Temperatures

Built and set up a brand new Vivexotic viv today The thermometer probe is directly on the heat mat and showing 102F. The Habistat Mat Stat probe is inside the warm cave, is set to switch off at 90F, but the green light is still on so the heat mat is still on therefore the thermometer temp will keep rising. I'm not sure I need both these temperatures - the figure from directly on the heat mat is surely not necessary because Olive is never going to walk on the heat mat. The two layers of paper towel will stop heat going through; the warm cave is the place where most of the heat will stay so surely this is the best place to monitor the temps (I could put both Mat Stat probe AND thermometer probes in there) and adjust the Mat Stat accordingly?

I have done quite a bit of temperature monitoring and adjustment over the last week and the best results are obtained with both the Stat probe and temperature recording probe taped together and put on the floor of the hot hide (which is where you really want the temperture to be controlled). Make sure that both probes are in contact with the floor of the hide or you will be reading air temperture which WILL be lower.

Thank you for this. The substrate is paper towel but that's no problem taping them to the paper in the hot hide as that specific towel is not changed daily. I can set the Stat to 88-90F and the temp probe directly on the heat mat shows 101-104F and she has been more active around those temps.

When she's up later for food I'll put the probes together in the hot hide and monitor the temps again.

Interestingly, as it's a new viv, we were interested to see what corner she would pick for her toilet - she didn't pick a corner, she went on top of her moist hide, an ex-cricket box from the shop!!

I like the idea of some sort of litter box, or even putting down a bit of toilet paper in her chosen area that's smaller, easier, cheaper to change daily. Course if she carries on using the top of her hide, it'll be a daily disinfecting instead!

Get her litter box set up to your liking and wait for her to go again. If she doesn't go in it put her poo in the litter box, wash where she went last, and she should start going in the litter box.

As for the temps, I'm pretty sure it should be around 95, at least for my leo, because he'll go to the cooler end if it's any higher.

You really just wanna be reading the actual floor temps. Do you have something holding up each corner of the cage to allow ventilation so heat doesn't build up? If so, you shouldn't have to worry about how hot the UTH (Under tank Heater) is unless you do not have ventilation, and just worry about how warm the inside floor is for your leo.

I'd put that one probe in the hide and leave it there for 20 minutes or so and see what it actually is. If it is only 90 in the hide you might wanna bump up maybe 93 or so.

The UTH should always be a little more warm if you have thickness between your leo and the glass. Just ignore the heat directly and monitor the inside.

ThyUnholy wrote:Get her litter box set up to your liking and wait for her to go again. If she doesn't go in it put her poo in the litter box, wash where she went last, and she should start going in the litter box.

Excellent idea, preparing one now That's very cute that Leos can be litter trained

ThyUnholy wrote:You really just wanna be reading the actual floor temps. Do you have something holding up each corner of the cage to allow ventilation so heat doesn't build up? If so, you shouldn't have to worry about how hot the UTH (Under tank Heater) is unless you do not have ventilation, and just worry about how warm the inside floor is for your leo.

No but the cable from the heat mat stops the paper towels lying flat, as does the thermometer probe (until I take it out) - they're not even close to lying flat so the heat can get out. I've seen crickets nip in and out from under there so if they can do it, the heat will have no problems!

She's settled into this new viv really well and very quickly, she's in full on hunter mode at the moment with 4 live crickets running around - great to watch her instincts kicking in and learning as she goes.

You have your mat on the outside and bottom of your tank, right?

One mat, on the floor of the wooden viv, with paper towel over it. Quite similar to the one on the viv setup sticky, might even be the same model viv!

I see, just be careful not to get it wet and you should be fine. I personally, would only use mats on the outside unless it was Flex Watt Heat Tape.

Absolutely. It's completely sealed anyway, and I'm sure I read it was waterproof but nevertheless, no point in taking risks. Her water dish is away from the heat mat anyway - it would only evaporate!

Hi I have a vivexotic viv that I set up a while back, used vynal tiles so the heat mat cant get wet and temps are fine. I took step by step pics in an earlier post if you want some ideas, it shows where I placed the temp probes and how I made the floor with spaces for the air to circulate etc.

Hope it helps

Hi Chris you want to put both probes on top of the paper towel over the heatmat inside the warm hide so they are both reading from the same spot you can use a small electrical tie to hold them together.

Both probes are next to each other at the side of the warm hide as it can't be put in and I dont use paper towel... Temps on mine are fine.

There is more than one Chris in this thread so he may not have been talking to you.

ozziesmum wrote:Hi Chris you want to put both probes on top of the paper towel over the heatmat inside the warm hide so they are both reading from the same spot you can use a small electrical tie to hold them together.

Ta. I've used a small bit of sellotape to stick them both to the paper towel in the same place. I wait until the heat light on the stat goes out before checking on the thermometer reading - if it's not hot enough, I'll up the stat just enough for the green light to come on again, and check on the temp a bit later. It's all trial and error to see what Olive prefers.

I only did this tonight as I wanted to swap the hides over, the cool hide had an extra gap in the side for me to feed the wires through, whereas the original one didn't and wasn't lying flush on the paper. So had a bit of a change around, not least because I discovered a couple of uneaten crickets, one of which was an expert jumper and it took me some time to catch him - I say catch, I mean squish him in the tweezers, dunk him in the calcium, and feed him to Olive