Heat mat or CHE

[Ben02]

Should I use a heat mat or a CHE at night time

 

[ascott]

Should I use a heat mat or a CHE at night time

I believe you can try each for a moment and then decide what works best for your set up.

 

[Yvonne G]

I use both, but then, my tortoises have a large shed to live in over the winter and a pig blanket just doesn't do it to heat the whole shed. I set the pig blanket so it generally stays around 80F degrees, then I hang a 250 watt brooder lamp from the ceiling, and it hangs about 3' above the tortoise's back.

 

[Tom]

Heat mats are for larger tortoises living in outdoor night boxes. Indoors, for smaller tortoises, CHEs or radiant heat panels work best. Either needs to be set on a thermostat.

For Testudo species, you should not need night heat at all, unless your house is as cold as a refrigerator, which is apparently the case sometimes over there in the UK. Over here, most people heat their homes in winter. As long as your home stays above 16 C you don't need night heat. Personally, rather than run night heat over your tortoise, I'd rather heat that whole room above 16C. Unless you are using a viv, or some other type of closed chamber. Then it would be easier to run a CHE or RHP on a thermostat inside of it.

 

[Ben02]

Heat mats are for larger tortoises living in outdoor night boxes. Indoors, for smaller tortoises, CHEs or radiant heat panels work best. Either needs to be set on a thermostat.

For Testudo species, you should not need night heat at all, unless your house is as cold as a refrigerator, which is apparently the case sometimes over there in the UK. Over here, most people heat their homes in winter. As long as your home stays above 16 C you don't need night heat. Personally, rather than run night heat over your tortoise, I'd rather heat that whole room above 16C. Unless you are using a viv, or some other type of closed chamber. Then it would be easier to run a CHE or RHP on a thermostat inside of it.

My house doesn’t get to cold but would it be useful for sick tortoises as it keeps up there body temp