reptile forums?

[gnarlysalamander]

keri, since you have both the exo terra and zoo med, which do you like better?

i had a friend tell me the plastic piece in the middle of the lid on the exo terra can melt [though i dont know what watt/type of bulb caused this because no one's ever mentioned it before] when using the fixture that comes with it for lighting. also, she said she had crickets escape being eaten, chew through the foam background, and breed behind it. has that ever happened to you? i'm more concerned with the light/melting although my temps will be fine until late fall; the feeding i can do in a separate container if it's a real problem.

[gnarlysalamander]

if these problems can be avoided i'm much more a fan of the exo terra. i LOVE the background and also the double doors

[gnarlysalamander]

woooo! got my geckos today! they are AWESOME!! as soon as they settle in i'll get some pictures posted

[Deleted]

Sorry, I've been out of town for a couple days! I do have the fixtures that are intended for use with both, and they only accept fairly low wattage bulbs, like 60. Mine have never gotten so hot that I've seen any plastic melting. However, using a different fixture like a clamp lamp dome could do so if it touched the plastic rim or support down the center. I have a dome lamp sitting on the screen top over the ball python and have to be careful it doesn't get moved around.

And yeah, I've seen crickets eventually burrow in behind the foam background. Never had them successfully breed, but my worry would be that some of them would grow too big for the reptile while they're back there (plus of course they start to chirp, annoying). The background does come out easily enough, since the screen tops come off.

Yay for pictures! I think my little guy is a "yellow partial pinstripe." There are a couple of really neat color morphs out there, like the dalmation.