I’ll just add on a few things to DragonLady’s post.

1. The overall temp should be around 95-100 and aside from the high temp under the basking spot, there should be a cooling end to your enclosure. Around 80-85 would be ideal. I wrapped my light fixture in tin foil as well so I made sure there’s cool end for Pogo to cool down. You should have all the heat source/lights off at night unless you do not have indoor heating. They can tolerate down to as low as 65 but I have mine at 70.

2. Size/age: You called "it" a him but until you start breeding there’s no sure way to sex them. A 12" female is most likely a full grown uro so there’s no way to telling how old. A full grown male is around 16" to 18" long.

3. UV light: It took me awhile to learn this but it needs to be within 12" of your uro otherwise it’s wasted.

4. Like D-lady, I feed Pogo curly endive, escarole as her basic food but occasionally she gets hibiscus flowers for treats. I wouldn’t use too much romaine unless he’s dehydrated since it’s mostly water.

Good luck with your new Uro, and welcome to the site. Looking forward to hearing all your Uro stories.

The under tank heater is fine as you have the glass bottom plus a layer of substrate on top. Melissa is thinking about the electric heat rock that sits in the tank that some people use as a basking rock. That type is nasty as it’s been known to malfunction and gets so hot that it burns the underside of the animal.

I’m not sure how the 265 heat emitter works as I’ve never used anything so high. It’s important to have a basking lamp for your uro that gets as hot as 120, Uro_fan has hers even higher. You may want to invest in a digital temp gun or use a meat thermometer to get a better reading (stick it in the substrate, NOT your uro! lol). I’m also curious as to why your uro likes to sit at the cooler end, do you think maybe your hot end with the 265 is too hot? A temp gun should tell you that.

When I first brought Pogo home, I did the smorg/salad bar thing. She was eating (at least I thought she was) better than my own family, a variety of fruit and veg at every meal. It looked interesting but she really didn’t eat any of it. I got wise over time and started to stick with the her staple food, curly endive and escarole. Now there’s less waste and it makes life easier on me.

I don’t put Pogo in the bath but it’s fine that you do, just make sure the water is hot enough for her, 105 degree and dry thoroughly.

One more thing about turning lights on and off....Invest in a timer so the lights come on and off at a set time each morning and evening. It’s really OK to have the temp down, it gets that cold in their natural environment.

I think you’re making the same mistake I made when I first started with Pogo thinking these uros are regular "pets". They don’t have an internal clock or be awaken by noise, etc. What gets them up in the morning or whenever is the heat, when their blood gets warm, as after the enclosure heats up. The reason why it’s important to have the proper temp in their enclosure is because their body temp is regulated by external heat. The hotter it is, the more active they get. Some pet owners prefer to read their "slowness" as being docile but it’s most likely due to their body temp drop. They don’t play nor eat well when the temp’s off. The idea of the timer is to have the temp up and down at a set time each day so you won’t have to "wake" him up. It really sounds funny when you said it. I used to wish Pogo was more like a dog and I had wanted to handle her. I found out that Uros don’t like to be handled too much as it stresses them out. Bathing freaked Pogo out so much that she used to go straight to her hide and be gone for the day. I don’t know how long you’ve had yours but for the first few weeks until they’re used to their environment, they really shouldn’t be handled.

I spent a summer in the Caballo desert on an excavation, and I can tell you that it gets COLD out there at night. Well, ok, by cold I mean 60... but when the sun is beating down at 115 during the day the drop off to 60 feels pretty rough- and it is. Dropping 50 something degrees in a couple of hours is quite, quite noticeable. It’s also, however, completely natural and what desert-dwelling animals are used to. So don’t worry about taking the temperature down at night, it’s healthy for the Uro! Just make sure it doesn’t get below 60-65.