New owner help w heating

[Sezi1foryou]

I am having trouble with the heating. I just got my dragon last night and got everything the pet store told us to and it's a baby and I can't seem to get the heat past 80 we have two halogen lights one blue one red and a uvb light all on right now. I was told to only keep blue on during the day and red at night but the tank (20l) was only getting to 78-80 heat. Help!!!!

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[Squish]

Pet store doesn't know what they're talking about. You need a uvb and a basking light! Colored lights are no good. I wouldn't be able to tell you what you need exactly based on your setup, but I'll try to find one of the links that helped me learn a lot. I understand it's scary at first trying to get everything right! Also, if you post your cage size and all that jazz or a picture of the whole setup, others may be able to help more. I'm still learning myself. Very cute lizard by the way!

 

[Squish]

Here, these are links from the mods' forum signature thingys. They've been very helpful for me.
http://www.beardeddragonforum.com/threads/general-info-set-up-1st-timers.13863/
http://www.beardeddragonforum.com/threads/great-new-article-on-reptile-lighting.15482/

 

[Sezi1foryou]

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[Sezi1foryou]

This is my set up... and can't get past 80 heat ...
a UVB light and two halogens


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[PatsyB]

Your the best @Squish!

Unfortunately pet stores give the worst advise to make a sale. Please check out the links Squish provided. First of all the analog temp and humidity gauges are no good. They only give you the temperature at the glass and of the glass where they are placed. These are places your bearded dragon is not sitting in or ever going to sit. You need to get a digital probe thermometer that can be placed directly on the basking spot or a temp gun that will be easier to move around and measure the temps all over your tanks. If you go with the digital probe thermometer, you need 2. One in the basking spot and one on the cool side.

Bearded dragons have a gland on top of their head called a Parietal "eye". This allows them to do a few things. Most important it alerts them to predators over head when they have their eyes closed. It's not really an eye but they can see lights and shadows through it. The other thing this gland does, is it helps them find heat. They are programed to find seek out heat from above rather than below, like say leopard geckos do. That is why it's best to provide natural white heat from above.

Bearded dragons can see all sorts of spectrum of lights that we can't see. If you read the links provided you will see this. That is why it's important to provide them with as natural colored of lights as possible. Meaning no red, blue, green purple, nothing but white light. Colored lights can hurt their eyes and not allow the purples to constrict like they need to, over time burning their retinas and making them blind.

Proper UVB lighting is important too. The easiest and safest bulbs for UVB are tube fluorescent style bulbs. There are two popular style bulbs and 2 different real good brands. The mesh top of the tank blocks out about 35% of the UVB the bulb provides. So if you use a T8 size bulb you want to mount it inside of your tank. If you go with a T5 size bulb, you can set it on top of the mesh and it will still provide the needed UVB coverage. Reptisun 10.0 bulbs are the most popular but a real good, but expensive, bulb is the Arcadia 12 or 14% bulb. You want your UVB to cover at least 2/3 of your tank. Coil bulbs and compact fluorescent bulbs don't provide the correct coverage. Coil bulbs have also been known to cause eye problems in dragons.

Take a look at the links provided and if you have any other questions please ask us!

 

[Sezi1foryou]

Thanks going out to get a diff uvb light but I was told to just get an I feared basking light for the othe hot side which looks to be red?

is this not correct for the heat either?


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[PatsyB]

That's not correct either. I get the Zoomed reptile basking bulbs and I think they work great. Just make sure the wattage you get matches he wattage your dome can handle.

The other thing I forgot to mention is, the basking bulb and the UVB bulb need to overlap. The UVB makes D3 and the heat from the basking helps turn it to calcium.

 

[Sezi1foryou]

Ok but the fluorescent uvb will overlap since covers the whole cage correct just need to get a reptile basking bulb and dome and keep to one side of tank. And leave it on all the time


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[PatsyB]

Yes. You need the UVB fluorescent and the basking dome light to be on the same side so they overlap. All lights get turned off at night. They need to be on a 12 hours on and 12 hours off cycle or 14 hours on 10 off. If your tank temp drops below 65 degrees at night in the whole tank, you need something called a ceramic heat emitter. It puts out heat but no spectrum of light.