Recently, the temperatures have been drooping a little, and I've consistently registered 60ºF room temperature over the past week.

So this has got me wondering: how cold can it get inside the enclosure? My tort is about 4 months old, and I don't want him to hibernate.

I talked about this with a local PetShop owner (a reptile shop) and he sold me this wired cable that they're using on all the enclosures (they have Russians, Leopards, Stars, 1 Box turtle, Bell's Hingeback Tortoises, Home's Hingeback Tortoise...). I bought it with the guarantee of returning it next week if I'm not "comfortable" with it. Here's a link to a site that sells these: http://www.mercadosite.com/item.php?id=45841&lan=EN

You're supposed to bury it under the substrate so it distributes heat across the enclosure. Hermanni are natural diggers, so this is something I'm really reluctant to use... also it would most certainly dry out my substrate...

Do you guys do anything about night temps at all? And should I just return this cable? Thanks.

A red/black heat bulb or ceramic heat emitter at night would be sufficient. I dont know that I would trust a cable in the substrate.

have you ever used a ceramic heater? could I use it instead of the light bulb I currently use as heat source during the day, combining it withe the UVB (as this also provides light)?

And at night, how cold should I let it get?

(Sorry for consecutive questions....)

Ceramic heat emitters work great, and yes you can use it for heat 24/7.

Since its a baby I dont think I would let it drop below 68-70.

I don't think I would feel comfortable with anything I would be burying in the ground. I use both heat emitters and night lights. My more open enclosures require both, but for my baby leopards, whom are in a smaller enclosure, the night light keeps it at a good temp.

[quote=TestudoGeek]
Recently, the temperatures have been drooping a little, and I've consistently registered 60ºF room temperature over the past week.

So this has got me wondering: how cold can it get inside the enclosure? My tort is about 4 months old, and I don't want him to hibernate.

I don't think temps around 60F would trigger hibernation behaviours. I'm more used to dealing in Centigrade; I believe temps down to 10C are OK overnight. I have used a ceramic heat emmiter with a thermostat to come on if temps dipped, but this is in an outside hut. Unless your house is really very cold I don't think you need any heating overnight.

Thanks Ozric.

Night temp last night, indoors, at tort's ground level was 12ºC (around 55º), which is pretty cold. The ceramic heat emmiter is good "insurance", but I find it dries up the substrate really fast.

Hi !

yes I think you must be tougher than me as I would probably leave my heating on if the overnight temp was going down to 12C. What I really meant was that they do need a drop in temp at night, and maybe 20C is a bit warm.

well, I think my previous post was a bit misleading... although I find the heat emitter dries the substrate fast, I do use it to keep night temps above 60º-65ºF (16ºC to 18ºC).

The reading I took at 12ºC was on the cool side, at night.