setting a desert habitat for your desert dwelling reptile.
desert dwelling reptiles include:
leopard geckos
fat tailed geckos
bearded dragons
mali uromastyx
collard lizards
skinks
greek tortoise
lighting...........................................................................................
all of these reptiles except for the geckos are diurnal which means they awake during the day and go to sleep at night just like us; they require a 12 hr uvb spectrum. uvb for reptiles is a light bulb found in petstores. desert reptiles require high amounts of uvb so they need whats called a 10.0 uvb bulb which just another word for high amounts of uvb. the geckos are nocturnal and do not need the uvb bulb but they do need what we call vitamin d3 which can be found at petstores. you put some of it in a container or a bag and dump the amount of insects your feeding your reptile that day into the bag/container... SHAKE SHAKE SHAKE the bag and they wil be covered in vitamin d3. do this twice weekly.
decorating...............................................................................................
remember its a desert enclosure and it cannot be a tall tank but instead a long tank. another thing is sand... sand causes impaction which means if your desert reptile eats the sand it will be digested and it will actually clog up the insides and this isnt good especially if it clogs up the lungs so for all of you who want to try sand just because i said that go ahead and be stupid but dont come crying to me on the blog when i told you so. any ways there is something that all desert reptiles can adapt to and thats reptile carpet which is a terrarium liner that only comes in 2 colours green and brown this is what i use for my leopard gecko and i havent had any problems with it. because these are desert reptiles you need to think desert... what i mean is put things that have to do with deserts into the terrarium.NOT SAND. but fake cacti or desert background paper even light brown food dishes. the possibilities are endless. it is very important to provide at least 1 hiding place in your terrarium; one thing thats always worked for a hideout for my reptiles is where you take several rocks that stand a little taller then your reptile and then find a flat surface rock; place the several rocks down first and then lay down the flat surface rock ontop of the other rocks.