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AlligatorLizardLady View Profile |
New to Alligator Lizards - want to double check advice from pet store
igappleherp.com
I did the best I could with short notice and created this tank from our old frog tank:
He’s MUCH happier here than he was in the sink! But I know it’s not the best setup for him (or her)...
I got a thermometer, a UBA bulb and an undertank heat pad per the advice of the PetCo employee. Right now it’s VERY hot during the day (got up to 90 outside, 88 inside his tank in the ’cool’ zone) - I don’t have air conditioning so in the afternoon it’s not much difference the temp inside vs out. I’m in LA and it cools down nicely at night (today’s 90’s are now 69 and it’s just before 10pm so it’ll drop a little more by midnight). I’m not even sure I need the heater even at night but don’t know what his min/max temps should be...so am running the heat pad on a timer to only turn on at night... He looks pretty healthy to me and snatches up large crickets no problem. Any advice for what the ’right’ setup should be for this guy? |
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| 04/29/08 12:26am |
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AlligatorLizardLady View Profile |
Message To: AlligatorLizardLady In reference to Message Id: 1719807 New to Alligator Lizards - want to double check advice from pet store
How do you know if a vitamin sup is free of phosphoras? Will it state phosphorus free? Or if it doesn’t list phosphorus is that good enough? |
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| 04/29/08 12:46am |
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Aliceinwl View Profile |
Message To: AlligatorLizardLady In reference to Message Id: 1719810 New to Alligator Lizards - want to double check advice from pet store
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| 04/29/08 10:15pm |
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AlligatorLizardLady View Profile |
Message To: Aliceinwl In reference to Message Id: 1720725 New to Alligator Lizards - want to double check advice from pet store
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| 04/29/08 11:38pm |
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AlligatorLizardLady View Profile |
Message To: AlligatorLizardLady In reference to Message Id: 1720785 New to Alligator Lizards - want to double check advice from pet store
http://www.exo-terra.com/en/products/habitat_kit_rainforest.php The water dish is pretty small (fits in corner like this: http://www.petco.com/product/104871/Zoo-Med-Repti-Rock-Reptile-Corner-Bowl.aspx) Does he need a ’bath’ type setup like this? http://www.petco.com/product/14367/Zoo-Med-Repti-Ramp-Bowl.aspx Or would a waterfall be better? http://www.petco.com/product/105903/Zoo-Med-Repti-Rapids-Waterfall.aspx |
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| 04/29/08 11:54pm |
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Aliceinwl View Profile |
Message To: AlligatorLizardLady In reference to Message Id: 1720794 New to Alligator Lizards - want to double check advice from pet store
A 40-50 watt basking/UVA light on one side and fluorescent strip or coil on the other usually works well in a 10-20 gallon long tank. With the exo-terra you may want to see if you can find a 25 watt bulb and create an elevated basking site so that the floor of the cage will remain cool. I’ve successfully kept als in the past at room temperatures without supplemental heat. If you can’t rearrange the tank in such a way to prevent things from getting too hot, I’d drop the UVA light. I’m not real sure of the sex on your guy, but I would lean towards male. |
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| 04/30/08 01:59am |
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AlligatorLizardLady View Profile |
Message To: Aliceinwl In reference to Message Id: 1720849 New to Alligator Lizards - want to double check advice from pet store
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| 04/30/08 10:10am |
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Aliceinwl View Profile |
Message To: AlligatorLizardLady In reference to Message Id: 1721011 New to Alligator Lizards - want to double check advice from pet store
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| 05/01/08 04:25am |
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AlligatorLizardLady View Profile |
Message To: Aliceinwl In reference to Message Id: 1721861 New to Alligator Lizards - want to double check advice from pet store
Will wetting the bark more generously help keep it cool below? Any tips on where to buy a decent thermometor? The one we have measuring temps at the bottom is a tourist magnet we got on Santa Monica pier so it’s not exactly the most accurate measurement in the world I’m sure... Any tips for ’sealing’ the background? The crickets are able to sneak around the top and get behind the background because it has 4 rectangular holes to allow wires (2 on top, 2 on bottom). I could cut a piece of styrofoam and stuff it in there but it wouldn’t look very good, any ideas on safe paint I could use to help it blend in up top? (down below it’s hidden by the substrate so wouldn’t matter as much. Maybe I could glue little rocks to it instead? The background is made of styrofoam but somehow they color it brown to look more natural. I know I could use silicone but that would be take a lot of silicone to fill up those holes enough for Crickets to not crawl thru. Any ideas you have would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for all your help! |
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| 05/01/08 11:44pm |
