yesterday i got my leopard gecko after a month of researching and finding out how to take good care of him. I bought a baby mack snow leopard gecko and he/she is very beautiful and active. I bought everything for him except the thermometer! The thing im worried about is the heating pad. im currently housing him in a medium size tub. The heating pad seems to not be heating alot. When i put my hand over the surface of the tub where the heating pad is under I only feel a small amount of warmth. Is this normal? is the Heating pad defective? or am I just paranoid? the heat pad is a zilla mini 4 watt heating pad.
Heat pad or just me?
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cornsnakegirl
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The heat pad won't feel warm because people are warmer, but to be sure you should have your UTH running on a thermostat so you can set it at 90 and forget it basically. A thermometer is a must as well ASAP to be sure you're getting ideal temp's. 
cornsnakegirl
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You have no idea if it's hot or not though without a digital thermometer (like $8 in the US). Generally they get too hot or too cold without a thermostat but every pad is different. You could have a dud or it could be hot, but you have no way of knowing until you get a thermometer. If it actually felt hot to you then there's something to worry about!
Fixing this asap is important because you already have a Leo and it could be burning itself to stay warm after eating or not digesting after eating because it's too cold. :/
Fixing this asap is important because you already have a Leo and it could be burning itself to stay warm after eating or not digesting after eating because it's too cold. :/
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No! it didnt feel hot lol, its just a bit warm. I meant that everytime I look for info on heat pads, people say that the heat pads get really hot, but since mine isnt hot i got a bit scared. But now that im hearing that it only needs to be just a bit warm in there, im a bit relieved , but im still going to go get a thermometer asap.
, but im still going to go get a thermometer asap.
Music City Geckos
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I don't know about you guys but when I first put a new UTH on a tank w/o a thermometer just to make sure it works, it gets hit as &@$/. I would test you heat pad to make sure it is working properly. Easiest way I can think of is to get a thermostat and set it to 90 degrees and mount your probe correctly. If the thermostat never clicks off then your UTH isn't working properly cause it's not getting hot enough.
cornsnakegirl
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No! it didnt feel hot lol, its just a bit warm. I meant that everytime I look for info on heat pads, people say that the heat pads get really hot, but since mine isnt hot i got a bit scared. But now that im hearing that it only needs to be just a bit warm in there, im a bit relieved
Once you get your thermometer, if the heat pad isn't even touching 90F without a thermostat, then you know for sure you need a new heat pad. Also be sure that you have the right size of pad as well, it should cover one third of the bin you have your gecko in
If it's not feeling hot right now, at least you know you aren't frying your leo, haha!
I got a normal analog thermometer and I put it directly over the hot spot on top of the heat pad and its hitting 90 or 95 degrees,I also got another of the same thermometers to make sure it was accurate and both are still hitting 90 and 95. Thats the suggested temperature right?
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cornsnakegirl
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A digital thermometer is ideal because it's much more accurate than analog, but this is giving us a general ballpark. Yes, that's the right temperature! Only you need to KEEP checking often to be sure it's not swinging. If it's changing from that 90-95 range, you need a thermostat. But now you know your UTH works! Woo! So your leo is fine, now it's just about making sure it's staying in that range, either unregulated with lots of checking or regulated by thermostat
Everytime I put the thermostat the temp is always in the 95 or 93 so it seems pretty steady, Ive been checking the temp like crazy. Hes been really active and is now coming out of the hide box and exploring his cage more often, hes doing very good, so now I feel pretty safe about him thanks for the help cornsnakegirl
thanks for the help cornsnakegirlVisit our friends
