M
mom2twinsplus2
Guest
Hi All-
I am curious about what is "normal" for a FT and what is "off".
I have had my sweet little amel fat tail since just after Thanksgiving. For most of this time, I have kept her on newpaper for her main substrate with a UTH under part of the tank. She has several hides both over the UTH, in the middle near the UTH and on the cool side...her hide on the cool side is a tupperware filled with moist ecoearth for her humid hide. Normally, I find her in all the different place in her cage...sometimes on the side of her hide on the UTH side, sometimes in her middle ground hide and sometimes in her moist hide. She has been eating and growing well and has molted twice since I got her.
Last week, my UTH broke. I think as it broke, it first misfired and burned her tail....though I am not sure about this part. During her last molt, I noticed she had a scab or something on the end of her tail that was just not right at all. At first I thought it was just a piece of stuck molt that wasn't coming off, then it became clear it was more like a scab and then I noticed a little scratched area just above it (I think she got the scratch trying to get off the scab at the tip of her tail). I am not sure about the cause of the injury at all...but I now know that it correlates with the issue with my UTH...a piece of the plastic part of the UTH melted...producing lots of heat from that spot..then it auto-shut off..so it is possible anyhow. I had removed it from another tank which apparently you are not supposed to do...the company is replacing it for free for me.
Anyhow, I figured out that my UTH was broken because I noticed my AFT sleeping more and when I went to pick her up from the warm side, she felt cool so I checked out the UTH and it was off. It was not off for more than a day.
Since it broke and I am waiting for the replacement from the company, I set up a red heat light over a piece of slate with her same hot side hide on top of it. I am getting comparable temps as I got from the UTH (95-100 on the basking spot) but my AFT is acting all differently. She is spending much more time sleeping and seems to go into much deeper sleeps (scared me silly a few times), she is spending MUCH more time in her humid hide and much more time under her hot side hide (she used to sleep next to it) more than under it. I am thinking she is hiding from the red light that most bug her but I thought the they couldn't see the red light...is blue better?
Now, I am wondering what is really best for her. Should I have both a UTH and a small basking bulb...I would need a lower wattage than what I have now if I had the UTH as well but that is easy enough.or is it best for her to just have the UTH? She seemed to be doing well enough with just the UTH before but now I wonder.
FWIW, I don't think she is sleeping more because she is actually sick...her tail seems to be healing really, really well and looks almost like new now.
Any thoughts?
Alison
I am curious about what is "normal" for a FT and what is "off".
I have had my sweet little amel fat tail since just after Thanksgiving. For most of this time, I have kept her on newpaper for her main substrate with a UTH under part of the tank. She has several hides both over the UTH, in the middle near the UTH and on the cool side...her hide on the cool side is a tupperware filled with moist ecoearth for her humid hide. Normally, I find her in all the different place in her cage...sometimes on the side of her hide on the UTH side, sometimes in her middle ground hide and sometimes in her moist hide. She has been eating and growing well and has molted twice since I got her.
Last week, my UTH broke. I think as it broke, it first misfired and burned her tail....though I am not sure about this part. During her last molt, I noticed she had a scab or something on the end of her tail that was just not right at all. At first I thought it was just a piece of stuck molt that wasn't coming off, then it became clear it was more like a scab and then I noticed a little scratched area just above it (I think she got the scratch trying to get off the scab at the tip of her tail). I am not sure about the cause of the injury at all...but I now know that it correlates with the issue with my UTH...a piece of the plastic part of the UTH melted...producing lots of heat from that spot..then it auto-shut off..so it is possible anyhow. I had removed it from another tank which apparently you are not supposed to do...the company is replacing it for free for me.
Anyhow, I figured out that my UTH was broken because I noticed my AFT sleeping more and when I went to pick her up from the warm side, she felt cool so I checked out the UTH and it was off. It was not off for more than a day.
Since it broke and I am waiting for the replacement from the company, I set up a red heat light over a piece of slate with her same hot side hide on top of it. I am getting comparable temps as I got from the UTH (95-100 on the basking spot) but my AFT is acting all differently. She is spending much more time sleeping and seems to go into much deeper sleeps (scared me silly a few times), she is spending MUCH more time in her humid hide and much more time under her hot side hide (she used to sleep next to it) more than under it. I am thinking she is hiding from the red light that most bug her but I thought the they couldn't see the red light...is blue better?
Now, I am wondering what is really best for her. Should I have both a UTH and a small basking bulb...I would need a lower wattage than what I have now if I had the UTH as well but that is easy enough.or is it best for her to just have the UTH? She seemed to be doing well enough with just the UTH before but now I wonder.
FWIW, I don't think she is sleeping more because she is actually sick...her tail seems to be healing really, really well and looks almost like new now.
Any thoughts?
Alison
