Reptile & Amphibian Forums

i know this has come up before but i have a 4'x8'x3' screened enclosure for my yearling redfoot. i live in central florida and it is usually pretty warm, but we do get several nights a year that dip to about 30 degrees. the enclosure has a plastic sheet roof and one one short wall. one long wall is plywood. the other two are hardware cloth screen. there is about an 18" tall hill that takes up about a quarter of the cage, on the end with the plastic sheet for a wall. he has a cave in this hill for a hide box. for the daytime during chilly days, i have heat provided via heat lamps, but i dont want to run them at night. ceramic emmitters disperse too much heat and very heat reaches the ground level. so i'm looking at some sort of under tank heater. i have a thermostat from big apple. i was looking at kane heat pads, and heat tapes. what do you guys recommend? i dont think it would need to be any bigger than the hill during the night, since he always sleeps in there anyway. oh, yeah, it would have to be able to withstand rain and weather. i dont think that the zoomed heat pads are up to that, plus they're really expensive for what you get.

The kane heat mats seem to work pretty well I've never recomended bottom heat in the past but have been forced to use it and found that it works pretty well.
Ed

thanks for the replies, but i have a couple more questions. the substrate in the cage is dirt/peat moss. it is about 4" thick everywhere except the mound, where it approaches 2'. should i put the mat under the cage? or should i put it in the bottom of the cage with the mound on top of it? if i do put it in the cage, should there be a layer of dirt on top of it or should the mat form the floor of the 'cave'? i know that some dirt is bound to be knocked onto the mat, and the mat is going to be bigger than the hole in the mound, but should the tort be allowed to sit directly on the mat, or should i just heat the ground below the hide and allow the heat to rise into the hide box? thanks a lot

When you put stuff on top of the heat mat it traps the heat. This can lead to a fire and I suspect it shortens the life of the mat. If you are going to use it on the floor I'd suggest that you don't cover it or cover it with a thin layer of hay.
Ed

as opposed to the floor? mount it on the wall like a radiant panel?

I would also post your question on the caging forum. There is some kind of radiant heat panel that people use in outdoor enclosures, but I can't remember who makes it. The panels are installed above and emit heat downward. I'm sure the people over at caging can help you out.
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Sohni
Northern California

0.1 Baja de L.A. Rosy Boa
0.1 Okeetee Corn Snake
1.1 Rubber Boas
1.0 Leopard Gecko
0.0.1 Hermann's Tortoise
plus my kids' herps:
0.0.1 California King Snake
1.0 Mexican Rosy Boa
0.1 Leopard Gecko

Perhaps a simpler solution to consider would be to bring him indoors on those colder days. It would just be less problematic for you (if it's a doable thing). Just a thought. I have indoor accomodations for my Redfoots and my yellowfoot during the colder months (New York -- so it's basically 6 months in and 6 months out). Sometimes we get a bizarre cold day during the late Spring and Will just take them in and put them out again the following day when it warms up.

Just a thought.

Honuman,

I'd love to know your setup for the off-season. I am relocating from sunny temperate San Francisco to Coastal Connecticut. I will need to provide a similar setup during the off-season.

Thanks!

Paul Rattay

I use the setup described by Ed very effectively for both my box turtles and redfoots. I supplement heat with kane heat mats which the animals seem to have taken to nicely. I place the heat mat so that it is half of the hide enclosure which retains the heat rising and gives the tortoise the choice to sit atop the mat or just nearby. I also use an infra-red ceramic heater from above (just outside the hide entrance) that keeps the over ambient temperature in that corner decent. The hide is made to retain moisture so the torts and boxies love it.

That sounds like any ideal setup for your mild geography. RCPaul's book talks about a mega-example of the above where he uses a truck trailer and gas heaters for a large number of tortoises. The idea works with in varying scales.

Good luck!

Paul Rattay