Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I am in a situation where I have enough animals that it is not practical to bring my tortoises in during the cold months due to size, quantity and space requirements. I am erecting a large shed for my tortoises, but need to know the best (economical) method for heating. What is the best advice?

You'll have to construct a miniature house, along with wall, ceiling, and roof insulation. Your heat source must be able to maintain temperatures in the high 80's. I would suggest using a mercury vapor lamp along with heating pad for night heat and/or and infrared heater for night heat.

Also, you'll have to provide for ventilation which may be difficult considering that you will be pulling very cold air into the enclosure by way of a fan.

I've built a tortoise house in my basement for the winter time. Its dimensions are 8 feet x 8 feet for three leopard tortoises. It works very well and would probably work well outside as well, because it has all the elements that I described above.

When temperatures are stable outside in the 70's during the day and 50's at night, then I put tortoises outside for the season. I still maintain a heat source (water-proof heating pad) covered with a blanket and timothy hay for outside during this time of year, until night temperatures drop no further than 60's.

Good Luck.

I was lucky enough to grow up helping my father build our families last group of houses, and have learned quite a bit about building and greenhouses and sheds.

The best heat source I can imagine for your use would be a combo. A poured concrete slab floor with in-floor hot water tubing would keep the slab floor warm and provide your basic warmth (great for avoiding cold low drafts with tortoises). I would also use a small woodstove.

I am planning a greenhouse design now for adding on several years from now, and I will be doing this. The slab floor will have wooden or steel studded walls, in my case a solid knee wall and then all glass above it. You can use standard walls if you wish, I want the greenhouse effect of the glass.

I will also be adding a thermostatically controlled fan at the top that will turn on and blow out hot air (sucking in cool air at the top on the other end of the cieling) when temperatures exceed a set temp. The sensor can be placed anywhere, but trial and error will tell you a good spot if you use other thermometers to measure the other locations.

My parents used a poured flooring surface on the hot-water-tubing heated slab of their latest house. This stuff goes in easily and fast, and is virtually indestructable. If it is ever damaged you can just pour on a little more and make it match. It can be made any color by using different colored material flakes it comes in. I plan on using this stuff on the floor, directly on the slab, and up the walls to knee height. One area will have a door I can open that is at floor level, so I can literally hose out the room to clean it. This flooring material does not absorb stains or smells. I got the door idea from Graham's greenhouse in the UK, he houses Sulcatta's in his.

In any case, a rail or guard around the woodstove will be needed to keep torts from touching it. A woodstove is a SUPER cheap way to do this if you live anywhere near woods. Cleearing out woods on your own property will provide enough firewood to keep a wood stove in a small greenhouse running fine all winter. The warm flooring will be a huge plus, and if you forget the stove a while it will provide warmth directly into their bodies and sustain them.

Hi,

I have been planning something similar, my suggestions are:

Build it any style you like, but insulate it well.
Put down some thick poly plastic befor you build the floor, to prevent humidity.

I have been researching heat sources for large enclosures and have come up with what I think is a good source. A company called Enerjoy makes infrared heat panels that mount to the ceiling and heat everything the way the sun heats things. They are supposed to be very reliable and energy efficient. I also found a website that has all types of heating supplies.

The site for the ceiling panels is :
www.electricheat.com/radiant/prods.htm

The site for all the other products is :
www.infraredheaters.com/panels.htm

Good luck and keep us posted!
Steve