My morning routine: Waking up the Lizards

Every morning we have a set routine.

Before I get out of bed, the timer switches on the lighting and heating for the "display" stack in Reptile Room 1. This is an eight-cage enclosure housing my leopard geckos, my fat-tailed geckos, my first cornsnake Jasper and my Everglades rat snake Irwin. The cages all run off of a dimming thermostat - this is to make sure that nobody gets too warm in their enclosure, and it required a LOT of tweaking to get the wattages of the light bulbs just right.

Everyone is unheated overnight - they never drop below normal room temperature, but it simulates a stronger night-time period for them.

After I get up, the timer on the other side of the room switches on the heat lamp for the slow worms (actually a type of legless lizard, NOT a snake!) and for Domino, our female Argentine black and white tegu. And here lies the fun part: She has been brumating for the last few months, but it's springtime and we want her to wake up. This involves reaching into the hidebox at the cool end of her 6*3*3 foot cage and convincing her to come out, then plopping her onto her bark basking platform at the warm end. This is currently heated by one 100-watt spot bulb and one 60-watt spot; she also has a 24-inch 10% UVB fluorescent tube.

The other morning routine is getting Irwin the rat snake out for a little exercise and keeping him in good calm handleable-by-kids temperament. At four feet long and three years old he has nearly lost all his baby blotching and is strongly striped from nose to tail in light orange and brown. Based on his proportions he might wind up being a very big snake indeed - this species can get to 7 feet in length. He's actually nosying at my fingers as I am typing this.

Last, we go downstairs into the front room and switch on Diablo and Chess's lights - Diablo is a three-foot adult male Nile monitor, who hates everyone and everything except for raw eggs and locusts. Chess is a young (we-think-he's-male) Argentine B&W Tegu - someday he and Domino might be housed together in a 7*3*3 enclosure in our front room, if they get along long term. If not, they'll keep their own separate houses, just as they have now. We also mist down Jareth the crested gecko's vivarium in the corner - this is because he won't drink water from a bowl, but he will lap it off of the leaves of his fake plants.

Then off to work to pay for feeding this lot.