its like clockwork lights on at 8am and up by 9am and in his hide around 530pm daily. i would like him to stay up later so should I have the lights come on in morning at 10am would this make him stay up later?

I would stick with a 12 hours on 12 off schedule, let him sleep if he wants but leave his lights on, I wouldn't like someone dictating when I was to sleep and wake up given the choice.

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I haven't really seen any evidence that having lights on changes sleep patterns at all. That would be like saying they believe the lamp is the sun. I highly doubt it. With my monitors I leave a bright light on 24/7, it's only the uv fluorescent that shuts off. It hasn't changed their sleep patterns at all. With Uros sticking to the 12 hr photo period is a good idea if you don't plan to brumate them for breeding. If you do I would use the light hours in your area. Having the lights come on when it becomes light out and go off when the sun sets. Then when winter comes and you need to shorten the photoperiod for brumating it seems to work out better.

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Mike
"Never worry about numbers. Help one person at a time, and always start with the person nearest you." - Mother Teresa

i think he may be getting too much uvb and that is why is sleeping alot. today I took out the vapor 160w uva/uvb bulb out and just put in a 150 w flood light. my temps stayed the same on both sides and basking rock so well see if this changes anything

does he have any UVB now?

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Do what's best for the animal, not what's best for you.

yes I have 2 repti sun 10.0 (the swirly ones) plus he gets rep cal withd3 once a week also.

you know what I just pulled out the ir temp gun and I hit the roof of one of his 3 hides and the one he allways is in is on the hot side. anyway the roof of his hide is a ceramic tile supported by 2x1" wood and sand is his substrate. well the temp on the ceramic tile is 100F and its 5pm lights been on since 9am. this seems to be its hottest point since the lights have been on for 8 hrs I am shure. i also created a small window I can look into his hide and if I peek in he allways is looking at me. i wonder if he even is sleeping? this is his normal schedual thus far. lights on 8am he is out by 9am and dont see him for the rest of the night around 4pm so he is out and up for 7 hrs. however the lights are on 12 hrs. i want to conserve some energy if he doesnt need it. or do u think I should remove that hide and see how it plays out? or is 7 hrs totally normal and I shouldnt do anything. also please only respond if you have a uro. these are compleatly differnt then gecos or iguanas. i appreaciate the input but can only use info from uro owners

Urorex, I am a uro owner, but please don't count out the advice of the people who may not own a uro at the moment. Their suggestions can be just as good, and most of the people here know a lot about reptiles in general that apply to uros as well.

That said, I would definitely NOT recommend taking away his hide. That hide gives him a sense of stability and comfort. Taking it away would be like taking away your roof. Totally exposed at all times, your Uro would probably get extremely nervous and skittish, which is not good for it.

Uros are definitely daytime animals. In the wild they are most active around noon, when it is bright and sunny outside. They sleep at night. Each animal is different, but generally they all have their preferred times to sleep, and don't like to alter that. You are much better off conforming to their schedule than trying to make him conform to yours.

Just out of curiosity, why do you want him to stay up later?

If you know his schedule really well, there's no reason why you need to keep the daytime bulb on for a full 12 hours, but you should probably leave the UVB on that schedule. I'm not sure that two UVB bulbs can actually hurt the uro, though. I mean, the sun generally has more to it than 10% UVB, right?

Also a suggestion, if you're going to keep him on sand, designate a feeding spot and put down some slate there, and keep the sand as far away from the food as possible. Otherwise some of it will inevitably get mixed into the food and it could cause impaction.

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as I said in my post there are 3 hides. i am shure if I took out the hot one and left the warm and cooler one there. he would go in and make a new home with little to no strss at all. I am not trying to make him adjust to my schedual. i had a iguana and a sav monitor and they stayed up 10 hrs a day. all I am basically asking is how long do they normally sleep. does yours sleep 17 hrs a day? and up only 7 hrs a day? just asking other uro owners what there scheduals are like. if I see a bunch of posts and people are telling me that theres all stay out 10 hrs a day then obviously something is wrong with mine or his tank or the lights. his fecals are normal and no parasites and he eats and is active when awake so I am shure its not his health. i also seen a post in another forum reguarding too much uvb will tend to make them go into hiding more often. i havent changed anything since my first post over a couple weeks ago. its just a question how long does yours sleep. just trying to get a average. As far as wanting info from only uro owners I will not budge on that one. i see too many posts with people who dont own them and give info they use for there iguanas and bearded dragons to people who have uros. sorry totally different lizard and require much different care.

Ah, I see.

Honestly, mine's in a hide more often than not. He comes out to bask in the light, then goes back in his hide. I'd say on average (when I'm home all day) he's probably out in the open 4-6 hours a day at various times. But then, when your food's provided for you every morning and evening and you have nowhere to go, wouldn't you sleep the day away? I probably would.

I think the people here know the difference between the care for a uro and an iguana. But I understand if you've been on other forums where people assume all care is the same.

__________________
"Let's eat, Grandpa!"
"Let's eat Grandpa!"

Punctuation. It saves lives.

I'll try to explain my thoughts on this. You have your enclosure setup in a unique way. That is it is unique to any other Uro enclosure. Unless you have duplicated it in exact. Thus the differences in temperatures throughout the enclosure will dictate where your Uro spends its time. Also insecurities can determine the amount of time they spend in their hides.
Hides is probably an inaccurate description retreat would be more accurate. They retreat from the midday heat.
In short, you up to a point you can't really compare your Uros habits to another. There are too many variables. The variables are what you have provided. Perhaps you haven't provided enough variables. Perhaps you have provided more variables than others have. Don't try to force things on your Uros. If they are healthy and eating habits and stools are good I wouldn't fret about it.
My experience with Uros is that their habits change quite often. Depending on the seasons. I have only used 5% uvb bulbs with supplemented D3 with good results.

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Mike
"Never worry about numbers. Help one person at a time, and always start with the person nearest you." - Mother Teresa