Hey so I bought my tortoise an indoor wooden enclosure and placed the heating mat on the bottom because at night it gets a little cold and recently I found out that it melt the plastic on the bottom so I took the mat out any ideas of how I can keep my little guy warm at night?
Heat mats shouldn't be used for tortoises in indoor enclosures. They aren't safe, as you've now seen.
What species of tortoise and what size in grams? What size and type of enclosure? We will get you on the right track.
Here is the correct care info for that species. Keep in mind that most of the care info you get from pet shops, breeders, vet and the internet is old and wrong. Heating for day and night, along with a lot of other crucial details are in this thread:
The Best Way To Raise Any Temperate Species Of Tortoise
I chose the title of this care sheet very carefully. Are there other ways to raise babies and care for adults? Yes. Yes there are, but those ways are not as good. What follows is the BEST way, according to 30 years of research and experimentation with hundreds of babies of many species. What is...
tortoiseforum.org
This might help too:
There are four elements to heating and lighting:
- Basking bulb. I use 65 watt incandescent floods from the hardware store. Some people will need bigger, or smaller wattage bulbs. Let your thermometer be your guide. I run them on a timer for about 12 hours and adjust the height to get the correct basking temp under them. I also like to use a flat rock of some sort directly under the bulb. You need to check the temp with a thermometer directly under the bulb and get it to around 95-100F (36-37C).
- Ambient heat maintenance. I use ceramic heating elements or radiant heat panels set on thermostats to maintain ambient above 80 degrees day and night for tropical species. In most cases you'd only need day heat for a temperate species like Testudo or DT, as long as your house stays above 60F (15-16C) at night.
- Ambient light. I use LEDs for this purpose. Something in the 5000-6500K color range will look the best. Most bulbs at the store are in the 2500K range and they look yellowish. Strip or screw-in LED bulb types are both fine.
- UV. If you can get your tortoise outside for an hour 2 or 3 times a week, you won't need indoor UV. In colder climates, get one of the newer HO type fluorescent tubes. Which type will depend on mounting height. 5.0 bulbs make almost no UV. I like the 12% HO bulbs from Arcadia. You need a meter to check this: https://www.solarmeter.com/model65.html A good UV bulb only needs to run for 2-3 hours mid day. You need the basking bulb and the ambient lighting to be on at least 12 hours a day.
Questions are welcome.
Hi and welcome!
You can buy a CHE (ceramic heat emitter) and a thermostat to plug it into. The CHE puts out heat with no light, so you can leave it on day and night. The thermostat will allow it to go on and off as needed.
CHE:"
Type of fixture to mount the CHE in:
(Note the white colored base where the CHE screw in. That's ceramic, NOT plastic (Bakelite))
This is just one example of a thermostat to plug your CHE into:
And there's this handy Zoo Med stand to mount your lights and CHEs on:
You can buy a CHE (ceramic heat emitter) and a thermostat to plug it into. The CHE puts out heat with no light, so you can leave it on day and night. The thermostat will allow it to go on and off as needed.
CHE:"
Type of fixture to mount the CHE in:
(Note the white colored base where the CHE screw in. That's ceramic, NOT plastic (Bakelite))
This is just one example of a thermostat to plug your CHE into:
And there's this handy Zoo Med stand to mount your lights and CHEs on:
