First and foremost, welcome to the group people and thankyou for accepting my invites, hopefully in time we can get a collection of the owners of one of the best animals currently in existence today

Just thought I would start this discussion for members who are having trouble understanding anything they have researched, I am sure we can all do our best to help if issues ever arise, just post your questions here and we can all discuss as a group

things such as food confusion?
Best UV lighting?
Where you can buy whatever?
etc etc

What a fantastic idea I have many questions but I am currently extremely hungover so I will leave them for the morning

Lol thanks hunnie x

right, i know this is slightly different for my chucks with the temps but the theory still remains the same.

ecotherms when unwell will either behaviourally seek hotter temps or go into shut down mode and seek out much cooler temps to reserve any energy for basic bodily functions like breathing.

i read on mel K's website that putting up the temp in the viv for a poorly reptile can actually be detremental.

making me a little confused!

my boys have parasites - i believe- and they are going to the herp vet monday first thing.

ive put the bask spot temps up and they seem to be looking better and staying in the warmer areas of the viv.

Good question ems, it is true that reptiles can survive a very long time in the cold, but not the heat.

Each reptile does well when exposed to optimal temperatures, the time of day they become active, in the wild they are not exposed to the same constant temperature throughout the day, there are fluctuations of different temperatures throughout.

An ill reptiles immune system will become stronger at an optimal temperature
so lets say an iguanas basking was 31 celcius, an iguana can thrive in a basking spot of 34-35celcius, anything above that I would be concerned. DEPENDING on the origonal temperature it can be beneficial by knocking the temp up a degree or two providing it does not exceed the recomended temperatures.

So what I am saying is sometimes bumping the basking spot (providing it is not already 35c can be beneficial) sometimes having too warm of an enclsure can be equally fatal. personally I had my basking temps at around 31-32 celcius.

We did bump the enclosure temperatures up when one seemed to not be itself to get that much needed energy into the iguana to do what they do normally.

One case of when you do this though you need to make sure the iguana is equally hydrated, because the poo will turn yellow to orange in warm temps and if its not hydrated can again be equally fatal.

so bathing daily helps ill iguanas keep there fluids up, offering a drinking dish, and spraying daily can also help. sometimes it has nothing to do with the temps with iguanas, but more a case of the kidneys need to be having a good time of it.

With any ill iguana I always advise to find the flower nasturtium also.
it is a natural antibiotic and is good and safe to iguanas.
It is a good avenue to go down if its not possible to see a vet straight away.

However I am speaking about the species iguana iguana (The green iguana) so I can only say that. The over view would be similar to most reptilian species that there is a better immune system at higher temperatures.
I have read kaplans work at great dissapointment, all I will say is her work does more than good but do not take everything she says as gospel. x

and good luck at the vets ems, let us know how you get on xx

yeh i know, i dont take anything as gospel to be honest, i like to see the things for myself and with my individual reps.

they defo need to go vets bless em. im getting nasturtium next time i head out to a town, but as you know that isnt easy for me but im planning a trip out tuesday with me mam!

chuckwallas are found basking at temps above 50C in the wild and tend not to suffer with hydration issues as they are so well adapt to dry conditions. i put up the bask temps to 125f which is 10f more than usual. i would have done this anyway when they got a bit larger as the larger the chuck, the hotter they like it. takes them more time to warm up but then they hold the heat better than small chucks.

im glad i put the temp up. they are responding well to it.

the thing i find most concerning is how to judge what amount of time in the cool end is normal?

and this goes for hiding too, how much time hiding in the day is normal?

ive tried speaking to several chuck owners and it seems to differ and people cant seem to give me exact times. it seems SOME people dont monitor their reptiles as much as i do, i understand its not always possible but even when i was working a 65hour week i was very observant. Meh. lol

brill answer!

lol no problem hun, 50c a day is very very warm, I must look into this when I get some more time, you live and learn eh lmao the difference is in captivity most owners keep a constant temp, in the wild the temps would only reach 50c for a few hours, over the day there is different fluctuations my point would ne having a temp like that all the time is likley to cause dehydration x