A good friend of mine had to let go of a few of his Retics, so my girlfriend picked me up a male dwarf platinum retic that is right around a year old. He is a big baby, gentle and basically a lap dog. He was kept in a 15qt tub for the “2’ vision cube” setup. Was on paper towels or aspen with a small water dish. I’m not sure how or what his temps were in the rack, but it mite and RI free.



When I brought him home I put him in a 41qt tub (part of a 2 level rack), paper towel substrate and a medium sized water dish and a large hide. My temps are spot on 90 hotspot, 79*-81* cold side, and humidity was perfect. Went to dinner and came back and he must have tried to soak, as all of the paper towels were soaked, but the dish was not tipped over. I took him out, cleaned up his tub, and replaced the substrate with cypress, put his hide back in (which he does not use), and a lower bigger water dish. He went in for a soak before I went to bed, and when I got up he was still in there. The ambient temps were still spot on, but he was cold from sitting in the water on the cold side all night and humidity was through the roof (even with holes in the tub).





So I pulled him out, switched back over to paper towel, moved his hide to the cold side (since he doesn’t use it, to shorted the size of his tub), put the large water dish back in (empty so he could rest in an empty dish), and found the smallest ceramic dish I could find, and put minimal water in it. He was in the new small water dish it all day again (or as close as he could fit).





What options do I have to keep him out of his water dish, even though ambient, hotspot and cool side are spot on, he is cold from sitting in the water all day. Looking for advice on what steps to take to help my little buddy out. Do I get him more small hides, bowls to lay in?


Thanks in advance!
-Steve