Hello BP.net! Its been a long time since I was a more active member here. A lot has changed over the years and my zoo has been culled, so to speak, in that time. I still have my origonal BP Charlie, and I am having a problem. He hasn't taken a meal in more than four months. His appetite has slowed during the winter as usual, but this year its been too long and I am worried.

He is about 7.5 years old. I dont remember the last time I updated my sig but his wight is about the same at 1400g, and he still looks pretty good. Hardly emaciated but I would like to see a little more meat on his bones, so to speak. I checked his temps and was blown away with what I found. Warm side, a nice 90-93 (using a temp gun). Cold side... 62-65! Waaay too low! I'm a bad bad owner as I should pay attention to these things much better.

I live in Michigan and its still quite cold. Due to high energy costs we have to keep the heat in our house down. Usually around 65-66.

It dawned on me that the only thing that has changed in the last 4 years is that we re-homed the bearded dragon and it was atop Daisy's old cage that Charlie's enclosure was. I believe the radiant heat from the BD enclosure allowed Charlie's cage to stay in the right range. Now that the BD cage is gone and he's just sitting on a table I need some extra help to get those cold side temps up.

Ive searched for a solution, but I'm not quite sure what to do. I forget the company who makes my BP cage, but its made from that puffed plastic stuff. Its approx 3'x2' and 1' tall. Nice plexiglass door that swings down. Heated with pre installed flexwatt on a JC t-stat. This leaves me with about zero head room to put something like an IR bulb or the like. Not to mention the limitions on installing a fixture.

What can I do? I'm looking for the most cost effective solution. I would really like his enclosure to be a self contained enviornment. You can never count on steady weather where I live and in this cost concsience situation i can't afford to keep my house at a constant temp. for the snake. I dropped a good chunk of change on his enclosure years ago. Is there a way I can make this work during the winter months?