Heater Question

[marks]

Hi All,
My 2 tortoises will soon be active again, and I was wondering if someone could advise me on a heating question for post-hibernation.
I'm planning on buying a new tortoise house for them this year, something that's fully insulated and better suited to them than the converted rabbit hutch that they currently reside in. As an addition to the new home that I plan to procure, I also want to introduce some artificial heating for them, particularly for post-hibernation. I have been considering using a patio heater that I would fit to the tortoise hutch above the door. It's an infrared heater with adjustable heat settings, timer etc, and can also withstand all kinds of weather conditions.
My question is simply whether this poses any problems and whether it is worth doing. Any suggestions and advice is welcome. I live in South-east London, by the way, just to give you an idea of the weather conditions that my tortoises live in.

Thanks
Mark

 

[Tom]

An outdoor patio heater is likely to be way too much for your little enclosure and the thermostat on it is likely to allow will temperature swings too. Best to get reptile related products like Kane heat mats and/or radiant heat panels.

Here is just one example of both:
http://www.tortoiseforum.org/threads/another-night-box-thread.88966/

 

[marks]

Thanks. It's not for the inside of an enclosure, though; it's to fit to the outside of the enclosure above the door. So effectively my tortoises would use it in exactly the same way as what we would. I wanted to install it so that they have some heat for when they come outside, and if they didn't want to bask in it they could just wander off. Maybe it would still be too hot, though, I'm not sure.

 

[Tom]

Thanks. It's not for the inside of an enclosure, though; it's to fit to the outside of the enclosure above the door. So effectively my tortoises would use it in exactly the same way as what we would. I wanted to install it so that they have some heat for when they come outside, and if they didn't want to bask in it they could just wander off. Maybe it would still be too hot, though, I'm not sure.

I've never used something like that for something like that. I suppose you'd have to set it up and run it for a while to see while taking lots of temperature measurements and making lots of tortoise behavior observations. Maybe you'll discover something great here.

 

[marks]

I've never used something like that for something like that. I suppose you'd have to set it up and run it for a while to see while taking lots of temperature measurements and making lots of tortoise behavior observations. Maybe you'll discover something great here.

I've never seen it before either, but I don't see why it wouldn't be beneficial for them. My main concern would be the level of heat generated, but as you said, I could monitor that closely. I don't think there would be too much risk to the tortoises because they wouldn't be trapped in the heat generated, they could easily wander off as they and the heater would be outdoors in my garden.
Thanks for your advice, Tom. I will wait to hear some more opinions before proceeding.

 

[Gillian M]

Hello @marks and a very warm welcome to the forum!

 

[marks]

Hello @marks and a very warm welcome to the forum!

Thank you, Gillian.

 

[Gillian M]

Thank you, Gillian.

Most welcome!