Temperature got very cold last night and I didn't know

[kojiinari]

My house is very cold (we save money by not running the heater in the winter unless necessary) but we keep all the animals in a room that has 2 large computers running 24/7. Even without the heat lamps of the animals the room stays a nice 70 degrees when the door is shut. With the heat lamp, my Maruke's cage is a nice 73 on the cool end and 86 on the hot end (around ~90 on the basking rock), and drops only a few degrees at night.

However my husband left the door to that room open last night when he went to get something and when I woke up this morning the cold side of Rick's cage was 58! The warm side was barely 70 and he was buried under the substrate as close to the under-cage heating pad as he could get. I immediately turned on his heat lamp and closed the door to the room, but I don't know how cold he got last night. What health problems should I watch out for? I'm terrified of him catching a cold or something and getting very ill or dying.

[NickBrahz]

1 day of cold should have no effect on the bub, remember that they go through those temperatures perfectly fine in the wild every single year.

[samkoolkid14]

If your having problems with heat I would suggest supplementing whatever heat you are providing now. A heating pad is great but I would invest in a another heat lamp, perhaps a duel lamp with two spots open for a ceramic heater as well as the normal lamp you use now. Is it possible you could buy a lamp with more wattage? The higher the wattage/closer the lamp is to the bottom of the cage the more heat will be available to your skink. Provided its not too close so that your sink can burn himself.

Your temperatures should always stay above 60 degrees on the cold side and 85 degrees or above on the hot side.

As for health issues, skinks can go into brumation if the temperature stays at 60 degrees or below for a day or two. I wouldn't worry too much if he was only exposed for a night. Just make sure to add more heat sources so he wont have to rely on heating from the computers anymore.

[kojiinari]

If your having problems with heat I would suggest supplementing whatever heat you are providing now. A heating pad is great but I would invest in a another heat lamp, perhaps a duel lamp with two spots open for a ceramic heater as well as the normal lamp you use now. Is it possible you could buy a lamp with more wattage? The higher the wattage/closer the lamp is to the bottom of the cage the more heat will be available to your skink. Provided its not too close so that your sink can burn himself.

Your temperatures should always stay above 60 degrees on the cold side and 85 degrees or above on the hot side.

As for health issues, skinks can go into brumation if the temperature stays at 60 degrees or below for a day or two. I wouldn't worry too much if he was only exposed for a night. Just make sure to add more heat sources so he wont have to rely on heating from the computers anymore.

I have another lamp but discontinued using it because it was getting the cage too hot. Right now I have a 150 watt Mercury vapor bulb for both his light and his heat, and at night I use the heating pad. I was using a night bulb for him at night, but it put out more heat than the Mercury vapor bulb did, and made the cage much too hot for him (his hot hide was 110 inside the hide) unless I placed it way above the cage at a height that made me uncomfortable safety wise. So at night we use the heating pad because as long as the door to the room is closed his cage stays at a good temperature.

This was the first time his temperature in his cage has ever dropped below 70 degrees on the cool side.

Would a ceramic heater be better than a night bulb? I've heard bad things about them.

[Dakota]

What health problems should I watch out for?

A sudden drop of temperature can induce a respiratory infection. Check for crackling breathing or nasal or ophthalmic discharge.

However, when I kept my skinks outside, they experienced a sudden cold spell of 42° while I was on vacation one time for two days. Everyone had about 5 inches of substrate, so they dug down to escape the cold. Not even my Halmaheras got an RI.

Not saying you should let them get down to 42°, though.

Just keep an eye on her, and get onto that husband of yours!

[Susann]

Since your skink is a Merauke (and does not see temperatures fluctuate much at all in the wild) I would make sure he access to heat above 70 degrees around the clock, I personally would not go lower than 65 at any time, especially if you are keeping humidity up by moistening his substrate; nothing is a better recipe for respiratory issues than damp and cold.

What bad things have you heard about ceramic heaters?
I love them, have one running 24/7 in every tank. I like them because they don't put out light, so you don't need to worry about temps dropping when lights go out. You can also put a dimmer on them (which I do) which gives you much better control as you're not just limited to the two settings of ON or OFF; you can raise or lower how much heat they put out at the slide of the dial.
I like them much better than heating pads as I have plastic tanks, which are notorious for making heat pads malfunction. (Which happened to me before I switched to CHE; super scary.)

[alichamp]

86 on the hot end (around ~90 on the basking rock), and drops only a few degrees at night.

Can you bump this up to 100 just to make sure it is hot enough in the basking rock. If it's too hard for him to get his temperature up he can have trouble digesting his food and this will cause problems.

For my setup, I have a usual day basking light (had to bump up to 150 watt during winter but normally 75-100 watt) and in our winter just gone, had an additional CHE running at night - this was set up to a thermostat which would turn the che on if the temp got too low overnight. Cost a bit more upfront but will last and keeps peace of mind.

The night bulbs are fine if you don't mind the light, CHEs will last longer. If you are worried about too hot at night, setting up the thermostat thingy will fix that problem and ensure it doesn't drop too cold.