The short version: temperature is the whole brief. A reptile cannot digest, move or fight infection outside its species range, so a failed heat mat is not an inconvenience that can wait for your flight to land. Write the target numbers, where to read them, and exactly what to do when the reading is wrong.
Reptiles are the species where the enclosure does most of the work. A reptile does not need company — it needs the right temperature, light, and humidity, every day. The brief is essentially an operating manual for the habitat.
Heat & temperature
Most reptiles need a temperature gradient: a warm basking end and a cooler end so they can regulate. Write the target temperatures for each end, where the thermometers are, and what to do if a reading is off. Note the heat source (basking bulb, heat mat) and its on/off schedule.
- Check both temperatures — warm end and cool end — against the targets.
- Confirm the basking light and UV are on schedule.
- Check humidity; mist or fill the water dish as specified.
- Fresh water in the dish; remove waste.
- Note the feeding day — many reptiles do not eat daily.
UV & lighting
Many reptiles need UVB light on a daily cycle to stay healthy. Tell the sitter the light schedule (often on a timer), and that the bulbs should not be turned off or left on around the clock. If a timer runs the lights, the sitter mainly needs to confirm it is working.
Humidity & water
Humidity targets vary enormously by species — a desert lizard and a tropical gecko have opposite needs. State your target range, how to read the hygrometer, and how to adjust (misting, a larger water dish, partial cover). Keep drinking water fresh.
Feeding intervals
Unlike most pets, many reptiles eat every few days, not daily — so the brief must say exactly which day(s) to feed, what to feed, and how much. Leave food prepared or clearly described. If your reptile is between feedings during the stay, say "no feeding needed" explicitly so the sitter does not overfeed.
What to do, and when
Most reptile emergencies during a sit are equipment failures, not illness. That is good news, because equipment is checkable by someone with no reptile experience at all, provided you tell them what number they are looking for.
| What the sitter sees | What to do | Why the timing matters |
|---|---|---|
| Basking spot reading well below target, heat source not coming on | Call me now. Check the plug, the timer and the thermostat probe | Below its range a reptile cannot digest what is already in its gut. A blown bulb caught the same day is a non-event |
| Reading well above target, animal pressed to the cool end or hiding constantly | Turn the heat source off and call me | Overheating kills far faster than cold. A failed thermostat is the usual cause |
| Power cut | Call me. Keep the room warm and the vivarium shut | A closed vivarium holds heat for hours. Opening it to look is the wrong instinct |
| Retained shed around toes or the tail tip | Call me, raise humidity | A ring of old skin tightens as it dries and can cost a toe |
| Mouth held open, bubbling or mucus around the nose, wheezing | Vet within 24 hours | Respiratory infection, usually downstream of temperature or humidity being wrong for a while |
| Refusing food but alert, holding weight, normal posture | Note it | Extremely common and often seasonal. Snakes in particular go off food for weeks without anything being wrong |
| Cricket or locust left in overnight with a sleeping animal | Remove it | Live insects chew on a resting reptile. Uneaten prey comes out, always |
Write the numbers, not the settings
The most useful thing on a reptile brief is a short table of target readings and where to read them. Dials lie, and the number on a thermostat is not the number at the basking spot; what matters is what the animal actually experiences.
- The basking surface temperature and the cool end temperature, with the acceptable range for each — and say which gauge to trust if there are two.
- Where to point the temperature gun, if you have one. A surface reading and an air reading are different numbers.
- Humidity target, and whether it should rise for a shed.
- The light schedule and which timer runs it.
- The UVB bulb’s last change date. Output falls off long before the bulb stops looking lit, so a bulb that appears fine can be doing nothing.
- What to do first when a reading is wrong — usually check the plug, then the timer, then the thermostat probe placement.
When a sitter is the wrong answer
Reptiles are the easiest species on this site to leave with a sitter, and there are still cases where a drop-in is the wrong call.
A juvenile that eats daily and needs precise humidity is a different job from an adult snake that eats fortnightly. So is any animal mid-shed, mid-treatment, or recently moved into a new setup that has not been proven stable across a full week. And if your setup depends on a single thermostat with no backup, the real fix is a second thermostat rather than a more attentive sitter — the failure mode you are guarding against happens in minutes and nobody is watching at 3am.
Where a sitter is fine, they usually need less contact than owners expect. Say so explicitly. A well-meaning sitter who handles a shy animal daily to check on it causes more stress than the absence would.
Frequently asked
How often do reptiles need to be checked on?
Daily, mostly to confirm the habitat is correct — temperature, light, humidity, water. Feeding may only be every few days, but environmental checks should happen every day.
What if a temperature or humidity reading is wrong?
Leave clear instructions: what the target is, how to adjust, and a number to call if it cannot be corrected. An out-of-range habitat is the main risk for a reptile in care.
Does my reptile need to be fed every day?
Often not. Many snakes and lizards eat every few days or weekly. Tell the sitter exactly which day to feed and what — and say so clearly if no feeding is needed during the stay.
