Heating issue with a cold house

[Dawnzy]

My family recently got a four month old last week and finally got the right lighting today in from petmountain. i have a zoo med 150 watt basking light, a 100watt clear household light, and a 18" repti sun 10.0. i got a thermometer too now. should've gotten two of them.
Here's my issue. I live in the pacific northwest in the US and it's generally cold most the time outside. My house is poorly insulated so if it's cold outside like it's been this winter the house is cold too. It's hardly 60 degrees inside right now and i stuck the thermometer just about three inches below the basking light. So far it's about 93 degrees. I can't have the fireplace going everyday for the fall and winter since i don't have enough wood to do that everyday and the furnace electric heater is too expensive to run to heat this house.
How in the world do i get the temperature just right in the viv for him? so he isn't hugging the light for heat? this is frustrating me.

 

[Catalyst]

You could try adding a ceramic heat emitter in a separate fixture next to your heat light to add more heat to the viv. If you could put it on a thermostat it would come on and off as needed to keep the viv at the preset temperature.

Another option would be to switch out the regular lightbulb for a halogen flood light of the same wattage (or slightly higher). Halogens kick out more heat per watt than regular lightbulbs.

Just a couple of ideas. The tank temp fluctuations that come with winter are a pain in the bum sometimes - I'm glad my dragon is in brumation right now so all I have to worry about is keeping the tank anywhere above 60*F.

 

[Dawnzy]

i think i figured it out now. took me awhile to play with the basking spot and get it higher. i think he likes now. i moved him down a bit thinking it was too hot but he thought otherwise and moved back up to the probe. i think the bulb had to warm up. didn't know that it takes a bit for the bulb too warm up. it's a steady 108.5 degrees where the probe is so i think he's plenty toasty now. i hope he starts eating here now unless he doesn't like the smaller crix i got compared the last batch which were bigger. oh and is the flourescent bulb close enough? i have it right next to the basking light.

 

[zebraflavencs]

Yeah, he's gaping so things are good. I see the heat and the UVB. You may also want to invest in a temp gun, I got mine at a Harbor Freight store for $39.99 + tax and insurance. Well worth the investment.
Janie.

 

[Dawnzy]

a temp gun huh? i'll look at that today when i go to the petstore to return my che 60w for a 100w for night time. harbor freight is along the way. after fixing things in the viv last night he perked up and ate 4 or 5 crickets. he has a funny pattern though for eating. soaks up the heat for a few min then runs around eat a few goes back up to the heat then back down and so on. i just have a problem with crix hiding in certain spots. i just kick em back into the open. i noticed with the fireplace going i have to shut the household bulb off.

 

[zebraflavencs]

I feed in a separate container, cause if one crix should get loose, and hide til night time, can chew on a beardie resulting in horrid injuries and can get infected.
Janie.

 

[Dawnzy]

for feeding the beardie in a separate container aside from his viv then what is the setup like for the container and what kind of container is it? i'm thinking about myself here. i even tried taking everything out of his viv and he just didn't bother so i put everything back in. i took one rock out that i discovered they all hid under and even tried patching up the holes in the grapevine things. one problem with him is that he eats when he wants to and usually when no one is around. but by then the crickets have almost cleaned themselves off. i know he ate like around 8 crix yesterday but took him forever. i know was shedding this week which can cause a dip in hunger too.

 

[zebraflavencs]

Not only the shed will put him off, but a new environment will too. As for a separate container, I use a plastic shoe box. Of course my babies are only a month and days old, just adjust the feeding enclosure to size of beardie, so no brushing up against the other side when turning around.
Hope this helps,
Janie.