Hello there, I’m new to an owning a blue tongue skink, I recently got a baby one, approximately 6 months old. I’m currently housing him in a 110 qt plastic bin, pretty big, with hide, water bowl, substrate and moss for humidity. I recently got a huge heating Mat to put under the bin on where the hide is, I’ve been concerns about the temperature as it stays consistently about 75-85 and it won’t go up to higher temp. I have a smaller heat mat for my leopard gecko and it goes to about 95. I’m thinking perhaps my leopard gecko is on paper towel for substrate so the heat can penetrate easier compared to a thick later of reptisoil and bark substrate.
any tips on how to raise the temp in a plastic bin for BTS, heat lamps won’t work as it’ll melt plastic
Is there a gap between the mat and bin. Use high temp duct tape to secure it to the bottom of the bin and it should hit 95 if your room is at 73 or higher. Get a thermistat or dimmer if it get to hot and dont have the whole bin covered by the heat mat because you want it to have a nice gradient. You could use less substrate but most of the time I prefer more. It allows them to burrow and thermoregulate. Chech the bottom layer of substrate and it should be closer to 90/95ish and is subject to mat and bin gap. If your skink cant burrow then your substrate is to compact.