heating rocks

[milmatt]

I have heard from a few sources that heating rocks can be detrimental to a tegu. I was told that reptiles do not have much feeling on their stomachs and as such will lay on a hot rock and actually cook their organs. As such I have not put one in my set-up, but i noticed recently my columbian gold loves to lay on her basking rock even when the basking light isnt on leading me to believe she is still absorbing the heat from the rock. Anyone have any bad experience with heating pads or rocks, or any advice they could lend...

[laurarfl]

Reptiles will often lay on warm rocks to gain heat. The problem with electronic heat rocks is that they can (and do) short out or over heat, or they have uneven heat spots.

What a lot of people do is to place a flat rock under the basking light which simulates a natural approach.

[Nero557]

I have natural flat rocks under almost all of my basking sites. The rocks retain the heat so once the lights go out, the animals still have somewhere to warm up if need be. Like Laura said, electronic heat rocks tend to short out and overheat and/or they have uneven heating, so some spots will be way hotter than others. As for a heat pad, I will address under tank heating pads or strips. I use these for multiple animals of mine but the key for these is they are under the tank, not in it, and I use thermostats to control them, this is to make sure that they do not ever get too hot and they stay at the right temps. As for my tegus I have always used just basking lamps. In the wild they get their heat from the sun (overhead) so this is the best way to replicate this. The only time I have recommended adding a under tank heater is if supplemental heat is needed to keep the basking spot at the right temp, but I have never needed this myself. If the room gets too cold at night and that is why you are looking into this, I would recommend a ceramic heating bulb (no light is produced) or an infrared bulb (red in color), or even the moonlight bulbs (dark blue or purple in color). Hope this helps, sorry for rambling on.

[txrepgirl]

I have seen many photos ( from the internet ) of reptiles who had some very bad burns from heat rocks and pads. But since those photos were to grafic I rather not post them on here. But the link below will give you some info on it.

http://www.anapsid.org/hotrock.html

[laurarfl]

I've also heard that the nighttime bulbs such as the red can cause eye issues. I've never used them myself. I prefer to go with a ceramic heat emitter or radiant heat panel if I need heat without light.