My Jackson is right under the light.

[astroprojector]

All morning today my Jackson is on the ceiling side of the cage upside down right underneath the heat light next to the dripper. The water drips on him. I have a 40w bulb. Is it too cold. I check the temp in the basking spot and it is 80 degrees.

Just curious.

 

[Brad Ramsey]

It's not too cold.
This is not unusual behavior, you want to make sure that the screen is not too hot though ... maybe raise the basking lamp up an inch or two to be sure he's not going to burn himself.
It sounds like a nice situation: basking in the warm light with cool water dripping on you.

-Brad

 

[dakotakleiner]

I'm having the same problem today with a veiled...he keeps hangn upside down under the basking light except my lights a 75w I raised it up a few inches he seemd to go under the light for a minute or two then leave and come back at least 4 times already today

 

[serenitystarlite]

Do they have anywhere to sit right under the lamp? My baby jackson was climbing upside-down all over his screen, but once I rearranged the branches and put one directly under the light, he now sits on it instead. The branches were probably too low for him before.

 

[dragongoddess]

It is not unusual. Remember they also bask for UV exposure as well as heat. They know when they've had too much or too little.

 

[astroprojector]

Mine sat there for about 4 hours. Than he climbed down to the basking area.

 

[ShaunaLynnA]

this is not unusual for them to do expecially the younglins. My baby panther does it daily almost and don't matter if there is a branch there for him to sit on or not he likes the screen. It's his way of sun bathing just as they stated above and they know when they have had enough.

 

[buddhacham]

I would keep an eye on your Jackson though. Look for any URI symptoms(open mouth breathing,popping sound while breathing, heavy breathing) Mine likes his basking in the mid 80's rather than the low 80's(took experimenting with different light set-ups, and remember it is more than often about 90 degrees in Hawaii for the majority of the day). Is he mostly doing this in the morning? He may be getting too cold at night or the rest of his cage is simply too cold, and he's having trouble thermoregulating. If you do decide to get a warming device, dont leave a red infrared light on at night. At first it didn't seem to bother my Jackson sleeping, but within a week he started not going to sleep unless the IR light was off as well(even though the lightbulb box states very little visible light for 24 hour heating source)

 

[chamlover]

I agree with almost everyone. Except. You DO need to be careful because they can get burnt. I've rescued several veileds in the last year and all have had serious burns on parts of their bodies especailly their veileds and feet. They DON'T know when they've had enough. They don't have thermometers on their feet or heads and mother nature didn't feel the need to give them one in the wild. It's like those heat rocks. How many reptiles have been burnt by those stupid things. My first veiled rescue lost half of his casque, have of the dorsal crest due to burns, and it nearly cost him his life. Raise the temps a little and double check your night time temps like it was suggested. And if you need to raise your temps, or lightbulb, to something stronger; also make sure that you raise the light so he can't burn his little fingers.

 

[xanthoman]

its unlikely its too cold or there is too much nite time drop. they are quite comfortable in the 60*s, and in the wild, are often found above 3000' elevation, but they do like to bask, and occassionally they will even seek out more heat than is good for them (if available).they mostly like to utilize the upper 30% of the cage. thats why it is important to have your basking location/tempurature,and basking light/wattage/ distance/ climbing stucture, all dialed in. the highest basking temp i ever offer is 82* but it is on all day. cage crawling isnt that unusual, probably just a little antsy, or even hungry. i would be more worried about normal looking eyes and urates . i think they prefer to climb on actual climbing structure given the chance. it could just be that he is trying to get to the basking spot that he wants, which isnt necessarly the same one you have chosen for him. not to be critical, but if you look at the photo the upper part of the cage is really quite devoid of comfortable climbing structure, (and no the curved cord or vine or whatever it is doesnt count). there is no place for him to get comfortably on top of it, i think he might be more comfortable if your were to re-think the top of his cage structure and possibly remodel so that he has multiple prime basking choices, if you do i think he will probably learn to spend more time basking than cage crawling, jmo