5 year old doesnt want to be in the heat

Chubbs the tegu

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Yes of course they burrow to get to 80’s.. but who is to say if they could get cooler they wouldnt?
 

Chubbs the tegu

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Lets just say its a guess and nobody really knows what temps they would enjoy..we play it safe and give them their native temps
 

ZenHerper

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...what temps they would enjoy...
^This is not how reptiles work. Their physiology is either functional, or it is not. They've either evolved in tandem with specific climatic changes, or they have not. Within their local climate they can move around through the temperature gradient. But you can't plop a Vietnamese Leaf Turtle down on the Savanna and expect it to manage for very long, any more than you can expect a Sulcata to survive outdoors in the winter in Ohio - no matter how far down it digs, it will never find sufficient heat reserves to remain physiologically functional. It has not evolved to remain viable at low temperatures, because it's DNA has never interacted for any significant length of time with below-moderate temperatures.

Reptiles are their own thing. We can't project highly social motivations onto their behaviors. And we can't project the luxury of endothermic preferences and tolerances onto them (they don't shiver, sweat, or have really big ears, forex).
 

Chubbs the tegu

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^This is not how reptiles work. Their physiology is either functional, or it is not. They've either evolved in tandem with specific climatic changes, or they have not. Within their local climate they can move around through the temperature gradient. But you can't plop a Vietnamese Leaf Turtle down on the Savanna and expect it to manage for very long, any more than you can expect a Sulcata to survive outdoors in the winter in Ohio - no matter how far down it digs, it will never find sufficient heat reserves to remain physiologically functional. It has not evolved to remain viable at low temperatures, because it's DNA has never interacted for any significant length of time with below-moderate temperatures.

Reptiles are their own thing. We can't project highly social motivations onto their behaviors. And we can't project the luxury of endothermic preferences and tolerances onto them (they don't shiver, sweat, or have really big ears, forex).
Im not talking 30 degrees here! Im talking 70. Lets not get ridiculous
 

Jan A

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My habitat is around 100-110 degrees in the summer. Between 50-70 degrees during the winter. But I indeed find that I like 68-72 degrees the best. LoL
I'm with you on temps, JJ. Any higher than 72 where I'm trying to sleep, I don't sleep.
 

Alethea111

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It's around 80-95 degrees now... but my tortiose keeps finding areas that are around 60-75 degrees in the yard or through the doggie door in the garage. He has an 8×4 box with a heater (one of Tom's blueprints) that is set to 90 degrees and the last couple of nights he chose to sleep outside where it was 65 degrees. Am I doing something wrong?
 

JackieJax

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^This is not how reptiles work. Their physiology is either functional, or it is not. They've either evolved in tandem with specific climatic changes, or they have not. Within their local climate they can move around through the temperature gradient. But you can't plop a Vietnamese Leaf Turtle down on the Savanna and expect it to manage for very long, any more than you can expect a Sulcata to survive outdoors in the winter in Ohio - no matter how far down it digs, it will never find sufficient heat reserves to remain physiologically functional. It has not evolved to remain viable at low temperatures, because it's DNA has never interacted for any significant length of time with below-moderate temperatures.

Reptiles are their own thing. We can't project highly social motivations onto their behaviors. And we can't project the luxury of endothermic preferences and tolerances onto them (they don't shiver, sweat, or have really big ears, forex).
I always felt a little weird about how people believe reptiles are. Most people believe reptiles are unloving and incapable of a lot of ways of thinking and emotions... just as they did with dogs and all other animals until this most recent century. But perhaps it's wishful thinking to think reptiles, fish, and amphibians are capable of more than we currently believe and understand about them. Like what if we're just as wrong about them as humans were about dogs? Gasp! But I'm totally projecting because I am often a solitary creature that seems thick on the outside, but squishy on the inside. Lol
 

JackieJax

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Wooo!!! I lowered the temperature to 80 and he started going back to his home on his own. I did completely clean out his house on Monday and he was very upset with me. I've never heard him grunt and walk around his house so much. After a few hours I threw in one of his dirty coconut fiber "sheets" and he went back in grunted and went to sleep.

Each morning I still see him leave his house and walk over to an area that I've temp checked at 59 degrees with air temp in the area of 66 degrees (at least it was yesterday). He does leave to go eat, then he hangs back out in that area until he goes and grazes again and goes back to his house for the night.
 
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wellington

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Wooo!!! I lowered the temperature to 80 and he started going back to his home on his own. I did completely clean out his house on Monday and he was very upset with me. I've never heard him grunt and walk around his house so much. After a few hours I threw in one of his dirty coconut fiber "sheets" and he went back in grunted and went to sleep.

Each morning I still see him leave his house and walk over to an area that I've temp checked at 59 degrees with air temp in the area of 66 degrees (at least it was yesterday). He does leave to go eat, then he hangs back out in that area until he goes and grazes again and goes back to his house for the night.
When my leopard kept going into the cold spot by his door, I kept moving him. Eventually he did stop. He was not quite an adult yet but say a teenager lol
As an adult, if he goes to the cooler area, different shed in different yard, we all moved, but still an area by their door that gets cooler, around 68, I don't bother moving him. Mine have never been sick, not even a runny nose.
I think if they are adults and it's not a permanent day and night cold they are in, well at least mine do just fine.
 

JackieJax

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Lets just say nobody should ever own a reptile.. because if u have to lock them in

When my leopard kept going into the cold spot by his door, I kept moving him. Eventually he did stop. He was not quite an adult yet but say a teenager lol
As an adult, if he goes to the cooler area, different shed in different yard, we all moved, but still an area by their door that gets cooler, around 68, I don't bother moving him. Mine have never been sick, not even a runny nose.
I think if they are adults and it's not a permanent day and night cold they are in, well at least mine do just fine.
Before I received him, the original owners "hibernated" him with their desert tortiose. When I got him, I had already read otherwise. So I'm also wondering since he was raised with much colder temperatures and having to go without food and water for so long out of the year, if that could have played a part in why he's the way he is. Though... he's like a Lab puppy and is constantly trying to eat everything, so I have to section off parts of the yard to give the grass a chance to grow back, so Im sure he is a very happy tortiose not having to go all winter without food.
 
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