bredli84
Very Well-Known Member
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!
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!