# Heatwave and your pet reptiles



## nuttylizardguy (Jan 15, 2019)

Do your pet lizards and snakes a favour , if you aren't going to be home to monitor them, and aren't willing to leave the aircon running during the day to keep the house temperatures comfortable when not home during the hottest part of the day .


I STRONGLY suggest that you turn off the basking globes for the duration of the heat wave , else you are likely to come home to reptiles who are suffering extreme heat stress or who are dead.

Good idea to keep an eye on their water dishes too and keep these topped up.


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## dragonlover1 (Jan 15, 2019)

I second this, I lost my first beardie because of a heat wave. I went camping for an Australia Day long weekend only to come home to find my boy had died of heatstroke.


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## Krinchley (Jan 15, 2019)

Im just keeping everyone's lights turned of until the temp becomes more reasonable.


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## Bl69aze (Jan 15, 2019)

I like to give my animals a bigger water tub than normal


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## cagey (Jan 15, 2019)

My process is to top up water, turn off heat, put air-con on and put a frozen water bottle (1.5 - 2 litre) in the bottom of the enclosure for the day. The turn-off heat and frozen water bottle is the simplest, fool-proof solution that I can come up with apart from putting them in cloth bags on the bathroom tiles for the day. The no-heat, water bottle option has worked every time.

The air-con is a bonus.


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## Flaviemys purvisi (Jan 16, 2019)

I just leave my basking lamps as normal (doesn't really matter for aquatic turtles)  if it's too hot, they just won't bask. I have the Air-con in the reptile room programmed to come on at 9:30am-4pm every day this week, keeps that room at a constant 25°C while it's pushing 40°C+ outside. I have a couple of ceiling fans in that room directly above aquariums too that have been cranking on max speed 24/7 for the last week, the ceiling fans alone make a huge difference by causing evaporative cooling. Only downside is having to top the tanks up 10-20 litres every afternoon and morning due to evaporation but they're staying around 24°C which is perfect. Priority number 1 is keeping my incubator from rising above 28°C. So far the fans and air-con have done that.


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## Herpetology (Jan 16, 2019)

I just turn all external heating sources off and give them a water tub with iced water bottle in it


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## Mick666 (Jan 16, 2019)

My snakes have big water dishes that they can relax in, and I also have an air con this year.


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## cagey (Jan 16, 2019)

So, after a day of following my own advice of turning off the heat and throwing frozen 1.5 litre bottles into the bottom of the enclosures I got home and checked the temps in the bottom of the enclosures - 21-25 degrees depending on the enclosure.

The kicker is I live in the inner-west/west of Sydney, I had tradies in do some work so no air-con and the doors onto the balconies were open, so exposed to the environment. All bottles still had chunks of ice in them, I had wrapped the bottles inside of plastic bags.


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## nuttylizardguy (Jan 16, 2019)

I have aircon and am retired , so my pets are spoilt , never saw temperatures above 26 degC inside today, was 38 degC outside (would have been a few degC hotter if the sea breeze hadn't kicked in (beauty of living only 2km from the ocean with no big hills between the sea and us), needless to say, since I had no need to set foot outside today and so I stayed put. Only time I went outside was to collect the post , was like stepping into an oven..
I know what it's like to have to work in the heat and humidity and feel for those who have no choice and had to work in the heat and through the hottest part of the day.

The BOM says the heat is sticking around until the weekend.
I hope my order of 1000 crickets arrive alive and have been kept somewhere cool overnight enroute as they were dispatched yesterday and it's been very hot the entire time since they left.


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