Hot or Not

Frankie is resisting my attempts to bring him to the higher end of his optimal temperature range -- which Dr. Atlas says is about 95. To get that much heat requires lots of effort and energy! In my attempts to get that hot temperature I am using two basking lights, two thermal pads, lots on insulation, and a server (computer sits next to Frankie's box and it put out lots of heat), I am just eeking up to that top temperature and Frankie decides its too hot for him (really I haven't even got the heat to 93) and he leaves the basking area, goes into the gecko room and sits on the cold cement -- I have taken to moving his basking lights every time he does this. He also goes into his box after I have taken out the heat pads (so he can bask under the lights). To combat this, I am aiming his basking light into the box (he is never alone when the light is positioned just so as I do not want to burn down the house). Still he leaves the warmth and wanders into the gecko room to find a nice cool area to sit.

Long before Frankie came into my life, a good turtle friend of mine told me that when I finally did get a sulcata that I would want to avoid having it come down with a cold, that they were difficult to get rid of. Its all very true, and Frankie is only in the beginning stages of a cold. I can't imagine if he had a respiratory infection and required shots too.