New to this, need advice

[vinzyangel]

Its getting close to winter, and I was wondering, should i put an extra UTH under my herps, in case it gets too cold? My mother and I are going to surround the bottom and sides with cardboard to seal in some heat, and keep towels on top of the tanks. I was wondering if there were any extra tricks to keeping them toasty. My snake (ball python) and green anole are thriving as is, even when the temp in the room dips, but I want to be POSITIVE I am doing EVERYTHING I can. I thank everyone in advance for any ideas!

 

[acpart]

As I"ve posted before, personally I feel that if the belly heat is high enough and the ambient temperature goes down the gecko will be comfortable in its warm hide which traps heat. Not everyone agrees and some feel their geckos are happier with higher ambient heat. One question is whether your UTH that you have can maintain the correct temperatures in the winter. In order to increase your UTH temp if necessary you can put a sheet of foil over it (so the UTH is sandwiched between the bottom of the tank and the foil). Adding a UTH will just increase the area of the floor that has heat and the gecko does need a temperature gradient. Other methods to increase heat are to increase the heat in the room or to use a ceramic heat emitter. If your anole is doing OK I'd imagine that your gecko will do OK.

ALiza

 

[vinzyangel]

Thank you! I just actually sat here, compiled information on keeping, feeding, breeding, hatching,incubating making a humid hide, and mealworm care and made it into a little booklet for myself. I hope i can do the best for these ladies... they should actually arrive within the hour or so! the area where the hide is is toasty warm

 

[Jordan]

yeh they will keep themselves warm if the correct temp on the UTH is provided.