Rescued Nile Monitor. Need advice.

[infernalis]

you want the deep dirt on the cool end

move the light to the other end.

The way it sits now will dry out the pile, and you want the pile to be moist.

not so bad drying out the thin layer.

[Vegasarah]

Originally Posted by infernalis

you want the deep dirt on the cool end

move the light to the other end.

The way it sits now will dry out the pile, and you want the pile to be moist.

not so bad drying out the thin layer.

Oh, okay, that makes sense. I thought the heat would encourage him to burrow that way. Plus because it's so close to the top of the tank the basking spot is like 130, there is steam coming off the dirt lol. Maybe if I put that piece of plexiglass on the other side it will aim more like between the green hide and the water dish. That would probably work out perfectly. I could even put some flat bricks there to get nice and hot. I will clear away the substrate first so there is no danger of burrowing under them.

[infernalis]

Originally Posted by Vegasarah

Oh, okay, that makes sense. I thought the heat would encourage him to burrow that way. Plus because it's so close to the top of the tank the basking spot is like 130, there is steam coming off the dirt lol. Maybe if I put that piece of plexiglass on the other side it will aim more like between the green hide and the water dish. That would probably work out perfectly. I could even put some flat bricks there to get nice and hot. I will clear away the substrate first so there is no danger of burrowing under them.

Glad to see you are thinking things through.

Monitors seem to love burrowing under things.

[Pirarucu]

Originally Posted by Vegasarah

Oh, okay, that makes sense. I thought the heat would encourage him to burrow that way. Plus because it's so close to the top of the tank the basking spot is like 130, there is steam coming off the dirt lol. Maybe if I put that piece of plexiglass on the other side it will aim more like between the green hide and the water dish. That would probably work out perfectly. I could even put some flat bricks there to get nice and hot. I will clear away the substrate first so there is no danger of burrowing under them.

The one thing I will say is if you are using bricks for a basking spot, lay a piece of plywood on top, at least when you've measuring temps. The light will heat the bricks up hotter than wood, and you'll get a hotter reading, but the light won't get the monitor any hotter. My point is that 130F is a different basking temp depending on what the measured surface is, and even if the bricks are hitting 130, the monitor might not be.
Also, why not make the dirt deep through the whole cage?

[Vegasarah]

Originally Posted by Pirarucu

The one thing I will say is if you are using bricks for a basking spot, lay a piece of plywood on top, at least when you've measuring temps. The light will heat the bricks up hotter than wood, and you'll get a hotter reading, but the light won't get the monitor any hotter. My point is that 130F is a different basking temp depending on what the measured surface is, and even if the bricks are hitting 130, the monitor might not be.
Also, why not make the dirt deep through the whole cage?

Okay, I can put plywood on top. The basking spot on just the substrate is at 115 according to my temp gun, so I think a little stack of bricks like stairs would be cool for him to climb on and to get it closer to the right temp.

I just didn't want him to be cramped, if I filled up the whole tank he would only be left with like 10 inches of space to move around in. He couldn't even tripod or climb if he wanted to. Plus that would bring the water dish above the substrate so he could burrow under it and be crushed. It just made more sense to me to do it this way.