Help with light and heat
 

I have a tort around 50-60 years old who has never had an indoor enclosure and never had any form of light or heat.
I would like to offer the old tort the space its always had from roaming the garden, but I would like to offer it the chance to retreat to a safe place which is warm and dry. I am knockin a small entrance into the brick work of our brand new garage and then inside building him a enclosure which I would like to have heat and light for him.
I have only had him since Thursday, I am a complete newbie but I have lost my heart to a beautiful creature who I want to have with me for many many years. So PLEASE help. What lights / heat do I need? How much would this set up cost and how much to run. I want to look after this elderly shelled friend The best I can but I am so confused with lights and heat its not making any sense :(

One way to do this would be to treat your garage like any inside enclosure and what I would do is to use a halogen lamp on a dimming thermostat during the day. For night time heat you could use a ceramic heat emitter on a pulse proportional thermostat if you think it's necessary in the garage.

If the tortoise is going to be spending a lot of time in the garden then probably you don't need to worry about uv lighting. But if you do decide to provide it I suggest using the 24watt Arcadia Flood Uv lamp alongside your halogen lamp for uv.

I couldn't give you an actual amount but none of this costs a lot to run. The bit that could end up costing most is the ceramic heat emitter at night depending how many months of the year you plan to use it. Will the tortoise hibernate?

It shouldn't be Jonathan as it's an Algerian spur-thigh.

Danny

Ooops sorry ignore that bit. It would cost quite a lot to heat a garage to the required temperature all winter. One way to go about it would be to build an enclosure with insulation within the garage and heat and light the smaller space.

Don't know much about the breed, however when I bought the equipment for my Horsefield's Tortoise, the Uv strip cost around £20-23 and then the 100w heat bulb cost £6.99 and the dome lamp cost £15 I believe. I bought all the equipment from a shop called the Range. I wouldn't trust using a thermostat, have heard they are the cause of fires. Not sure though. I have my lights on timer so don't have to worry about forgetting to turn them off or anything. I don't believe it costs much to run at all. Oh yeah, the brand of the dome lamp, and bulb is Komodo. I bought the Uv strip separately (I believe Pets At Home sells them for around £20)

I wish you the best of luck and don't be too worried about her care. If anything you've done the tort a favour. She's probably better in your care, she probably has more attention now than when she was with the elderly couple :) It's great you're so concerned for her wellbeing. Hope this helped!

LonesomeGeorge