Central Netted Dragon

[diamond_python]

Anyone else keep them and can let me know how this would go? It is urgent as I need to set this up this week. Cheers

[Nephrurus]

A heat mat and a U.V tube wont be any good. Small Dragons need to be able to bask so they can elevate their body temp. Just splurge and get one of those Murcury vapour globes.
-H

[hugsta]

What Simon has said is pretty spot on. I have my setup pretty much the same but am waiting to get a couple more oz brights. The only difference is I have the oz brights setup on a timer and I have a heat mat under the hot end which stays on all the time. I don't run any thermostats on the setup at all. But I did make sure the temps were going to be ok before letting the animals go in the enclosure.

Speaking about substrate I use brickies sand. These little guys live in burrows under bushes and rocks so it is important that you have a something they can bask on and also bury under. This is why I use this sand cause if you put it in damp it will go very hard and make it easy for them to make their burrows.

I highly recommend a top-opening enclosure as these guys are fast and tend to sit and wait for the sliding doors to open, then they dart out of the enclosure before you can even blink.

I found with my central netteds that they will tame down very easy and will quite happily hop on to your arm and sit there. Although very similar to painteds they may be a bit more friendly. But as I have not had painteds I am not sure about this, I just know my centrals are as friendly as a vitticeps.

[diamond_python]

Thanks guys. This has really helped.

[OuZo]

ok talking to brian about the mercury vapours, he said that it would be too hot to put it in an enclosure of that size, so you should be cutting a hole in the roof and covering with mesh and having it on the outside of the cage. but maybe with enough ventilation it would be ok? i know you guys mentioned a bit about it before but how many vents would you put in and what type? our snake enclosures that were made for us have a household vent in the back middle and 2 small round vents at the front under the sliding glass track. humidity does tend to stay quite low with that much ventilation tho...would that be enough if we were using a mercury vapour? and maybe a vent above the light to the side of it or something? if we cant get a mercury vapour we will apparently have to have 2 stats, one for a reflector and one for a ceramic for night which is a bit cluttered and i'd rather not do so if anyone has any ideas let me know asap! oh and one other thing...if you have an ozbright/MV on all day, how do you prevent overheating the enclosure when you get 40 degree days in summer? if you turn it off they won't be able to bask...

[Simon_Archibald]

Zoe,
Have a look at the "best enclosure comp" thread and go to about page 3 where I entered our Black Soil Beardies tank. That is a 900x500x600 enclosure about the same size as you're wanting. You can see how I run the 160watt Oz-bright in the dome above...mesh is covering the lamp and I've cut out a ridge in the lid for it to sit on.

As for overheating...the bulbs themselves are designed to cut out when they overheat but they come back on after a few minutes. If you want to guarantee they don't fry your lizards, you'll really need to aircondition the room I'd say.

Simon Archibald