HEAT HELP!!

[jerm42991]

So last night my CHE exploded essentially. It completely fried out the holder and the bulb is in multiple pieces. I have a new one ordered that will hopefully get here ASAP but in the meantime I need away to get heat. Now it stays around 72 in my house, so it is extremely cold where it will hurt him necessarily but when ever the heat isn't on(which it hasn't gone on before) he just gets lethargic and won't eat. So I was looking at ways to try and heat him up or possibly get heat into his home.

There is always a good soak but are if there are any more long term options that would be helpful.

 

[EKLC]

This is just for nighttime hours? Why don't you run out to a local pet store and get a nighttime heat lamp, they're cheap and will hold you over til the CHE gets here. Never hurts to have an extra bulb like that lying around anyways in a case like this.

 

[JoesMum]

Firstly, let me reassure you that a few days of not eating and lethargy are unlikely to do any harm. "Bad weather days" happen in the wild and your tort will be fine once you've got the heat back on.

You could try using a normal household bulb in a desk lamp to bump up the temperature a little and you have already suggested soaking. If you have an electric heater that you could use (or borrow from a friend), you could use that to bump up the room temperature too.

Soaking is a good idea for two reasons.
1. It will warm your tort up.
2. It keeps your tort hydrated. Your tort isn't eating properly, so fluid intake becomes even more important.

 

[jerm42991]

The problem with getting an extra bulb is that my lamp is also completely fried, so I had to order a new one of those as well(when I say this thing blew up I wasn't exaggerating). I'll give him a soak and see how he responds

 

[JoesMum]

Give it a try, but don't worry if it doesn't work. All will be well as soon as you get heat sorted and a few days without will not cause lasting harm

 

[Yvonne G]

Hi Jeremy:

If you would shop locally instead of online, you will be able to get your dome fixture a lot cheaper. Go to Lowe's or Home Depot. But be sure to get the large bell dome with a ceramic base. I'm not sure if the home improvement stores sell the basket-type fixtures (that's the type recommended for the CHE), but I know that pet stores sell them.

As a side note: I've been into turtles and tortoises for over 30 years and I've never heard of a CHE exploding. Do you have any idea why this happened?

 

[jerm42991]

only thing I think of is that it got hit with water at some point in time which started a small crack that just slowly expanded with the cooling and heating of the bulb. But it is in about 3 pieces and the base(where the metal part to screw the ball in would normally be but that part broke off) has burn marks on it.

 

[Tom]

Any hardware store sells the ceramic based fixtures. They also sell colored bulbs that you can use at night.