I gotta tell ya, I love watching my ackies. Now that they are in a larger cage, they are fairly active. In the small cage, they'd come out for food and basically go back in the stack or in the hides. In the larger cage, they are out and active from about 5am till around 3pm. After that, the temps get to around 85 or so and they retire to their hides.
Lights come on one at a time, the 50w basking first, then about 20 minutes later the 75w. Then the T8's last at about 7am. They go off around 7pm, but the same way, one at a time. This is not by design, but rather cause the timers are not set perfectly in synch. I'm OCD by nature and if they weren't so inaccessible, I probably would have synched them by now.
I intend to remove the full spectrum T8 today in an effort to help lower afternoon ambient temps.
But I digress... Watching the ackies is an interesting pastime. They are away from my distractions (TV, computer, etc) so they usually get the bulk of my attention when I'm in there. I keep a log, jotting down notes a couple times a day including temps and times and what they are doing. I'm hoping this will provide actual evidence of how changing conditions change behavior without that "as I remember" aspect.
The male patrols and rubs himself on everything, several times a day. If he sees me, he'll hang out at the window, one 'hand' on the litter dam and check me out, checking him out. The girls are more shy and come out in the morning to warm up, then move off to the various logs and such to bask or hide. The larger female watches me. The smaller one couldn't seem to care less. Since they've been in there two weeks now, all know the cricket hiding spots and check them several times a day. I can tell if I've given them enough (currently around 100+ a day) by how often they do this checking. After a dumping of 70 or so, they just hang out. :0)
I have some wireless web cams and it's been my intention all along to install one or two for the cage. I know, from the evidence they leave, there's other things they do when I'm not around. I vary my viewing schedule to see if their activity is time oriented or ME oriented. I'm pretty sure it's ME oriented. When I'm there, they do like I do - watch. When I'm gone, they dig and do other things. I'm looking forward to checking that out on the web cam.
Oh, I had no point to this post. My better half is pretty tired of listening to monitor stories. And I figured if you, as the reader, didn't care or didn't want to finish, you'd hit the back button or whatever. So I'm just ramblin' here. If you have stuck around this long - do you spend time checking out your monitors or tegus or ? I gotta admit, watching my desert tort is not as interesting....
Lights come on one at a time, the 50w basking first, then about 20 minutes later the 75w. Then the T8's last at about 7am. They go off around 7pm, but the same way, one at a time. This is not by design, but rather cause the timers are not set perfectly in synch. I'm OCD by nature and if they weren't so inaccessible, I probably would have synched them by now.
I intend to remove the full spectrum T8 today in an effort to help lower afternoon ambient temps.
But I digress... Watching the ackies is an interesting pastime. They are away from my distractions (TV, computer, etc) so they usually get the bulk of my attention when I'm in there. I keep a log, jotting down notes a couple times a day including temps and times and what they are doing. I'm hoping this will provide actual evidence of how changing conditions change behavior without that "as I remember" aspect.
The male patrols and rubs himself on everything, several times a day. If he sees me, he'll hang out at the window, one 'hand' on the litter dam and check me out, checking him out. The girls are more shy and come out in the morning to warm up, then move off to the various logs and such to bask or hide. The larger female watches me. The smaller one couldn't seem to care less. Since they've been in there two weeks now, all know the cricket hiding spots and check them several times a day. I can tell if I've given them enough (currently around 100+ a day) by how often they do this checking. After a dumping of 70 or so, they just hang out. :0)
I have some wireless web cams and it's been my intention all along to install one or two for the cage. I know, from the evidence they leave, there's other things they do when I'm not around. I vary my viewing schedule to see if their activity is time oriented or ME oriented. I'm pretty sure it's ME oriented. When I'm there, they do like I do - watch. When I'm gone, they dig and do other things. I'm looking forward to checking that out on the web cam.
Oh, I had no point to this post. My better half is pretty tired of listening to monitor stories. And I figured if you, as the reader, didn't care or didn't want to finish, you'd hit the back button or whatever. So I'm just ramblin' here. If you have stuck around this long - do you spend time checking out your monitors or tegus or ? I gotta admit, watching my desert tort is not as interesting....
