Night temps for desert monitors/enclosure heating question.

[bredli84]

Hello all,

I have been planning an enclosure for a small desert monitor (gilleni or ackie) and wanted to query night temps.

Obviously I need a high temp, daytime basking spot, but is it necessary to provide additional heat? My theory is to provide a stack of layered rock/tiles/slate directly under the basking light. This would provide a vertical temp gradient with crevices to hide in at various temps. It would ideally also provide some thermal inertia.

If I can heat the hot spot to 50+ deg in the day and maintain the cool end under 30 (figured I would put the thermostat in the cool end to manage the overall temp since the hot spot seems to have a wide acceptable range), I could forgo additional heat and run the spotlight on a timer+stat for day/night.

Night would be left to ambient room temp + whatever heat was stored in the rock stack. It is important to note that I almost never heat my old, drafty Melbourne house and night temps can get into the low teens in summer and single figures in winter.

Having camped and hiked in central Aus, I know the nights can get very cold, but unsure what sheltered conditions the lizards can find?
It's probably one of those CAN tolerate, versus ideal scenarios, I'm just not sure what's reasonable.

I would appreciate the advice of any experienced keepers.

Thanks!

 

[user 43767]

Hello all,

I have been planning an enclosure for a small desert monitor (gilleni or ackie) and wanted to query night temps.

Obviously I need a high temp, daytime basking spot, but is it necessary to provide additional heat? My theory is to provide a stack of layered rock/tiles/slate directly under the basking light. This would provide a vertical temp gradient with crevices to hide in at various temps. It would ideally also provide some thermal inertia.

If I can heat the hot spot to 50+ deg in the day and maintain the cool end under 30 (figured I would put the thermostat in the cool end to manage the overall temp since the hot spot seems to have a wide acceptable range), I could forgo additional heat and run the spotlight on a timer+stat for day/night.

Night would be left to ambient room temp + whatever heat was stored in the rock stack. It is important to note that I almost never heat my old, drafty Melbourne house and night temps can get into the low teens in summer and single figures in winter.

Having camped and hiked in central Aus, I know the nights can get very cold, but unsure what sheltered conditions the lizards can find?
It's probably one of those CAN tolerate, versus ideal scenarios, I'm just not sure what's reasonable.

I would appreciate the advice of any experienced keepers.

Thanks!

Hi, You basically need to know two temps above ground during "activity time"; the surface temp at the basking site between approx. 50 to 65c, then the lowest ambient in the cooler parts @ between approx. 21 to 24c. Both species can tolerate relatively low nighttime ambient temps but personally I would not let them fall much below 20c and that obviously includes down in the subsrate.
What size of enclosure are you thinking of offering for whichever species you get?
You are correct to use the thermostat to set the ambient temps NOT the basking surface.
The stack is a great idea ( "invented" by Frank Retes in America) make sure the layers slope between each piece so the monitor can wedge itself in tightly if it chooses.

 

[Sdaji]

I've experimented with different ambient temperatures at night for small monitors. Nothing seemed to make any difference.

I always used a spotlight on a timer, never on a thermostat. If you've spent time in central Australia during summer you'll know how extreme an environment it is, and the only place to get below about 35 degrees, and often the only easy place to be under 40, is underground (but the monitors don't seem to avoid these temperatures anyway). I used basking site temperatures of around 80 degrees. Not essential, but they used it and loved it, and they certainly have access to basking temperatures like this in nature. It blows most people's minds, and it's weird at first when it literally hurts a little to touch the lizard because it's just so hot, but these are extremophilic creatures.

 

[bredli84]

Thanks guys,

murrindindi - I haven't decided on the species yet (not in a hurry), so enclosure is not locked-in. For an adult ackie, I would likely go ~ 150cm x 60 x 90 or so. A bit smaller for gilleni.
I would set the enclosure up and run it for a while prior to adding any animal, so can keep an eye on the temps and determine if supplementary heat is needed.
I suspect my plan is feasible, but would want to confirm the there is a reasonable amount of retained heat in the rock stack (point about angled rocks is noted).

I am not trying to set this up cheaply, just looking for a simple and reliable enclosure.

Sdaji - thanks for your words of experience.
I'm pretty cautious and likely to use a dimming thermostat to control the spot light based on cool end temps, however I am sure a well ventilated enclosure probably won't need it as long as a sensible bulb is used.

 

[Sdaji]

is up cheaply, just looking for a simple and reliable enclosure.

Sdaji - thanks for your words of experience.
I'm pretty cautious and likely to use a dimming thermostat to control the spot light based on cool end temps, however I am sure a well ventilated enclosure probably won't need it as long as a sensible bulb is used.

If I was going to hook a thermostat up to the spotlight, which I definitely wouldn't, I'd set it to about 36 degrees and put the probe in the coolest place the lizards had access to, and use a non dimming thermostat. Otherwise, what's the point? These things won't bother basking at 32 degrees. If you use a thermostat in any area which is going to actually regulate your basking spot, you're just going to destroy the only important part of their heating, which is the overwhelmingly most important thing they need, and you'll be doing that mostly at the time of year when they most critically need it.

The hottest part of the year is the time when they want and need that blasting hot basking spot all day. You'll mess up their cycling otherwise.