Hi guys
So we bought our teenager a bearded dragon last Christmas. I don't think she's been caring for him as well as he needs so we just took ownership of him and set him up in the living room.
He probably has Metabolic Bone Disease... His legs are all like rubber bands. I don't think he was spending any time on the side of the tank that the UVB coil light was set up (and I just found out that bulb is no good for him). We went out this weekend and purchased the repti-sun 10.0 linear bulb and mounted it inside his tank. Previously his set up was this: 100 watt basking lamp (12 hours a day), 100 watt infrared lamp (24 hours a day- we tried only at night but he was too cold during the day) and compact coil lamp (12 hours a day). Now we swapped the coil for the linear and we replaced the infrared lamp with a 100 watt ceramic heat emitter. The CHE is new today. The temp went up to over 100 degrees (it had been around 85) . The past few days he has been hiding more than usual during the day and is most active from 6pm-9pm. I turned off the CHE- thought it might cook him! As the temp dropped a bit he came out a bit more and now he's basking for the first time in about a week. I also moved his basking rock a bit away from the basking lamp because I think the rock may have been getting too hot.
Is it safe for me to leave the CHE on tonight? It gets pretty cool in there at night- and I think the reason he has been hiding and sleeping more during the day might have been because he was too cold- he was fine before and about a week ago our temps up in New England have taken a nosedive- it was 26 degrees outside this morning and our house probably goes into the low 60's.
Can you guys take a look at my set up and tell me if I'm on the right track here? What should I change? Should I swap the 100 watt CHE for the 60?
Here's Malcolm... Isn't he adorable??
Here's his set up:
http://www.flickr.com/x/t/0093009/photos/107788017@N03/10698713215/
http://www.flickr.com/x/t/0094009/photos/107788017@N03/10698955993/
http://www.flickr.com/x/t/0093009/photos/107788017@N03/10698719075/
Thanks in advance!
So we bought our teenager a bearded dragon last Christmas. I don't think she's been caring for him as well as he needs so we just took ownership of him and set him up in the living room.
He probably has Metabolic Bone Disease... His legs are all like rubber bands. I don't think he was spending any time on the side of the tank that the UVB coil light was set up (and I just found out that bulb is no good for him). We went out this weekend and purchased the repti-sun 10.0 linear bulb and mounted it inside his tank. Previously his set up was this: 100 watt basking lamp (12 hours a day), 100 watt infrared lamp (24 hours a day- we tried only at night but he was too cold during the day) and compact coil lamp (12 hours a day). Now we swapped the coil for the linear and we replaced the infrared lamp with a 100 watt ceramic heat emitter. The CHE is new today. The temp went up to over 100 degrees (it had been around 85) . The past few days he has been hiding more than usual during the day and is most active from 6pm-9pm. I turned off the CHE- thought it might cook him! As the temp dropped a bit he came out a bit more and now he's basking for the first time in about a week. I also moved his basking rock a bit away from the basking lamp because I think the rock may have been getting too hot.
Is it safe for me to leave the CHE on tonight? It gets pretty cool in there at night- and I think the reason he has been hiding and sleeping more during the day might have been because he was too cold- he was fine before and about a week ago our temps up in New England have taken a nosedive- it was 26 degrees outside this morning and our house probably goes into the low 60's.
Can you guys take a look at my set up and tell me if I'm on the right track here? What should I change? Should I swap the 100 watt CHE for the 60?
Here's Malcolm... Isn't he adorable??
Here's his set up:
http://www.flickr.com/x/t/0093009/photos/107788017@N03/10698713215/
http://www.flickr.com/x/t/0094009/photos/107788017@N03/10698955993/
http://www.flickr.com/x/t/0093009/photos/107788017@N03/10698719075/
Thanks in advance!