feed back!

 

[anwyn]

and BASKING lamp not baking lamp. lol. Don't bake your dragon.

 

[ruben0311]

remember that a surface will only only attain a temperature of that which is heating it... so basically the hottest a basking spot would get is as hot as the rock will get at that particular distance. in a vacuum the rock would heat to the temperature of the bulb's surface temperature at the glass, however having air inbetween the two objects reduces the amount of energy arriving to the rock... SCIENCE!!!! so as long as you are not having it closer than it would normally be for a basking distance you dont have to worry about it heating up too much... it can however effect the ambient air temperature of the vivarium so thats something you would want to watch for.

 

[SDragons]

We have six various sized large rocks all which we have found while out mineral hunting. I washed them well with dish soap then boiled them for about an hour before putting them in the tank.

I use my heat gun on them to check the temperature on them.