Heat Emergency

[daniellenc]

Skurts CHE which is less than a year old broke some time during the night. His cage is currently 73 degrees. I ordered a new one which will be here Monday but in the meantime how can I provide heat? I have a bunch of UTH’s but they won’t provide adequate ambient heat I don’t think. Will a regular light bulb heat his cage? If so can I use it with a thermostat? Probably a dumb idea but I’m freaking out.

 

[wellington]

Yes a regular bulb will heat it. A thermostat can be used however it will turn the bulb off and on. I would try a 40 and 60 watt and see which one will maintain fit.

 

[Tom]

You can use a regular incandescent bulb temporarily.

Why not go to the pet store and buy another CHE right now? When the new one arrives on Monday, you can keep it as a spare. Invariably, my bulbs, lights, thermostats, and heaters always fail the night before a holiday or some other time when getting a replacement is impossible. This being the case, I always keep spares of everything on hand.

 

[daniellenc]

Unfortunately leaving today is off the table. My husband broke his femur so I’m on nurse duty until Monday when his Mom comes to town. However when I went to change the CHE out for a bulb it turned back on by itself. So it looks like I’ll have two CHE’s and had just decided on RHP for his big boy cage ugh.

 

[Big Charlie]

I'm surprised the CHE failed. Mine lasted for years and years. It could be the fixture has a short. Are you using a ceramic fixture?

 

[wellington]

When you can, I would try to find out what happened or switch out the fixture. It could be a fire hazard, depending on what happened.
As stated, it's always good to have extra on hand and you do have too use a ceramic socket with the Che's.
I have only had one that failed. It has a piece of the shiny part missing. Have no idea if that's the reason or not. My original from 2011 still working.

 

[daniellenc]

It’s definitely a ceramic fixture and it’s seemingly working normal again. I’m just not sure what happened so as soon as the new one is here I’m swapping it out.

 

[enchilada]

73 F ain’t gonna bother tortoise . Just keep it in your bedroom . Most bedrooms won’t drop below 60F

 

[Elijah]

I use a space heater to warm up a whole room to 85 f, and provide a spot lamp.