Blue Tongue Questions

[gorillabiscuits]

Hi Everyone

I'm looking at getting a first reptile and was considering a Blue Tongue and had a couple of what I hope are pretty easy questions.

I'm in Melbourne and temps drop in my house to what I would guess is below 10 degrees during winter nights, when it comes to overnight heating what is the best set up with heating and lighting?

Would it be right to have 3 globes, one UV set to run during daylight hours, one heat bulb at a higher temp for daylight heat and then a third lower watt ceramic at nights to keep some heat up?

Or is the UV and Heat for daylight combined in one of those basking spot lamps and then there's just a separate ceramic at night set up to come on at night for a lower overnight temp? No heating matts or cords needed?

My other question was about feeding, if you are live feeding insects and not breeding feeders how long do crickets/woodies generally stay alive before you need to make another trip out for food?

Seen a bit of debate on enclosure size too but a 120cm should be the right size with 90cm being too small right? They prefer larger spaces rather than some animals feeling more secure in tighter enclosures correct?

Thanks for any help you guys can provide

 

[Sdaji]

Hi Everyone

I'm looking at getting a first reptile and was considering a Blue Tongue and had a couple of what I hope are pretty easy questions.

I'm in Melbourne and temps drop in my house to what I would guess is below 10 degrees during winter nights, when it comes to overnight heating what is the best set up with heating and lighting?

Would it be right to have 3 globes, one UV set to run during daylight hours, one heat bulb at a higher temp for daylight heat and then a third lower watt ceramic at nights to keep some heat up?

Or is the UV and Heat for daylight combined in one of those basking spot lamps and then there's just a separate ceramic at night set up to come on at night for a lower overnight temp? No heating matts or cords needed?

My other question was about feeding, if you are live feeding insects and not breeding feeders how long do crickets/woodies generally stay alive before you need to make another trip out for food?

Seen a bit of debate on enclosure size too but a 120cm should be the right size with 90cm being too small right? They prefer larger spaces rather than some animals feeling more secure in tighter enclosures correct?

Thanks for any help you guys can provide

I personally wouldn't use UV. It's controversial, many will argue, but I've raised heaps of the and kept them long term with no UV, kept others side by side with no UV, no difference.

Basking lamp is definitely important.

Depending on the type of Blue-tongued I'd be inclined not to bother with night time heating, especially for a southern form of Eastern, or any form of Blotched. If you do use night heat, use floor heat (a heat mat or heat cord under the enclosure). At night time the sky is colder than the ground and sucks heat out of it, not the other way around. Floor heat is cheaper, easier, more reliable and more natural. Ceramics are just expensive things aimed at newbies as a cash grab.

If you're going to offer live insects, breed your own. Crickets are expensive and a complete pain. Cockroaches are almost impossible to kill. You can buy them and have them sitting there for months on end (I once accidentally left some in a garage in Melbourne, found them literally a year later, and they were still alive), and as long as you give them feed (I used rat/mouse feed, you can use dog/cat biscuits or any of a range of options, they eat an amazingly small amount for the amount of cockroach you produce, very efficient) and a water source (I used fresh carrot) they'll do the rest. Crickets are noisy, smelly and die if you forget about them for 15 minutes.

A 90cm enclosure is sufficient... sort of, I guess. Many people use 3' enclosures, I suppose they're happy enough and they will be healthy etc. 4' is great.