Day 6 - Cermic heat lamp?

[JTedd]

Hi ethelandedna,

We have a Horsfield in a fairly large enclosure and our room does tend to get a bit cold. After keeping a radiator on during the day and a little at night (VERY expensive) we bought 2 ceramic heat emitters (2 x 150W, one for the middle, one for the cool end with one of them closer to the basking lamp).

This seems to have worked as he is now behaving like a normal Horsfield; stomping round, burrowing and eating bits and pieces here and there. At this precise moment, he has burrowed underneath his water dish!

It is always one of the most common problems with torts; getting the heating just right. Once you have that however, your laughing Hope to see an improvement in your tort soon!

[Anita Sayles]

I use a small Heat-mat 4w (5in x 4in) in my tortoises house, it's on a day/night
habistat thermostat set for 25 deg during the day and 19 deg at night.
My tortoise has plenty of room around the table - so he can choose whether he wants to use the warmer spots.
The heat mat is stuck to the roof of his house - I would have liked to have put it under some slate directly on the floor but I couldn't control the temp properly either the digital temperature probe or the thermostat probe would keep moving, then I was worried about the wires on the floor etc. Before I stuck the heat-mat down with tape, I covered the wooden area with a square of silver foil hopefully this helps with reflecting the heat downwards.
It's funny mine is a 2 tiered table from Secret Garden Woodcraft so there's an upper level and where does Marley sleep - right above where I have the heat-mat. I took notice where he was sleeping and have now made him a little slate cave. I also have a sheet of perspex I cover the top area of the table with to keep the heat in. I'm not going to switch off the heat-mat during the summer months - if it's warm enough it simply won't switch on.
I found getting the heat right at the beginning quite difficult, but now I truly believe it suites my little Marley (8 1/2 months old)


This is the perspex sheet covering the top area


This is the bottom level hide area, sorry about the quality of the pic. It shows the heat-mat stuck to the roof with the probes on the back wall (the upper lot of probes are a reflection on the shiny heat-mat).


This shows where Marley sleeps - the warm spot right on top of the heat mat.


This shows the whole table,

Anyway, I thought I post in a bit of detail as I found the heat thing quite difficult at the beginning

[ethelandedna]

Thanks everybody for all your advice. You've been brilliant. When I'm finally settled you can all come and stay. Have decided to put the house on the market and move to southern Spain - it's more straightforward. lol:

Seriously, thanks so much for the pics, videos and research. Wlll hit 'the bay of E' tomorrow and wield my Paypal account in the direction of some electronic wizardry.

Going to consult with the OH and see how much DIY he is up to.


Have to say the little fella (tortoise NOT husband) was quite a lot better later on yesterday. After my last posting he woke up, ate, pooped, ate a bit more then went back to bed. Don't think he's had much today but he's had a bath and his digestive system is still working.