Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello there
I am new to my baby Herman's tortoise. We brought him home Saturday night. We did lots of reading first. We have a UVB light, heat lamp, hidey cave for him, water dish... it's a nice set up for him during the day. But at night we shut the lights off to keep him regulated and when I take him out in the morning to feed him, he's cold and it takes him a while to move around. My house could get down to 60 at night. We cover most of the top of his enclosure with a blanket but I think it's still too cold and do not want to make him sick. Also, his water gets chilly right after I put it in there... not sure if there is a solution as I refuse to up the temp in the house! Heating costs and I'm uncomfortable with it too warm... Anyway - I thought maybe if we put the blanket for dark and put the heat lamp over his hidey cave at night that would keep the temp up??
Thanks for any help!

A solution I use for animals that need just a little extra heat is to put a 25-watt red light bulb in a domed lamp. You could put it on a timer so that it turns on some time after the heat lamps go off, and then it turns off before the heat lamps come on.

Point it at the general area where the tort sleeps at night and it should raise the temps about 10-15 degrees, depending on distance. 25 watts shouldn't burn up much power, and the red light won't bother the animal.

There are also ceramic heat emitters that produce heat but no light, but I've never used those so I can't comment on their value. Undertank heat pads can work, but I've never felt comfortable with them.

Another thing to consider is that tortoises are not as delicate as you may think. Hermann's come from southern Europe where they are exposed to a fairly broad range of temps over the seasons. I doubt that 60F would harm your tort, especially if he is healthy and has a place to dig into at night. Straw, or mulch, or soil/sand mix provide a nice substrate for the tort to dig under and allow him to retain some heat (and moisture) at night.

But a hatchling is a little more delicate, so until he gets some bulk on him you could temporarily use the red-bulb solution.

good luck!

>>There are also ceramic heat emitters that produce heat but no light, but I've never used those so I can't comment on their value. Undertank heat pads can work, but I've never felt comfortable with them.
>>

I use both, the CHEs are wonderful because it takes forever for them to burn out. I started using them when I got tired of constantly buying light bulbs that burned out too quickly.
I only use them in winter though.

The under tank heat I use for my box turtles isn't the stick to the botoom of the tank type, it's an infra-red paper thin heater that I bought from Big Apple called a Dragon's Lair Heat Mat. I wrote to them before I ordered it to explain that I wanted a heat mat to go under a Rubbermaid storage box. They wrote back & told me that the Dragon's Lair is designed for a plastic tub like that.. it doesn't actually touch the plastic, it sits under the tub and heats only the spot where I have it. That way the turtles can sit where it's warm or they can move away, it's their choice.

In winter when it's really cold I plug in the CHE & point it towards the area heated by the heat mat. That way they have their choice, heat from above & below, heat from below only, or no heat at all. They will use all three choices as they please.
We do the same with the outdoor enclosure for the sulcata. We use the highest wattage CHE & a Kane heat mat. The CHE heats only a small area, she too has the choice to sit in full heat, half heat, no heat & she also uses all three choices.

I have been very happy with the CHEs. I'll never go back to light bulbs that burn out too fast.
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PHRatz

have been very happy with the CHEs. I'll never go back to light bulbs that burn out too fast.
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PHRatz

I've had 25-watt red light bulbs last close to a year. But it's only effective if you need a few extra degrees of heat in a small area. And it seems that bulbs that are on 24 hours a day last longer than those that are turned on/off daily. I'm talking about cheap bulbs from the hardware store, not any type of pet store specialty bulb.

I was interested in your use of the Kane heat mats. I've been thinking about getting an 18x18 version for a couple small torts. I would keep them in my basement where the temps can drop below 60 during the winter, and thought a Kane mat would keep them warm and toasty at night and be a second source of heat when the lamps are on during the day. The torts are small leopards who have been indoors their entire lives, except for a few hours here and there, and I worry that they have low tolerance for cooler temps.

>>I've had 25-watt red light bulbs last close to a year. But it's only effective if you need a few extra degrees of heat in a small area. And it seems that bulbs that are on 24 hours a day last longer than those that are turned on/off daily. I'm talking about cheap bulbs from the hardware store, not any type of pet store specialty bulb.

I have my indoor lights on timers so maybe the on/off every day is what killed the bulbs. But then we do the same with the CHEs & they keep going & going & going...

>>
>>I was interested in your use of the Kane heat mats. I've been thinking about getting an 18x18 version for a couple small torts. I would keep them in my basement where the temps can drop below 60 during the winter, and thought a Kane mat would keep them warm and toasty at night and be a second source of heat when the lamps are on during the day. The torts are small leopards who have been indoors their entire lives, except for a few hours here and there, and I worry that they have low tolerance for cooler temps.

We bought the Kane very soon after getting our sulcata. She is a rescue & was already large enough when we got her that there was no way to keep her indoors. I knew someone (online) with a lot of iguanas who'd mentioned Kane heat mats to me before so I asked him his opinion of it. He wrote back & told me that some of his were 8 years old & still working just fine.
Some of the members of the tortoise group I joined tout the Osborne Industries Stanfield heat mat. They claim it's better than the Kane, I have no idea. We've had the Kane since 2002 & have had no problems with it at all.
:::knock on wood::::

It doesn't get extremely hot, just a nice warm spot for them to sit on when they want to. After we bought it then all these animal cop/rescue programs began airing, I started noticing the Kane being used in a lot of animal shelters on TV. If the other brand is better I don't know why it is.

You can buy a thermostat or a reostat for either of them. We didn't do that, we didn't really feel like we needed to because the only time her outdoor enclosure gets too warm is in summer. It's needed 24/7 during winter & the rest of the year I leave it turned off unless we have an unusual cold spell.
To us it was worth every penny we paid for it.
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PHRatz