its 62 alright for night temp?

[Rhetoric]

Last night was the first night my tegu was in a garage. I left a space heater near his enclosure (kind of aiming towards a vent. Since we finished everything so late I was checking the temp almost hourly until like 2 am... I woke up around 4 and checked it again. Now that its day time the tanks heating up as it regularly would.

The lowest temp I saw was 62F. Is that ok? I'm pretty sure its pushing it a bit.. :s I have a ceramic heater I'm not currently using, I can throw that in there if need be. My tegu has a good amount of substrate he can burrow into and a blanket lol.

Just as a side note, yesterday I put a blanket in his tub to give him something to sort of burrow into, I went to pull him out of his tub and he had managed to get himself into a hole in the blanket, I was a bit worried at first but he was just going in and out if it.. I felt bad taking his fun away and if it keeps him toasty more power to him!... (Right?)

 

[Toby_H]

As long as he has a nicely insulated hide to burrow into, 62*F is not too cold...

If the 'hide' is simply a empty box, this does not offer much insulation and the Tegu will quickly loose body heat.

My "hide" is simply a piece of sealed (Drylok) plywood that sits flat on the substrate. My Tegu then digs burrows in the substrate beneath it to hide in. When it's warm he digs a big wide open burrow, but when it is cold he pulls mulch in his burrow to make narrow tunnels to better insulate himself.

I surely never let it get down to 62*F inside my home, where my enclosure is now. But a couple years ago I moved my Tegus enclosure outside in the spring while he was hibernating. Then I waited until over night low temps stopped dropping below 60*F. He was burried deep in the mulch snuggled up tight. He stayed that way during the cold nights but began coming out in the warm sunny mornings & afternoons to enjoy the sunshine. He went back into his burrow early in the evening, I suspect ensuring to go under before loosing that mid day warmth and snuggling into an insulated burrow to retain it.

I do not think that 62*F is "too cold" but do keep in mind that longer cold nights will have a greater effect on his metabolism which will in turn have an effect on his eating and activity levels. I do not think this is necessarily harmful and on the contrary is quite natural for them, but it's something to keep in mind while observing your Tegu.