Ambient temperatures, heat lamps, cooling, etc

[Michael]

One of the the best things I did years ago for my chahoua was add heat lights for the breeding pairs. I know most of us have read and seen that chahoua and most New Caledonian species don't need heat - and they definitely don't NEED it - but I notice that my breeding females spend a good bit of time basking under the heat lamps. Even males will do the same.

I lay my tanks out such that the basking area under the heat lamp is about 85F and they can go to a cooler part of the tank that is much lower, around 72-73F. To manage this, I use 43w bulbs.

Today I got a bit curious about the temp fluctuations in New Caledonia and while I know I've looked at this before, I thought I'd share it again here:

So, who here offers heat for their geckos? I actually provide both heat and UVB (Reptisun 5.0 UVB bulbs). I am surprised by how much the adults bask, and when I give babies the occasional heat lamp, they seem to really enjoy it also.

On the flip side, does anyone put their chahoua through a dedicated cooling process? If so, how low do you go?

 

[Dragonborn Exotics (Ryan)]

One of the the best things I did years ago for my chahoua was add heat lights for the breeding pairs. I know most of us have read and seen that chahoua and most New Caledonian species don't need heat - and they definitely don't NEED it - but I notice that my breeding females spend a good bit of time basking under the heat lamps. Even males will do the same.

I lay my tanks out such that the basking area under the heat lamp is about 85F and they can go to a cooler part of the tank that is much lower, around 72-73F. To manage this, I use 43w bulbs.

Today I got a bit curious about the temp fluctuations in New Caledonia and while I know I've looked at this before, I thought I'd share it again here:

So, who here offers heat for their geckos? I actually provide both heat and UVB (Reptisun 5.0 UVB bulbs). I am surprised by how much the adults bask, and when I give babies the occasional heat lamp, they seem to really enjoy it also.

On the flip side, does anyone put their chahoua through a dedicated cooling process? If so, how low do you go?

I offer ambient heat for all of my geckos during the breeding season via a space heater. I try to chase a high of 76-80 degrees and a low of 68-71. This is the first year I have offered additional heat for my chahoua pairs and my female leachies. I use a halogen puck light setup that is 20 watts. I have these on a timer and they turn on at about noon and go for 4 or 5 hours to resemble the hottest part of the day. My chahoua pairs and leachies love them! They will just chill near the top of the cage and bask.

I also try to put them through a cooling period for a couple months, but based on this average temperature chart you posted, I could be cooling them down for an extra month and at a lower temp. I didn't realize the lows got down to 61 degrees! I might just turn off all the heat for 3 months and keep the room 68-70 degrees. Save some $$$$ on the heating bill lol.

 

[MelissaSR]

I offer UVB (Arcadia 6%) to any gecko 1+ year in age. Early season they get a 40 watt bulb but once the room hits 75 I turn that off and switch to a 25 watt bulb, this keeps them around 82-84 for a basking area in conjuction with their UVB bulb as ultimately the gecko room hits 77/78 for a daily high. Non breeding adults dont get supplemental heat in the summer. The nightly lows up in the gecko room in the summer are usually around 74.

I do cool them as my upstairs gets rather cold and I have to use a space heater. So in the winter their basking temp falls down to around 72 for a high, and 68 as a low. They are 72/68 from around november until feb when I start to gradually heat the room up. The chahouas kickstart themselves in Feb without me even increasing the heat. So once I notice the females showing signs of being gravid, I increase the heat to increase their appetite more than what their normal is.

 

[StikyPaws]

I just started offering UVB and a CHE next to it during the daytime hours back in the fall last year. All of mine love it! They have a nice temp gradient throughout their enclosures with the high around 78 in the "winter" and 85 in the "summer" (so far, I may need to use a dimmer and dim it down a little in the heat of the summer). I also have a UV meter for my Uromastyx but decided to start offering UVB to my chahoua as well and I see my younger chahoua (little over 1 year old) basking during the day a lot, my adult male doesn't use it as much.

 

[LornaRedSky]

I don't offer heat but for the last winter I added UVB for the chewies and leachies. The leachies will plaster themselves under the lights all day but the chewies seem to ignore it more often than not so far.

 

[Rufus]

I'm in the UK so it can get a bit chilly here. I use heat mats with stats, these are on the back of exo terra vivariums. I have bioactive vivariums so have skylights for plant growth (very good led lighting system - I'm not sure you can get them in the US) and UVB T5s. I only put the UVB on for 4hrs a day now, in the middle part of the day, as I found the geckos would just hide away from it, if it was on all day. I didn't want to use heat bulbs as they would fry the plants.

 

[Michael]

@GeckosParadise this thread might be helpful for you based on our recent chat!