Newbie Questions about Substrates and Heating

So...i'm a newb to the emp world. Just brought one home two days ago. Everything seems to be going fine but I had a couple of questions.

I have a ceramic heater and I'm wondering if I should leave it on all the time? I do not have any supplemental heating as the ceramic keeps the tank around 80-85 degrees. I live in Idaho and it's cold here...lol. If I turn the heater off at night then the tank temp drops to about 65 degrees and this has got to be way too cold.

Also, I didn't know the first thing about proper emp substrates when I bought my emp. I had a savannah monitor for about 2 years and I used ground english walnut shells for his substrate...so I've been using the same thing for my emp. Is this bad? It doesn't seem that this sandlike substance would be good for burrowing.

Thanks for putting up with newbie questions. Any answers would be appreciated. :HeathJoker:

You don't need to turn the heater off as the emp will either move to the cooler section of the vivarium or burrow to get away from the heat

as for the substrate coco fibre works really well and so does most soil/peat mixture sorts

I'd switch to coco fiber.

How are you holding the humidity in the enclosure? I use a sheet of glass on top of the screen. When I don't have that, I use Saran wrap.

Actually I've been using a fitted piece of cardboard over the open space on the screen. It's all I had at the time but I'm going out today to get some coco fibre, should I use saran wrap?

Ok, so I went and got the coco fibre, put it in the cage and my emp immediately began to burrow. Which leads me to another question:

She is now completely covered in substrate...lol. Should I spray her off or will she just clean herself?

MachRhAYNe wrote:

Ok, so I went and got the coco fibre, put it in the cage and my emp immediately began to burrow. Which leads me to another question:

She is now completely covered in substrate...lol. Should I spray her off or will she just clean herself?

that will stress her out. they will clean themselves. these arent dogs :p

Coco fiber = good.

Substrate on emp = nothing to worry about.

Dumping water on soil = best way to maintain humidity.

So.. I have been dumping water on the substrate to generate humidity and have noticed that the top layer will dry out fairly well after a bit but the bottom layers seem to stay wet.

Should I leave the substrate this way or should I mix it up every once in awhile so that the lower layers can dry? :HeathJoker:

That's fine and normal. Most of my tanks look dry from the top but I can tell in cross-section that there's plenty of moisture where it matters -- in the layer they burrow in.

Ok. That makes sense. I appreciate the help. :HeathJoker: