Basking Spot Questions (Loads of Pics)

[shrambo]

Hello, so I've had Dexter for a week in a half (since last Tuesday) and I'm still having problems with his basking spot and getting the right temperatures. I completely rearranged his vivarium today because I couldn't manage to get his spot 105-110 degrees without dimming the light so much that it barely gives off any light. I was using a basking spot light made by Zoo Med but was told it wasn't necessarily giving off the right kind of light. So I bought a Halogen 75 Watt spotlight and the light seems to be whiter, but it is a lot hotter. I have it now so that his basking spot isn't as high, so I can have the light brighter. I have a digital thermometer with a probe on his basking spot (you can see it in the pictures below) and it usually reads around 100-105 degrees. But my temperature infrared gun from Petco says that the temperature on the log ranges from 95 to 115 degrees. (It's only 115 degrees in one spot). So should I dim the light even more? He gapes pretty often. Usually I dim it when he starts. I just feel like if I keep dimming it, it won't be hot enough. The digital thermometer with the probe will go down to like 93 after all the dimming.
He has had stress marks since the second day that I've had him. Today was the first time that I noticed they weren't there. (After I rearranged his vivarium and changed the basking light to the spotlight). But the stress marks are back now. And I'm just frustrated because I feel like I'm making this whole temperature thing way too difficult. Any help is great.
And for the pictures:

The cool side is anywhere from 75 to 85. The hot side is 85+.
-- Also, He's about ten or so inches from his UVB light. He used to be like 5 inches from it. But one time he jumped on top of it. So I had to move him away from it.
And he's 3 months old. And eats, poops, and can be pretty active. So he seems pretty healthy. Not sure how relevant that is.

 

[traceyb73]

I have a question....no, I have many! My 18 year old daughter got her first Beardie (Riley) yesterday. I knew absolutely NOTHING about them until Wednesday of last week. I did some research (to learn what they eat, lighting, and the like) before we got him last evening. We got him from someone my daughter found on Craig's List which I was very upset about but I figured she is 18 and and insisted she knew what she was looking for and what she was doing. The woman gave us the Beardie and the cage, that's it. The day before we wet to Pet Supplies Plus to get the lighting, food, a thermometer (I see now we got the wrong one, meaning a thermometer for a fish tank), SAND and bagged veggies and mealy worms. The woman who worked there said she has beardies herself and walked us through everything we got and basicly told us what we did and did not need. As you can imagine, sand is in all caps because I am furious that this poor little 3 month old guy is sitting in sand and I have no idea how to fix this right this second. if someone can tell me if I can go in there right now to take out the sand and use, possibly, newspaper (just until tomorrow when we can fix this the right way) I will do just that. Any help or advice on this, I will immediately follow up with action. Also, like I said, he is 3 months old. I did not except him (or her) to be so small and in the last 24 hours I have barely seen him awake. Even when we handled him. Is this normal? My daughter insisted it was, until I was reading here and someone said their 3 month old was quite active. Riley will literally take a few steps and fall asleep. As you can imagine I am so worried as I am already getting attached to him and they more I read the more I worry that he may be very sick. In the past 24 hours he has eaten half of a cricket (she sent us with 3 live ones) and nothing else. When I left him earlier this afternoon, the one cricket that my daughter killed to break in half because it was huge, Riley was using as a headrest and actually sleeping with his head on it. Please someone help me!!! I beg!

 

[aussiefreak101]

The way to test which is accurate, the probe or the infrared is to put the probe in a glass of ice water and then measure that with the infrared too. Being so young you want to make sure that there's a spot in the viv where the baby is 8" from the repti-sun. I understand you've had issues with jumping but since it doesn't get as hot as a basking light it's not going to burn them like one. It's more important to not end up with MBD from not getting enough UVB. Are you using a specific reptile basking light still? I've found that those can run really hot even at a low wattage. You can try a bright white regular household bulb and see if those even out the temperatures.

@Traceyb73: Please repost your concerns in a new thread so people can help you. By using the OP's thread no one will know your concerns are here. Also include a rundown of what your enclosure is, size, what heat light, UVB, temperatures, what are you measuring with, etc. Until then you can take out the sand and use paper towels.

 

[traceyb73]

Oops, not sure why I thought I did post in a new one. Thanks aussie!!