Night time temperature

[den_bish]

Hi - seem to asking loads today lol !

I noticed this morning that the temp in the lounge where the tort is kept dropped to 9.8C last night - firstly is this dangerous?

Secondly if so I was thinking of getting a ceramic heat bulb on a thermostat for overnight use - I have looked and am a little confused as to what wattage would be appropriate, 40, 60 or a hundred bearing in mind it is for overnight just in case the temps drop????

[annsimpson1]

those temps are low, if you want to keep the tort up for the winter then I'd say you need to aim for a minimum of 15c +, I used to have mine in a small room with the radiater on and shut the door at night that worked fine and the room was around 70f never dropping below 65f. I think you'll find your tort will try to hibernate with temps that low.

[den_bish]

Yes that is what I thought too.

Looks like I am going to have to fork out for a ceramic heater bulb then - any idea on wattage???

I can't leave the heating in the house on all night as a) too expensive and b) gives me a headache!!

[fantapants]

how big is the table and does he sleep in a specific area? if you could put him in a box every night its going to costs youa heck of a lot less than if you want to him to bury down in any old random place.

if he sleeps in a box.......a heat cable under the soil with a matstat on it. maybe £40 all together

if you want to heat the entire table to a minimum temperature.....its going to ba a little more expensive. the wattage of the bulb doesnt really matter as long as its the right size for the job. it wont be used at full capacity as it will have to be attached to a stat. so as a minimum i would say a 100w cermaic......a ceramic holder and reflector......a pulse propertionate habistat.....maybe £90 all together.

there is a massive range of stats and heaters. you could even go for a reptile radiator. or autmate your lights through a stat.

[den_bish]

Hi Ali and thanks for the info.

He usually sleeps in the little house I bought (pic below) but it is not filled with soil, it has aspen - would a heat cable be suitable in this instance?

Also is it necessary to have a pulse proportionate thermostat - would a normal straightforward temperature thermostat be ok?

I was looking at heat mats as well, but have been put off my the horror stories.

Just thinking aloud now but if he sleeps in the house would a ceramic heat emitting bulb be appropriate as obviously it would not be inside there with him or would just heating the ambient air outside the house be ok - sorry for all of the questions but I just want to get it right!

Oh forgot to add that the table is 4 x 2 but I would be putting the heat souce near the area where he sleeps.

[incrisis]

If the house is big enough you could get a small heat mat and attach it to the 'ceiling' inside the house, obviously on a stat, this would give off heat and keep the tort off the mat

[den_bish]

Ok - never thought of that, good idea! But just to check would it be ok to attach it to wood - I am thinking more of fire risk - if safe this sounds like a definite option to consider.

[Alfietortoise]

I have done just that for my adult Hermanns 'Alfie'. A small reptile heat mat (approx 10 x 6 inches) stuck to inside of his sleeping compartment on the tort table. £10 from local pet shop.
It only takes 7watts of power and I only plug it in on the coldest nights, table is in a centrally heated room but this goes off after 11pm.

Min/Max thermomenter inside his 'bedroom' shows min temp of about 19degrees on last few nights where we have had serious frost.
Heater is designed to radiate heat and is perfectly safe, it barely gets warm to the touch but is enough to maintain comfortable sleep temp. It actually gently heats the wood it's stuck to which probably acts like a radiator too.

[incrisis]

Originally Posted by den_bish

Ok - never thought of that, good idea! But just to check would it be ok to attach it to wood - I am thinking more of fire risk - if safe this sounds like a definite option to consider.

Loads of people use them in wooden viv's etc as the heat they generate isn't usually high enough to cause any problems, obviously there is the possibility of a fault.

[v-max]

Just a word of caution with heat mats - they often confuse people in that they are not designed to raise air temperature by much. Maybe 4 degrees is what should be expected when using the mat correctly. The confusing area is that they are effective at heating solid objects. So, if your tortoise falls asleep along side it, being a solid object he will be warmer than you think. I have found that this can contribute to stress related ailments - probably due to the lack of night time drop temperatures. If you want my honest opinion, I only use heat mats for species that are terrestrial and nocturnal / crepuscular. These species move away from the night time heat (mat) because they are active at that time - and the mat provides a very natural substitute for heat transfer from rocks that have heated up in the day's sunlight. I persoanly do not advise the use of heat mats with tortoises.