Hey, all. I'd like to preface this by saying I've had no issues with Mazikeen's husbandry, no signs of RI's, and she eats like a pig, so this was really just for a check up to make sure she didn't have RI's and maybe do a fecal (She's been holding poop for about 3 weeks now so that didn't happen lol).

He told me a lot of stuff I already knew -- very basic husbandry, which I understood after about a week of researching, like having the cold side around 79-83 and the hot around 85-88, having a hot spot of 88-92, having "bumped up" humidity during shed, etc. One thing he kept insisting adamantly was that I needed to drop the hot side 10-15 degrees at night, which seems super counter-intuitive to me. With the two different heat ranges on either side of the tub, it encourages movement and exercise and they get a sense of autonomy in picking what temperature they want to be at. When I said I had two different sides, he shot me down and immediately replied with, "They're not the smartest, so some stuff you kind of have to do for them or they hurt themselves." Which is just. Why would you let a reptile be in conditions in which they could hurt themselves?

On top of that, she's been deep in shed all weekend, and her humidity's been around 80%. The day before we went, she finally turned dark, so it was literally any day that she was supposed to shed. I told him this as a preface, but he still put enough pressure on her spine for the skin to break open unevenly in several places, and resulted in a bad shed the following day. The vet glared at me like it was my fault she was shedding in his hands and complained about how low my humidity must be. He also wanted me to add rocks to her enclosure.

With how much he was talking AT me instead of TO me, I felt like I didn't really get to explain my husbandry that well. I should have just whipped out my phone and showed him pictures, but hindsight is always 20/20.

I've never had experience with a reptile vet before, and I'm not really sure how things are supposed to go. I know he was feeling her belly for hard lumps, and handling her a bit roughly was necessary for that level of examination.

So, here's the question: is there supposed to be a drop in temperatures at night? From what I've seen on the forum and various other sources, that seems to be an older style of doing things that isn't endorsed anymore. Why is that?