Need FRIENDLY advice on lighting and temps. Noob owner.

[Felly]

Hey everyone I need some *friendly* advice on lighting, temps, humidity and the like. Please no [bad word removed by moderator] who come here to talk down to noobs. Ive had enough of that. I have a 100w ceramic heat lamp and 10.0 repti glo uvb light. Jubby and all equipment bought at a pet shop and Im unsure about the advice I was given. I have a glass tank. I know NOW that I shouldnt but cant afford to upgrade for a while. I was told to have a basking temp on 35 degrees celcius and im unsure of that too. I was told nothing about humidity or a cool side. Please help. Hes been acting weird and coughing. Im taking him to an exotics vet in 2 days even though its going to send me broke.

[Posted by moderator: This is a PG-13 forum, bad language isn't allowed here.]

 

[Dooter]

Hi there... I had to look up what 35 deg Celcius was, and it looks like its about 95 deg F. The basking temp definitely needs to be warmer than that. You want it to be around 105 deg F, so... 40 deg C?

And you don't want very much humidity at all. The more arid you can get the tank, the better. They are desert creatures, and too much humidity will make them sick. So, I'd remove all sources of moisture in his tank, minus his greens.

Unfortunately, most pet stores are simply out to make a quick buck, and don't know/don't care about proper individual care of animals, and most of the time you will walk out with bad info. :?

 

[Dooter]

Also, you are going to have to replace the ReptiGlo bulb with a ZooMed Reptisun 10.0 or Arcadia 12% bulb - these are the only 2 bulbs that are recommended for beardies for UVB.

Your cool side of the tank - you want that to be around 80-85 deg F (so 26-29 deg C). You may or may not have to use a second bulb to acheive this temp.

In order to accurately measure temps, you'll need to have a digital thermometer with a probe.

What kind of substrate is he on?

 

[Felly]

Im buying the reptisun globe tomorrow. Ill have to buy it online though. Pet stores here are horrible. Im.so inexperienced. Please dont judge me but..i had crushed walnut shells in 1/4 of his tank for aggggges. I had a huge freakout because hes been coughing and felt responsible because I didnt know better. ive better insulated his glass tank, taken out the water dish and its now lined with tiles. As well as his old fake.grass.

 

[Felly]

I have a probe on his basking side but not the cool side. Theyre 100 bucks in pet shops and paying for the vet on thrsday is going to leave me broke. Ill have t to get a stick on one tomorrow

 

[Dooter]

I have a probe on his basking side but not the cool side. Theyre 100 bucks in pet shops and paying for the vet on thrsday is going to leave me broke. Ill have t to get a stick on one tomorrow

I don't know what kind of stores you have available to you in Australia, but it shouldn't cost you $100 - I bought one made by Zilla for $10.00

Maybe do some looking around on Amazon.com?

 

[ShannyBeard]

I have a probe on his basking side but not the cool side. Theyre 100 bucks in pet shops and paying for the vet on thrsday is going to leave me broke. Ill have t to get a stick on one tomorrow

With a probe thermometer (a probe being the kind with the long cord with the sensor attached to the end), you leave the actual unit on the cool side so the 'indoor temp' would be the cool side temp. Then you run the cord with the sensor over to the basking area and that temp would be the 'outdoor' temp so there should be no need for another thermometer.

I only have a probe thermometer in each of my dragons vivs and haven't had the need for the stick on kind.

Also recently someone had a scare with the stick on kind. The bearded dragon climbed on it and it fell off and the sticky side stuck to the dragon's stomach. EEK!

 

[Felly]

Dooter. Its australia. Because we have no other options in store. ALL pet stores i have ever been in only stock reptiglo globes and for everything minus the tank it cost me 800 bucks...ridiculous. That was the 2 bulbs. Canopy. Ceramic dome. Water bowl. Cave. One piece of wood one bag of bark. The license and jubby himself. Its a total ripoff. I didnt know any better. My poor bf bought it all for my 21st. And i have a 3rd hand glass snake tank. Viv's, are a minimum of 300, just by themselves and are only suitable for juveniles. If i could do it all over it would cost me Maybe 400 tops. And id go to a breeder. I dont know any trustworthy online stores either. Ebay rarely ships the items i want and i dont think amazon ships here. Pretty dumb considering bd are native here.

 

[Felly]

And shanny i dont quite get what your thermometer set up is. Mine takes only 1 temp wherever the probe is.

 

[ShannyBeard]

And shanny i dont quite get what your thermometer set up is. Mine takes only 1 temp wherever the probe is.

Oh that's a bummer. I can't believe they are so expensive where you live. Here they are so cheap. :?

 

[Felly]

I love australia. I wouldnt live anywhere else. But we def are not spoiled for choice. We have maybe 3 or 4 commercial choices when it comes to everything. And we have to pay 100 for a license to own a reptile we can get in our back yard.