Lights, Heat lamp times??

[blackrandomapple]

Hey,

Can some one give me some advice on what equipment i should leave on at night? Ie heat lamp, heat mat??

Any help please!

Thanks

[Graham]

For what animals?

[blackrandomapple]

Sorry, Its a horsefield tortoise, Male 2 years old

[Vicky12]

I have Hermanns and Marginated's. I dont leave any lamps on over night they dont need it.

I turn mine off at 9pm and they get turned on again in the morning at about 7.30am.

[nathan3001]

Vicky's right.

Try to keep it on a routine to.

it helps

[terrypin]

hi what sort of lighting and heating do you have as horsefields are a fairly hardy tortoise and although they do need to bask to warm up and become active they are best if given a temperature drop at night.do know what the temperatures are in your enclosure during the day and over night.
terry

[blackrandomapple]

hi, I have a heated mat and bulb! roughly 25 in day and 19 at nite!
Is this ok?

[terrypin]

high you certainly dont need any additional heating at night those background temperatures would be great for a tropical tortoise.i dont know how large your enclosure is but you need a temperature gradient of about 10c and this is best achieved with an open floor space im afraid its back to tortoise tables again.i prefer 22c to 12c at either end of the enclosure aside from under the basking spot which can range from 30c to 35c.so long as your night time temperature doesnt drop below 10c you shouldnt get any problems and if you have provided a good depth of substrate your tortoise will dig down to cope with any extremes of temperature as he would in the wild.as i have said i dont actually keep horsefields so i am trying to generalise.but i do keep hermans ,spurthighed and leopards(although these night temperatures are to low for leopards).i cant see any reason why you would need a heatmat if your tortoise is indoors as he certainly doesnt need it any warmer than what you feel compfortable with, what he does reqiure is a good combination heat and uvb/a light i find these promote greater activity and feeding than seperate tube and spotlight which i used for many years before changing.
terry