Heating Question for Darwin

[TreeHugger]

Hi there lovely herpers...Got a question!

My yearling Darwin has a heat cord in his enclosure on a thermostat set to 30 degrees. I'm in the Sunny Coast so it isnt exactly cold. Except he NEVER goes anywhere near the heat cord and he would rather stay high in enclosure (which is to be expected with arboreal fauna of course) The light in the enclosure I have recently bought is too hot to touch and because my Darwin sits near it I wont risk turning it on until the cage around it is finished.

When I get him out he doesn't seem overly cold.. should I expect that if he is cold he will go in his hide on the heat or on the warmth, and his body temp is fine at the moment? Should I trust his judgement?

Heat cord is not exposed either, it has wood shavings or newspaper over it at all times. Would never risk it being too touch hot for my little guy.

Can upload photos if need be!

Someone put my troubled mind at rest!

 

[saximus]

Is he eating well? That is the biggest indication that he is/isn't getting the required heat. I know you said he doesn't seem to use it but I would personally bump the temp up on the heat cord, especially if it's covered by substrate. If there is a nice basking spot that is obviously higher than ambient temp he might be more inclined to use it

 

[TreeHugger]

Is he eating well? That is the biggest indication that he is/isn't getting the required heat. I know you said he doesn't seem to use it but I would personally bump the temp up on the heat cord, especially if it's covered by substrate. If there is a nice basking spot that is obviously higher than ambient temp he might be more inclined to use it

He is eating fine actually. Never missed a feed. The substrate is fairly thin if you know what i mean the heat can easily get through and I check with my had often. I have never really used heat cords before, I usualy have heat mats but would you reccomend moving heat cord to a higher basking spot is that was you are saying? It worries me how hot those cords get, I feel as if i cant trust them. Maybe i'm just being paranoid. I could wrap is around one of the branches he likes to chill on, see if he uses it then?

Thanks for your help!

 

[saximus]

Where it is should be fine. I mean increase the temperature setting if you want him to use the spot more often. Ideally a basking spot should be closer to 32 and no matter how thin the substrate is, it will still block some of the heat from coming up through. Either way if he's eating fine then it's not super important.
There shouldn't really be much difference between how hot a cord can get compared to a mat when they are connected to a thermostat. However when there is a malfunction, mats can actually get hot enough to catch fire whereas cords don't (at least I don't know of any stories of it happening).

 

[TreeHugger]

Ahh i see. Ok. I will have trust in them more so. Its fairly hot here atm so I will just watch his behavour closely and if his appetite changes i will shuffle things around a bit and see if it makes a difference. Turning up the thermostat now.. Thanks for your help Saximus!