Best substraight? Perfect Temperature?

[Gigabyte]

I recently got my first leopard gecko and I have been reading just about everything I can find to learn about them. (I wanna be a good mama!) I have revived mixed signals about what the best substraight for geckos is. Currently I have my little guy (about 5 inches long) on a repti-carpet. I would be much happier with a substraight that he could move around and burrow in. On the other hand I don't want to use something that is going to make him become impacted.
I was also wondering about the temperature because my house is fairly cold and it seems like i can't get his cage up to 90.
Thank you for your time!
Alex
151

 

[acpart]

You will find a difference of opinion about substrate because there is more than one way to do things. All my cages except one have ceramic tile as a substrate and I find that it works really well. I have one cage with a bioactive substrate (if you do a forum search, you'll find a lot more about bioactive substrates) that is mostly coco fiber. The leos are doing well on it, but I haven't seen them burrow, so it may not be necessary. A more interesting choice is providing places for them to climb a bit and hide in, like little nooks and caves.

As far as temperature goes, are you measuring air temp or floor temp and what are you using to measure it? I can respond better if I have this info.

Aliza

 

[Gigabyte]

Thanks for replying! I have noticed the discrepancy about the substraight used, but thanks for the idea of adding more hides and things to climb on! I will defiantly look into that. I have a digital thermometer and a regular thermometer one on each side of the cage. They rest on the bottom of the cage. I have been able to keep the cool side of the cage at about 70 degrees and the warm side in the 80's with it being warmer in his hide. The temperature does drop at night so when i wake up the warm side will be about 79 degrees and the cool side seems to stay constant at 70. (I did check to make sure the thermometer was accurate!) Every couple days I check the temperature in her hut to make sure that everything is doing okay and it's usually at 84/84 degress, which is odd becuase when i first bought the heating mat it was like 100 there and i bout a lamp dimmer to bring the temperature down ( i took this off when It was no longer staying that warm)
Thank you for all your help!
Alex
30

 

[acpart]

The floor temperature on the warm side should ideally be in the low 90's. If the floor temperature at night is getting down to 79 with the heat mat on full, there may be a problem with the heat mat.

Aliza

 

[Gigabyte]

thanks. I unpluged the heat mat from the lamp dimmer and now the warm side is about 90 degrees so i think i'm good now.
510