Spike is on top of the cage..

[Steve A]

My wife left the house and won't be back there until later. I'm at work. Should I go home to remove him from the top? It'll take me like 20 minutes to get there. I didn't want her to try to handle him so I told her to leave him be.

I noticed that the automatic dimmer for the lamp had his basking bulb practically OFF. I was trying a different bulb for his basking area.

This is the new light https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0066L0XNG?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details

Before she left I had her replace that with the old one which is a 75w rough shop light bulb. And now it's on. While the temp is what's important, I feel like he wasn't basking there because he didn't actually see the light. When I get home I may bump up the temp max a little bit on the basking area, so it's not dimming the light too much at too low of a temp. I had it set to 83. I'm also going to move the basking bulb higher from the cage.

But is this an emergency situation where I should go home right now and remove him from the top of the enclosure? He's hanging out under the T5 6% fixture and that is directly on the screen. I don't want him to get burnt

The thing is I can't actually see him on the camera now. So I'm not even sure if he's still up there but I do not see him on the camera so I am assuming so.

 

[Steve A]

Annnnnd of course the very moment I posted this..... I now see Spike coming down from the top of the cage. So I won't go home and bother him.

 

[Steve A]

Annnnnd of course the very moment I posted this..... I now see Spike coming down from the top of the cage. So I won't go home and bother him.

and now hes climbing back up there ugh

 

[Beman]

You want to raise fixtures if he is doing this.

At least 4 inches for the basking fixture and then test temps against the screen. I would also drop back bulb strength to a regular 60 watt bulb until he stops screen climbing. The heat bulbs are the ones I worry most about with babies screen climbing. This is where thermal burn risk comes in.

For UVB you need to prop the UVB fixture up off the cage 4 inches. This will get him out of dangerous UVI at the screen.

They will do this when they are young. As they gain weight they stop.

 

[Steve A]

You want to raise fixtures if he is doing this.

At least 4 inches for the basking fixture and then test temps against the screen. I would also drop back bulb strength to a regular 60 watt bulb until he stops screen climbing. The heat bulbs are the ones I worry most about with babies screen climbing. This is where thermal burn risk comes in.

For UVB you need to prop the UVB fixture up off the cage 4 inches. This will get him out of dangerous UVI at the screen.

They will do this when they are young. As they gain weight they stop.

Ok so do you think this is enough of an emergency for me to drive home or should I wait till I get home after work? (around 4:30 est I should be home). He's hanging out under the UVB light last I saw.

 

[Beman]

Ok so do you think this is enough of an emergency for me to drive home or should I wait till I get home after work? (around 4:30 est I should be home). He's hanging out under the UVB light last I saw.

I don't freak out as much about being under UVB. Granted it is not great but I have yet to see one get a burn from a UVB bulb only thermal burn from heat bulb.

Will your wife be home before you so she can shut off the heat?

And I can not answer this for you. I am a crazy person so I would already be driving home. You have to do what you are going to feel most comfortable with.

 

[Steve A]

I don't freak out as much about being under UVB. Granted it is not great but I have yet to see one get a burn from a UVB bulb only thermal burn from heat bulb.

Will your wife be home before you so she can shut off the heat?

And I can not answer this for you. I am a crazy person so I would already be driving home. You have to do what you are going to feel most comfortable with.

I'm crazy too and I am dying inside right now. I guess I should try to relax a bit. If I didn't have this camera set up on him I wouldn't even know this was happening right now. I actually have a 60w bulb at home so I'll switch over to that once I get home. She should be home before me but not for a while. I'll tell her to just shut off the basking light entirely until I get home.

 

[Beman]

I'm crazy too and I am dying inside right now. I guess I should try to relax a bit. If I didn't have this camera set up on him I wouldn't even know this was happening right now. I actually have a 60w bulb at home so I'll switch over to that once I get home. She should be home before me but not for a while. I'll tell her to just shut off the basking light entirely until I get home.

If your going to sit there panicking then go home and get it fixed.

You are running a higher wattage UVB so it is going to be quite warm up against it. I just can not promise it won't be too warm.

 

[Steve A]

If your going to sit there panicking then go home and get it fixed.

You are running a higher wattage UVB so it is going to be quite warm up against it. I just can not promise it won't be too warm.

Oh yay he's down

 

[Steve A]

Oh yay he's down

Someone take this camera from me. This was the best and worst idea ever. I'm never gonna not be looking at him and overreacting

 

[Steve A]

If your going to sit there panicking then go home and get it fixed.

You are running a higher wattage UVB so it is going to be quite warm up against it. I just can not promise it won't be too warm.

Ok so breeder says to let him do his thing basically. They believe (obviously can't guarantee) that if he got too warm he likely won't stay up there. They think he is just exploring his new cage and needs a couple weeks to get used to it.

With that being said, I may have a dilemma. The cage is setup so all of his branches are approx. 9" from the top of the cage. So if I move these lights up, should I add more branches and make them higher?

I am 100% going to raise the basking bulb because I believe it's going to be better anyway. But I am curious if I should leave the UVB and plant light as is because of how the cage is setup.

One thing I do not want to do is get in the habit of changing his cage like I did with my veiled, which likely caused her a lot of stress What do you think??

 

[Beman]

Ok so breeder says to let him do his thing basically. They believe (obviously can't guarantee) that if he got too warm he likely won't stay up there. They think he is just exploring his new cage and needs a couple weeks to get used to it.

With that being said, I may have a dilemma. The cage is setup so all of his branches are approx. 9" from the top of the cage. So if I move these lights up, should I add more branches and make them higher?

I am 100% going to raise the basking bulb because I believe it's going to be better anyway. But I am curious if I should leave the UVB and plant light as is because of how the cage is setup.

One thing I do not want to do is get in the habit of changing his cage like I did with my veiled, which likely caused her a lot of stress What do you think??

Try to hook in one or two right below the UVB at 5 inches down from the screen. Then raise UVB 4 inches up. Once he stops screen climbing you can then remove the higher branches and drop the UVB back down on the cage.

 

[Steve A]

Try to hook in one or two right below the UVB at 5 inches down from the screen. Then raise UVB 4 inches up. Once he stops screen climbing you can then remove the higher branches and drop the UVB back down on the cage.

Ok I will do that. When I get home I'll gather a couple more branches. Clean them off and let them dry. I don't want to move the ones that are already in there because that would be a process. They're all connected to each other for stability. I have a lot of sticks at my home though so this won't be a problem. Thank you!!

 

[elizaann2]

You want to raise fixtures if he is doing this.

At least 4 inches for the basking fixture and then test temps against the screen. I would also drop back bulb strength to a regular 60 watt bulb until he stops screen climbing. The heat bulbs are the ones I worry most about with babies screen climbing. This is where thermal burn risk comes in.

For UVB you need to prop the UVB fixture up off the cage 4 inches. This will get him out of dangerous UVI at the screen.

They will do this when they are young. As they gain weight they stop.

Good info! My little guy is doing this right now too. He typically does it in the afternoon/evenings.

 

[Steve A]

Ok I raised my basking bulb to about 4 inches. However, I could tell he was stressed that I was hanging around and messing with the enclosure so I stopped. I didn't want to stress him more. I have some sticks ready but I'm afraid of him running away from me and falling. He did that once. Luckily he's fine but I don't want that to force that.