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PrinceSushi View Profile |
Message To: AlligatorLizardLady In reference to Message Id: 1722855 New to Alligator Lizards - want to double check advice from pet store
To try to help solve this, you should add more floor space. At petco and petsmart they sell things call reptile hammocks which suction to the glass. They come in various sizes and can be thrown in a sink or dishwasher to clean since they are made of thick mesh. Try to fit one or two into the cage so he has more room to run around. If you do get hammocks or some type of shelving, try to also place plants or hides there as well. Vines, ramps, and rocks can all be used to help him read higher levels and shelves/hammocks. As long as your house isn’t getting below 50-60 at night, don’t worry to much. Anything lower might send him back into brumation though. A normal 50-60 watt basking bulb is cheapest and can easily provide one selected area heat. However, alligator lizard prefer to collect heat while hidden so try to provide cover with either fake plants, rocks or hides. So that he can sleep, you can use the heat pad at night, if it gets too cool. To heat the top and cool the bottom, try the reptile hammocks and a lower wattage of bulb. The closer he is to the bulb, the more heat he will gain. Just try going down 10 watts. If you loose your 90-100 temps in the basking area, switch back to the old bulb and look into purchasing a different tank that isn’t so high. Petco and petsmart or any pet store should sell digital probe thermometers. They are roughly $10-$50 depending on how fancy you want them. Those little dial stick on types, in your photo, can be as far as 20 degrees off which can be potentially life threatening to reptiles. I don’t own an exoterra cage but I’ve heard of that background problem a million times. You should go to the gecko section or a day gecko forum and ask for help since exoterra cages are commonly used for them. I know I’ve heard various methods for fixing it but I just can’t remember them. |
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| 05/02/08 12:39pm |
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AlligatorLizardLady View Profile |
Message To: PrinceSushi In reference to Message Id: 1723172 New to Alligator Lizards - want to double check advice from pet store
He loves the vines and plants on the top and the bottom is now 74.4 in the middle of the ’forest floor’. What time of day is best for feeding? Or should I give him 1-2 crickets in the morning and 1-2 at night? I’m feeding large crickets dusted with phosporas free calcium powder. |
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| 05/02/08 06:42pm |
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AlligatorLizardLady View Profile |
Message To: AlligatorLizardLady In reference to Message Id: 1723485 New to Alligator Lizards - want to double check advice from pet store
http://www.petsmart.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2752557 left side top on the side that’s not so close to the light bulb is 88.9 but right side directly underneath the bulb is actually 93.9 so I think the 15W bulb is just perfect. Agree? Or should both sides of the ’sunning’ spot be over 90? What’s the max heat that should be in any given spot? I know above 110-115 the plastic on the tank would melt so would 100 be the max? Or is 90-100 the ’ideal range’ and a hot 105 day up top would be OK here and there for those few days of the year it gets above 80 in my house? (I don’t have air conditioning, I’m 5 miles from the coast by LAX airport so it’s only a few weeks a year that happens) |
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| 05/02/08 06:50pm |
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William kimmy View Profile |
Message To: AlligatorLizardLady In reference to Message Id: 1723495
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| 05/02/08 11:15pm |
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AlligatorLizardLady View Profile |
Message To: William kimmy In reference to Message Id: 1723717 New to Alligator Lizards - want to double check advice from pet store
Now that he’s out of my little 5gal tank I’ve turned that into a cricket only tank so I can buy more crickets at once and I don’t need carrots in the lizard tank since the crickets are only in there a few seconds before they get eaten up! Crickets are more nutritious for the lizard if they are fed things like carrots, fish flakes and now I’ve learned orange slices! Anyhow, now ’Bob’ is in the tall tank and having a good time. I did read in nature they sometimes climb trees to eat baby birds/eggs! So though they spend a lot of time on the ground they like to climb too... mine sure does... I’ve got ~1.5" of ground cover, he’s made a nice little ’den’ in the corner where his whole body is buried but he can peep his head out to take a look around. Should I have the ground cover deeper than that? I’m leaving the dig. thermometer probe down in the ground tonight to see what the min. temp is at night time...my guess is it won’t drop below 70 but we’ll see. THANKS! |
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| 05/03/08 12:26am |
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Reptilefreak101 View Profile |
Message To: AlligatorLizardLady In reference to Message Id: 1723749 New to Alligator Lizards - want to double check advice from pet store
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| 05/15/08 11:28am |
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New to Alligator Lizards - want to double check advice from pet store