Any responsible owner knows that the temperature for leopard geckos is very important. Leopard geckos need a warm area in their tanks of about 90 degrees Fahrenheit, and a temperature gradient down to about 80 degrees Fahrenheit in another part of their tank. It’s simply not acceptable for a leopard gecko owner to not cater for the needs their pet in this regard.
Providing a heat source in a leo’s tank is not difficult – a reflector lamp, heat pad or flexible heat tape will do an admirable job. What’s not so easy is ensuring that the heat source you have is producing the right amount of heat. Too little and your leo will be sluggish, sick and unhappy; too much and it’ll get overheated or could even get burned.
What you need, then, is a way of measuring the heat that your heat source is putting out so that you can then regulate it appropriately (the regulation part can normally be taken care of with a simple plug-in dimmer switch). Below are some of the options for measuring temperature. Keep in mind that what needs to be measured is the temperature of the substrate that your leo is walking around on and not the temperature of the air near it – this is an important distinction.
Ordinary aquarium thermometers
Aquarium mercury-type thermometers are robust and accurate. They come with a stainless steel mount and it’s easy to fix a couple of them in your leo’s tank. However, the potential hazard to using mercury aquarium thermometers is that they need to be touching the surface of the substrate. If they’re not touching the substrate then they’ll be measuring air temperature, not surface temperature.
Remote digital sensor units
This type of device is essentially a digital thermometer with a probe on the end of a wire. Stick the probe into the substrate, fix the readout somewhere you can see it (it’ll have suction caps), and voila – accurate and constantly-updated substrate temperatures.
Infrared temperature guns
A temperature gun is a thermometer, but quite a different one. You ‘aim’ it at something and press a button, and it fires an infrared cone that bounces back to the unit and gives you a temperature reading of that surface without needing to make contact with it. The best thing about a temp gun is that it accurately tells you the surface temperature of whatever you point it at, not the air temperature near it like normal thermometers can.
Herpstats
With most ways of measuring temperature you end up with a manual two-stage process: first measure the temperature; then adjust the heating device accordingly using a dimmer switch. Herpstats are great, because what they do is measure the temperature with a probe, then adjust the power that’s going to the heating device automatically until the temperature matches the one you punch into the herpstat. This is definitely the five-star option!
So, as you can see there are different ways to measure the temperature for leopard geckos depending on your budget and your preferences.
Jo Morris is a leopard gecko enthusiast and author of the book ” Leopard Gecko Secrets Revealed “. To learn more about the requirements of the temperature for leopard geckos visit http://www.leopardgeckocenter.com
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