Ambient temperatures, heat lamps, cooling, etc

Michael

The Chahoua Chamber
Staff member
Messages
381
Location
Atlanta, GA
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:

60486043_1127752944074492_8621746912250298368_o.jpg


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)

Chahoua Hatchling
Messages
89
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:

60486043_1127752944074492_8621746912250298368_o.jpg


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

Moderator & mad scientist
Staff member
Messages
132
Location
Toledo, OH
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

Chahoua Egg
Messages
8
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.
 

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LornaRedSky

Chahoua Egg
Messages
15
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

Chahoua Hatchling
Messages
38
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.
 
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