Greetings,

I'm looking for some confirmation of my husbandry.

I have royal that I keep in a Vision cage. The warm side is heated by a heat mat which is regulated by a Herpstat thermostat to 90F (thanks mgreptiles). The cage vent on top runs directly down the center of the cage so I have a ceramic heat bulb on top, on a rheostat, keeping the ambient temps near 80F (except directly under the lamp which hits about 95F).

As winter sets in, the temps have cooled down a bit in my home so our fella has been basking his head directly under the lamp which has caused the skin on his head to develop a dry patch (in spite of the fact that I mist the cage twice a day). The air here is very dry now too and those bulbs seem to be very hygroscopic which certainly doesn't help.

To prevent the dry skin problem, here's what I did... I placed another heat mat underneath half of his cool hide, where he spend most of his time, and set the rheostat to around 80F. I also turned the ceramic heat bulb down so that it still provides some ambient warmth but much less. In the last couple days he hasn't been hanging out under the bulb so perhaps I did the right thing? His cage has spots near the edges away from heat sources that are around 76F. I have a temp gun so I'm always spot cheking the temps around his cage.

What do you think about the heat setup? Overkill or.... ???

I guess I should mention that other than a little dry patch of skin on his head he seems very healthy. He's a Bob Clark royal that is just over a year old, 650 grams, and eats a F/T rat every 1 to 2 weeks.

For the breeders out there, can I expect this male to reach 1000+ grams as an adult?

Thank you for your input.