Hi all, I’m new in the forum. Hope we have great chats 🙂. Some weeks ago we adopted a leopard gecko (Foxy!), she’s 5 months old. We have a question about the heating of the enclosure.
We chose a ceramic heat lamp instead of a heat mat. Although we manage to obtain the ideal temperature gradient, 30-32 °C in the warm side, 26 central part 22-24 cold side, we have a problem with the warm hide during the day (before it was made of wood, now in stone but the problem persists). On the roof of the hide, directly under the lamp, we have the perfect temperature that we set with the thermostat, 30-32°C, but in the hide it always remains between 25-26,5 °C below the minimum of 28 recommended.
In your experience is this range fine or is it better to add a heat mat under the hide to reach 28-30 °C in that too?
We tried to put the thermostat probe in the hide to bring it to 28-29°C but then above the roof the temperature reached 40 degrees and surely isn’t a good temperature, too high.
With current range 25 down / 30 up in the morning and sometimes at sunset we noticed that Foxy climbs and stay on the roof to bask.
In addition, for a few days we have noticed that Foxy seems to prefer the cold side and stays for long in that part, even if the warm side has the temperature written above (so not too hot). That choice leaves us a little perplexed. Maybe she’s perceiving that is winter and instinctively she’s trying having brumation? Even if she’s still a baby? She is active, eats, explores the enclosure but at the end she chooses cold hide.
Thanks for your feedback!
We chose a ceramic heat lamp instead of a heat mat. Although we manage to obtain the ideal temperature gradient, 30-32 °C in the warm side, 26 central part 22-24 cold side, we have a problem with the warm hide during the day (before it was made of wood, now in stone but the problem persists). On the roof of the hide, directly under the lamp, we have the perfect temperature that we set with the thermostat, 30-32°C, but in the hide it always remains between 25-26,5 °C below the minimum of 28 recommended.
In your experience is this range fine or is it better to add a heat mat under the hide to reach 28-30 °C in that too?
We tried to put the thermostat probe in the hide to bring it to 28-29°C but then above the roof the temperature reached 40 degrees and surely isn’t a good temperature, too high.
With current range 25 down / 30 up in the morning and sometimes at sunset we noticed that Foxy climbs and stay on the roof to bask.
In addition, for a few days we have noticed that Foxy seems to prefer the cold side and stays for long in that part, even if the warm side has the temperature written above (so not too hot). That choice leaves us a little perplexed. Maybe she’s perceiving that is winter and instinctively she’s trying having brumation? Even if she’s still a baby? She is active, eats, explores the enclosure but at the end she chooses cold hide.
Thanks for your feedback!
