Misting & General Advice/Thoughts

Annaliselk

New Member
Hi everyone! Have read MANY threads on here, but this is my first post, so thanks in advance for any and all feedback you can provide.

We live in East Texas and have had Pasqual, a male Veiled who is approx. 10.5 inches long, for 2 months (any guesses on his age would be great because the pet store people were clueless when we got him). We (stupidly) started out with the tiny cage kit from Petco, along with the wrong food, the wrong gutload for the crickets, the wrong lights, the wrong everything.

We now have Repashy Calcium Plus LoD for him, Repashy Bug Burger for his crickets, and are in the process of building our own enclosure (5 ft. wide, 2 ft. deep, and 4 ft. tall with a solid back and mesh top/front/sides), with a Mistking 3-nozzle misting system. Lighting will be on a 12-hour on/off schedule with an Arcadia 48” T5HO quad fixture (1 @ 12%, 3 @ 6500 - 8-9” from nearest branch) and a dome basking lamp (100w - 12” from nearest branch). Lighting set up is per Todd Goode’s (Light Your Reptiles) recommendations.

We have 1 pothos and 5 dracaena (couldn’t find any ficus or umbrella, but read what we have is safe?). All are fairly young/short plants - currently, the tallest of any of them is 1 ft. high, but I think they’ll grow to approx. 3 ft. high? I’m not a plant person (2 very black thumbs!), so I’m not sure if I’m on the right track with the type/number of plants and/or if the lights we’ll have are sufficient for the plants...? We do know to cover the dirt in the pots with river rock, though. We will also have branches (real - birch and manzanita) and vines (fake) in there.

Having said all of that, we need help on determining the best frequency and duration of the mistings. And any other advice/thoughts y’all might have?

Last, but certainly not least, anything we are now getting right is due to all the wonderful, invaluable advice from all the veteran keepers on this site, so thank you all!

Lisa
 

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First of all welcome to the forums! I live In Dallas and my misting schedule is 4 times a day ( 6:30am for 2 minutes, 10:00am for 4 minutes, 2:00 pm for 2 minutes and at 5:30pm for 3 minutes) the average temp in my house during the day is 76. During the winter I add a few more short sessions durning the day because my heater really bring the humidity down. I also use a Arcadia 12% UVB lamp that I have raised about 4” off the top of my cage ( to get the right UVB readings ) my highest branch is about 6” from the top of the cage though. All your setup sounds good, I would definitely buy a temp gun so you can check your basking temps, I stared off with a 100 watt bulb and had to downsize to a 60 watt because my temps were way high.
 
First of all welcome to the forums! I live In Dallas and my misting schedule is 4 times a day ( 6:30am for 2 minutes, 10:00am for 4 minutes, 2:00 pm for 2 minutes and at 5:30pm for 3 minutes) the average temp in my house during the day is 76. During the winter I add a few more short sessions durning the day because my heater really bring the humidity down. I also use a Arcadia 12% UVB lamp that I have raised about 4” off the top of my cage ( to get the right UVB readings ) my highest branch is about 6” from the top of the cage though. All your setup sounds good, I would definitely buy a temp gun so you can check your basking temps, I stared off with a 100 watt bulb and had to downsize to a 60 watt because my temps were way high.
10-4 on the temp gun and the 60 watt bulb! A regular flood-type incandescent bulb will work right? As in, doesn’t have to be from a specialty reptile lighting kind of place?

Are you able to give a rough estimate on his age? I can add another photo with him on my hand if that would help.

Do you think I need any other lighting specifically to help the plants grow/stay alive? Will the dracaena get as high as 3 ft.?

Sorry for all the questions...trying to get everything as close to perfect as I can!
 
Yes a regular incandescent bulb will work just fine, I use a Phillips brand from Home Depot. As far as the age goes he looks like a year maybe. I’m no Veiled expert though I’m a Panther guy. @beeman would know more about his age she a bad @ss when it comes to Veileds lol. They make a “plant bulb” but I have a Pothos that’s growing just fine in my cages with just the 6500k bulbs. For the dracaena I have no clue lol. Sorry it took me so long to respond, I get to cruise the forums late in the evening usually.
 
Yes a regular incandescent bulb will work just fine, I use a Phillips brand from Home Depot. As far as the age goes he looks like a year maybe. I’m no Veiled expert though I’m a Panther guy. @beeman would know more about his age she a bad @ss when it comes to Veileds lol. They make a “plant bulb” but I have a Pothos that’s growing just fine in my cages with just the 6500k bulbs. For the dracaena I have no clue lol. Sorry it took me so long to respond, I get to cruise the forums late in the evening usually.
Got the temp gun and dome fixture with dimmer control ordered...should be here within a week. I’ll swing by Home Depot this weekend for the bulb. Going to start with a 60 watt like you suggested and adjust from there.

He’s definitely not a year...maybe I zoomed in too much and made him look bigger than he is lol! When we got him, he was maybe 6-7 inches long. We’ve had him for 2 months, and he’s now about 10.5 inches long. I’ve read a TON of her posts and have learned so much from her and others like you on here. Hate to think where our little dude would be if we hadn’t found you guys.
 
I feel you I have learned so much from this forum, it’s a great place. You’ll be fine it seems like you are asking all the right question for your little guy .
Got the temp gun and dome fixture with dimmer control ordered...should be here within a week. I’ll swing by Home Depot this weekend for the bulb. Going to start with a 60 watt like you suggested and adjust from there.

He’s definitely not a year...maybe I zoomed in too much and made him look bigger than he is lol! When we got him, he was maybe 6-7 inches long. We’ve had him for 2 months, and he’s now about 10.5 inches long. I’ve read a TON of her posts and have learned so much from her and others like you on here. Hate to think where our little dude would be if we hadn’t found you guys.
 
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