Gang, got Jasper, a Super Pastel Fire, for my son for Christmas. We've had him almost 2 weeks, now. The breeder (Chris at Slowcountry Balls - highly recommend!) fed him last on Friday the 14th. He has yet to eat for me (will elaborate). Took him to the vet for an initial checkup, but also to try to learn some things myself. According to the vet, who seemed quite knowledgeable, I'm actually doing most things right. After talking to her, I moved the CHE from the center to the hot side (do have under tank heating element on that side). But otherwise, she liked my temps, my environment, my night drop, dedicated feeding enclosure, etc.

At any rate, when I first set up the enclosure, I was battling between the perfect temperature range or the perfect humidity range. Couldn't get both. Still a little on the dry side, but now Jasper appears to be going into shed judging by his eyes (note again I'm a newbie, so I'm assuming from reading, rather than experience). I've noticed that every time I try to increase the humidity from either soaking up the spagham moss or misting the substrate (Aspen), the temperature drops. Makes sense, evaporative cooling and all. Well, now that I'm trying to jack up the humidity to over 60%, I put a saturated washcloth over his hot hide per Chris' recommendation. Great for the humidity! But the temperature has dropped even more.

So I'm not sure how to handle this. For now, I have a 10 gallon glass enclosure (I think, it is 20X12X12 inches). Heat tape on the bottom about 1/3rd of it. A 60Watt CHE above. The belly tape is on a thermostat, the CHE is just on a rheostat for now. I have most of the top covered with an insulation panel, there is about a 1/5" gap around the perimeter. So the question that comes to mind on that is am I venting too much air? It appears I have less area than the area from the Sticky thread about setting up a glass enclosure. If I block off more, I'm sure it will help the humidity, but how much is safe before I lose oxygen?

I am working to address this. I've ordered a 2 channel thermostat, and a 40Watt RHP from Reptile Basics, but I think they are slammed from the holidays, as my understanding is that they normally ship very, very quickly, but my prior order with them in early December a couple of weeks. So that will help. I have also been corresponding with Ali at AP Cages, and now that I've learned the divider is movable, and not either in the middle or out entirely, I'm going to order a T8 this week. Hopefully I'll get things all settled soon. But any help I can get until that comes in would be most appreciated. Again I think they only thing I can change right now is the size of the vents.

Right now I have flat black insulated posterboard stuff on the back and sides of the enclosure. I thought that would be good to help it stay warm, and make the space feel cozy, but now I am concerned that he is seeing reflections off of the glass. Any thoughts before I order a "scenery" type of cover to replace it?

On feeding. I think that I have been too cautious about bacteria and overheating. I ordered rat pups. I think I misunderstood Chris and he was feeding him fuzzies, rather than pups, as the guy weighs in at 140grams, so I think the pups are too big. No local stores have rat fuzzies, so I am stuck with medium mice. He has not taken food, yet. The first time, with the rat pup (before I had weighed him), he seemed very interested, kept smelling at it, and reared back as he was going to strike......but ultimately turned away. Second time, a little similar, but not as aggressive. Switched to a mouse. Almost no interest. That said.....I think that a couple of times, my food has been too cold. I had not realized that they sensed with heat (my 8 y/o son educated me on that one!). I have been slowly thawing either via fridge or cold water. Then hot water. I've read they need to be heated up quickly so bacteria do not grow, but they don't need to get too hot. At any rate, I have noticed that while they are warm on the outside, after a few minutes, they get cold, again. So......how do people heat up their food? A few minutes in hot water doesn't warm up them enough, unless when people have said that their water is much hotter, and they have a much larger bowl.

I konw these guys get easily stressed and it isn't unusual for them to not eat initially when they are moved. I'm not entirely worried, yet, but I really want to do everything I can to make it easy on Jasper until I can get that T8 set up. Any and all help appreciated. Can't link a non image link (dang Photobucket!), so here is a link to the picture on FB, https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?f...8&l=e7ba606869