# bearded dragon night time heating



## louize

Hi, what's best way to have heating at night when.lights go out ?

And is heating at night time needed or not ?, and whats best way to ?

And wht temps do they need to be at night time ?

Any help please , thanks


----------



## StreathamReps

Hi,

Lots of people say turn off everything at night, because the temperature in your house will be good enough for them. However, I like to leave the heat source on (either ceramic 50w or red bulb 50w) at one end, and they can choose. Sometimes they sleep at the opposite end, and sometimes underneath!!

So, my heat source is on 24/7 and my UVB and house lights turn off at night, therefore creating a good gradient.

Hope this helps!


----------



## john09

As far as i know beardies can cope with very low night time temperatures in comparrison with their day time requirements. Where they come from in Australia temperatures drop to around 20 degrees celsius, sometimes less. Usually no night time heating is needed unless you have a very cold house! :2thumb:


----------



## winstonsfab

Mine stays on at night but drops the temp as my house gets quite cold.
I think it drops by about 12 degrees as to what it is in the daytime I think...


----------



## Rthompson

Beardies experience extremely cold night time temperatures and thus no night heating is needed or recommended. you can let the tank naturally drop to around 15 degrees.


----------



## jools

It is generally considered that beardies need a drop in temperature at night, as well as darkness. Most experienced keepers have no extra heating on at night, room temperature being regarded as quite sufficient - unless it drops below about 60F (15C). In their natural habitat the temperature can drop very significantly at night.


----------



## CharleyG.13

Once the lights go out at 10pm, my BD has no heat source until about 7am and even then, he'll happily stay in the cool end of his viv


----------



## Jon Swan

In my opinion no heat source is needed at night. They need a night time drop to mimic what would happen in the wild. I'd only add a ceramic heat source (gives off no light) if your house is very cold at night. Most houses wont need anything. I don't use anything at winter time nevermind now when the weather is getting hotter.


----------



## cjp1973

*night temps for beardies*

At night, as in there natural habitat, bearded dragons will cope with fairly low temps, the australian desert has different temps throughout the year, your dragon will quite easily survive at temps as low as 50f (11c)...in the colder months ie may - september the night temps in the desert rearly reach 49f (10c), the hotter months ie dec - march can reach to around 75-78f ( 22-24c) and the other months are around 60-70f (15-19c) so if you keep your dragons between 55f and 75f (13 and 23c ) they will be ok...you can you use a ceramic heat source with a thermostat to achieve these temps or a red night bulb works just aswell, some people say no lights at night because they wont sleep...this in fact is not true, when the temps drop, the bd will naturally want to wind down and take a sleep, they will find a nice secure spot ( or go into a hide or under some foliage and go to sleep ) the vivarium will go alot dimmer once you turn off the spots and uvb, a red low wattage ( around 60watts for a 4' x 2' x 18" wooden viv ) will not disturb their sleep at all, you will get a small amount of light in the desert from the moon so it dosnt have to be pitch black...if your house stays at a constant temp ie 65f then you wont need any extra heat at night...these are only guide lines from somebody who has kept dragons boas geckos and water dragons for 12 years without any problems ( maybe a couple but no fatalities ) hope still sheds some light ( excuse the pun) on the subject!!!


----------



## jools

Welcome to RFUK cjp1973! Your post is basically agreeing with most of the rest of the thread regarding temp drops, but very interesting about the red light. Nice to have new members on here who have something intelligent to add to our discussions.


----------



## cjp1973

I just wanted to explain the reason for the low temps at night ie expaining about the outback temps and what they actually drop to, just adding my pennies worth to the best forum ive been on....well done guys...10/10


----------



## jools

cjp1973 said:


> I just wanted to explain the reason for the low temps at night ie expaining about the outback temps and what they actually drop to, just adding my pennies worth to the best forum ive been on....well done guys...10/10


10/10??????? Well sometimes. In truth, just like most forums I suppose, there are some stupendously knowledgable and helpful ppl here. There's also some that are - shall we say - not. But it is a busy forum and any idiotic comments tend to get refuted fairly quickly. Enjoy your time here and we'll look forward to your posts :2thumb:


----------



## Pyrite

cjp1973 said:


> At night, as in there natural habitat, bearded dragons will cope with fairly low temps, the australian desert has different temps throughout the year, your dragon will quite easily survive at temps as low as 50f (11c)...in the colder months ie may - september the night temps in the desert rearly reach 49f (10c), the hotter months ie dec - march can reach to around 75-78f ( 22-24c) and the other months are around 60-70f (15-19c) so if you keep your dragons between 55f and 75f (13 and 23c ) they will be ok...you can you use a ceramic heat source with a thermostat to achieve these temps or a red night bulb works just aswell, some people say no lights at night because they wont sleep...this in fact is not true, when the temps drop, the bd will naturally want to wind down and take a sleep, they will find a nice secure spot ( or go into a hide or under some foliage and go to sleep ) the vivarium will go alot dimmer once you turn off the spots and uvb, a red low wattage ( around 60watts for a 4' x 2' x 18" wooden viv ) will not disturb their sleep at all, you will get a small amount of light in the desert from the moon so it dosnt have to be pitch black...if your house stays at a constant temp ie 65f then you wont need any extra heat at night...these are only guide lines from somebody who has kept dragons boas geckos and water dragons for 12 years without any problems ( maybe a couple but no fatalities ) hope still sheds some light ( excuse the pun) on the subject!!!


Excellent, just the answer I was looking for :2thumb:

I have a 4 X 2 X 18" wooden viv and was wondering if a 50W infra red bulb would be okay as I am having a similar "problem" 

I like this advice


----------



## MCEE

Pyrite said:


> Excellent, just the answer I was looking for :2thumb:
> 
> I have a 4 X 2 X 18" wooden viv and was wondering if a 50W infra red bulb would be okay as I am having a similar "problem"
> 
> I like this advice


Why would you want to use a light at night. Any light, including (or especially) infra red will heat the viv. Beardies NEED the drop in temperature. The cooler the better (within reason of course). Beardies are quite happy to experience a drop to 50F (housholds rarely get as cold as this) and sometimes tollerate even colder for odd occasions.

I have slept under the stars in deep outback Australia (Western Australia/Northern Territories), including the Kimberly region, a few times and have experience part-frozen water bottles in the morning, in early spring.

Please trust me, no heat required in your viv at night.


----------



## Pyrite

MCEE said:


> Why would you want to use a light at night. Any light, including (or especially) infra red will heat the viv. Beardies NEED the drop in temperature. The cooler the better (within reason of course). Beardies are quite happy to experience a drop to 50F (housholds rarely get as cold as this) and sometimes tollerate even colder for odd occasions.
> 
> I have slept under the stars in deep outback Australia (Western Australia/Northern Territories), including the Kimberly region, a few times and have experience part-frozen water bottles in the morning, in early spring.
> 
> Please trust me, no heat required in your viv at night.


At night the temperature still drops, it's a big viv. Even the 50w it only manages to keep it at like 68F, basking area at night drops to about that 65F. 

The problem I am having is the damn humidity. It reaches to about 87% at night and under the infra red it drops down to 60-70%. It's not a major drop at least it helps a bit.

I am assuming this shouldn't be a problem though. I imagine the same thing happens in the wild at night, since there is no sun to keep things dry humidity is bound to rise.

Is this normal or should it still be dry?


----------

