Leopard gecko light question?

Question

I want to put my leopard geckos on a light schedule

I have a red UVB 60W 120V bulb (especially for nocturnal lizards)

What I am proposing is this:

having the light on 7 nights/week from midnight-7am

Why I am concerned:

will this give them a proper sleep schedule?

will my tank get too cold? I have a medium-sized UTH and a heat rock but right now with the light off the tank is only 75.68 degrees, and during the winter will be even colder.

my leopard geckos are happy, healthy and colorful, I just want them to stay that way.

I have read up extensively on leos so save all of your drgecko BS. just looking to hear what people ACTUALLY do for their leos. thanks for the info

Answer 1

Is your pad on a rheostat, and can you turn up the heat?  The cool end of the tank should be 80-85, and warm side should be 90-95.  A five degree drop is fine on both gradients for the winter, but it shouldn't really be cooler than that.

So, if your warm side is 75'ish - it's too cold in there.  Improper heat can also cause impaction, due to inability to correctly digest, as well as mess up vitamin and calcium absorption.

The wattage doesn't really matter.  It's obtaining the proper heat which is the goal, and adjusting to whatever wattage it takes to get the job done.  If you don't have a rheostat on the pad and lights, you can adjust bulb temps. down by moving them further away, but a too cold pad is just a too cold pad, and a light not heating the enclosure enough is a too low a wattage.

As for the heat rock - that's a disaster waiting to happen.  They have long years of history of spiking and badly burning or killing reptiles.  It's a bad idea.  They need a perch under a basking bulb.

The 7 hr. light cycle is not enough.  They need a minimum of a 12 hr. daylight period.  You can put the lights on a timer.  Also, the light should be off at night (unless you're talking about the red light).  Leo's are nocturnal, and active when it's dark.

My night heat is solely the UTH pad.  It cools when the red basking light is out to about 82 F during the night, on the cool side.

If you're using the UTH pad and the basking bulb to achieve the correct temps., then the red bulb will need to remain on at all times, not just for 7 hr.

Otherwise, you may need to put another UTH pad under the tank.

Sorry I couldn't be of more help, and good luck.

Answer 2

They actually do this for leos strictly for breeding purposes in order to condition them by lengthening their day and night cycle. This tricks the leo into thinking its breeding season Spring). Along with this light cycling, breeders often offer lots of nutritious insects which promotes the leo to put on healthy weight and also improve color. I honestly think that you wouldn't need to do this cycling unless you plan on breeding your leo. Other than that, i wouldn't do it just because of temp fluctuations and to keep temperatures in the tank from dropping so drastically. Leos in general need a basking temp of at least 85-90 degrees with nighttime temps dropping to 65-68 degrees at the least at night.

Answer 3

Just to note, your red bulb is NOT a UVB bulb.  It's just a heat bulb.  Anywho... I highly doubt your temps are only 68-75 degrees.  Before you go adding more heat, please get a digital thermometer and measure the temperature of the heat pad on the floor.  My guess is the temps you're measuring now are just the air, which is not what you want.  

My guess is that your floor temps are far higher than that.  You only want them to be 88-92 degrees, and most UTH's get far hotter than that unregulated.  You will probably need to get a thermostat for the UTH so it will be able to turn off when it gets too hot.  A red light will be good for raising the air temps, though.  Your thermostat should be able to regulate your temps enough so that you will only need the red light when it gets really cold.

I'd definitely look into it.  I ordered mine from reptilesupply.com for less than $30.  Best investment so far!  And the thermometer you can get at any chain store (Target, etc.) for about $10.