Need help on heating for holidays

[Trouble]

Hi guys,

Well I've been trying to figure out what to do about heating my reptiles while I'm away on holidays through the school holidays.

• Should I get timers for the reptiles I heat with lights?
  or
• Change the lights over to 60w red globes and set the thermostats to 25*-30* C ..?

OR

• Would the snakes and bluies be fine for a week without heat??

I currently heat them all from 10am - 4-5pm .. the rocks seem to hold the heat through the night quite well, and the lowest the temps get are 18*C


Please help guys, no arguing, just want helpful advice please..

Thanks
Trouble

 

[Bonustokin]

I'd get someone to look after them for ya, and if there were no other choice, i would turn the heat off and put an extra water bowl in each cage, just to be safe.
I wouldnt be leaving the heat on incase they spill their water or whatever...

 

[Chris1]

i would put teh bluies on a timer,..(is anyone gonna be feeding them,..?)

as for the snakes, i would offer them a red globe 24/7 for the week, (i heat all of mine except the diamond day and night)
make sure they have eaten and pooed it out so theres no probs if a light blows.

offer 2 water bowls incase 1 gets pooed in,....

 

[wranga]

set them up on thermostats and timers

 

[Trouble]

Bonustokin - Nahh, no one will look after them for me, and both neighbours hate snakes (and I mean hate!) Okay, so they should be fine without heat for the 5 or so days..?

Chris1 - Okay.. Nope, I'll have no one feeding them (see above why ^ ) okie dokie.. I'm not sure how mum will like the idea of the lights being on 24/7 though.. she thinks they'll take up heaps of the electricity and raise the bill... Yup, I will be putting in 2 water bowls

wranga - yeah, they're already on thermostats... how much do timers cost? and where from?

 

[wranga]

bunnings have timers for less than $10 each. you also get them from the likes of kmart, bigW

 

[JasonL]

Depends on what sort of reptiles, I have all mine on timers anyway as nothing is heated at night, if I were to go away, for the lizards I would knock the temps down to a minimum to curb their food intake, for snakes I just leave as they can all go many months without a feed...hatchy lizards are the only real worry, I normally flog them all if possible, though I get friends to care for my collection when I am away.

 

[JasonL]

Get decent timers... most timers fail to work at some point or another, some cheap ones don't even work at all, I have thrown out about 20 timers in the last 5 years, from full on digital jobs to cheapo multi pack ones that didn't even work for 1 minute.

 

[Trouble]

Thanks Jason
I am leaning towards the timers ... I'll feed the bluies a few days before I go, then I'll slowly knock down the temps... Yeah, I wont be feeding the snakes before I go as I only fed them a week ago.. so I'll leave the heat off of them, and just get a timer for the bluies for now.

What timers would you recommend? Which ones are you using atm?

 

[quick6]

i buy the HPM twin pack timmers from bunnings and never had a problem with them they only cost around $10- $15

 

[JasonL]

Man, the things drive me nuts, I have a variety and not really happy with any brand, but the dearer "manual" HPM type seem to have to best chance of surviving.. I have some that I have had for years and others stop working or lagging after only a few weeks??? get them going well before you leave is all I can say

 

[Trouble]

okay, thanks heaps for your help guys I will get some timers tomorrow and test them to make sure they work fine before I go

thanks again guys