Too Hot?

[ericasheree]

Does it mean anything if my panther is sitting under his basking light which is about 92 degrees with his mouth open? His coloring is normal (starting to lighten up), just ate 6 super worms dusted with multivitamin and about 3 crickets. Ambient temp is 78 degrees. Humidity is 69-72%. Should I turn off the basking light if he won't move away from it? He was moving about all day. But in the last hour decided to sit in the basking spot with his mouth open.

 

[ericasheree]

Okay he started moving away. Had me worried for a min. So if he ever sits under a basking light with his mouth open should I turn it off or just leave it on? I don't want him to get over heated.

 

[Solid Snake]

Usually not straying from the basking spot will mean it is either too cold elswhere(lack of a proper temp gradient) or RI.

If you are sure on your ambient temps, check to see if he has really thick mucus y saliva, and if he is gasping/clicking when he breaths.

If so, he may have an RI.

Opening the mouth cools them off when they are too hot.
This should not happen under normal circumstances.

Does he point straight up at the basking light?

 

[Solid Snake]

Okay he started moving away. Had me worried for a min. So if he ever sits under a basking light with his mouth open should I turn it off or just leave it on? I don't want him to get over heated.

What do you use to measure temps?

 

[ericasheree]

You know we did have an incident this morning that when the mist king came on this morning it stayed on a bit longer than before and my fiance said it got into the mid 50's when he realized the mister kept running. We got that fixed and moved him to his other cage while we cleaned up the flooded bottom. He spent all day in the sunshine, since its so gorgeous today. I use a digital probe and check the basking and different ambients every other day, and generally let is stay in the ambient area because i have a analog gauge that is fixed to the basking spot. I talked to his breeder Lance and he said it was a little too hot so I moved up the lamp several inches and moved the basking branch down 2 inches. He climbed all over me while I was adjusting his cage just now. He has no thick mucus and is making no noise. He is back to his normal self that fast! I think he just had a stressful morning and was letting it show.