Longer days?

[Bean]

Now that spring/summer has arrived, is it a good idea to extend the days of the geckos by keeping the heat lamp on longer? I was on a 12 hour day/night timmer, should I go with a 14/10 setup? Does it make a difference?

 

[Riverside Reptiles]

It can certainly make a difference when you're trying to breed. If it's just a pet, probably not so much.

 

[hoppingherps]

I agree with Riverside. Some of my geckos that are on the side of the room where natural light is more pronounced tend to react differently during the changes of season. Another species that I used to breed that just would not breed without the seasonal light change was Colostethus talamancae(a hard to get dartfrog). My trick that helped this out was to use the larger wooden blinds that let light through the gaps. This in turn let every herp that I had on that side of the room(not under the window or next) take advantage to seasonal light changes.

 

[MauricesExoticPets]

Now that spring/summer has arrived, is it a good idea to extend the days of the geckos by keeping the heat lamp on longer?

Matching the light cycle of their home range is best in my opinion. A cool flourescent bulb on a timer can do your day/night cycle without making much if any impact on temperature. A CHE or red bulb can be used in conjunction with an on/off type thermostat to maintain proper temperatures, one that has a night drop setting would be best.

Light and temperature are two different environmental factors that shoud be independant of each other. In the wild temperatures do not always drop as much as one might expect directly after sunset. Many other things conspire to hold an areas temperature through the night such as cloud cover.

I was on a 12 hour day/night timmer, should I go with a 14/10 setup?

Sunrise and Sunset for Vietnam – Hanoi – coming days
It seems 13/11 might be better right now. Exactly how close you keep the light cycle will depend on your equipment and personal preference, anything between 5 and 15 minute adjustments seem to work fine, a jump of 2 hours is a bit much in my opinion.

Does it make a difference?

Yes it does, if you are looking for natural behavior it helps quite a bit. As stated by Riverside Reptiles, if your gecko is a pet it might not be what you want to do.

Maurice Pudlo

 

[Bean]

Thanks for the reply, is a 12 hrs day the norm?

 

[MauricesExoticPets]

I'm not sure what you are asking with that, but 12 hour days are perfectly ok with regards to the very general husbandry of just about all geckos.

If I knew what Gekko species you owned I could gather a years worth of sunrise and sunset data for you based on where it came from. This is the only real way to know what the norm would be. The norm for one season would not be exactly the same as every other season.

Maurice Pudlo