Heating

JoesMum

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Welcome.

Give this a read and compare it with your setup. It details the heat necessary for a youngster.

Of you have any questions having read please do ask away. Photos of your enclosure and lighting will help us to help you :)
 

wellington

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You have lots of reading to do. Read all the closed chamber, humidity and sulcata threads. All the info you need is there. Hopefully you did some research before you got your tortoise and he has heat while you do all the improving.
 

Maro2Bear

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Greetings. I’m guessing you are keeping your youngster inside. What does your enclosure look like? At this age you still want to house your young Sulcata inside in a fully enclosed chamber, maintaining 80F 24/7. Tom’s Sulcata Care Guide (provided above) describes how to do.

For heat you will want a Ceramic Heating Element (CHE) connected via a thermostat. On 24/7 x 365.

Take a look here for CHEs & Thermoststs

➡➡ http://www.lllreptile.com/catalog/102-reptile-supplies
 

Tom

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My tort is a youngster. How can I keep her warm? Shoould i use a heat pad or a lamp? She's about 6 months old
Please read the care sheet linked by Joe's Mum. This is urgent. The enclosure should have been set up with the correct temps and equipment BEFORE the tortoise came home. Babies have a rather small margin of error.

Also, there are four elements to heating and lighting:
  1. 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).
  2. 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. 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.
  3. 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 bulb types are both fine.
  4. UV. If you can get your tortoise outside for an hour 2 or 3 times a week, you won't need indoor UV. If you want it anyway, get one of the newer HO type fluorescent tubes. Which type will depend on mounting height. 5.0 bulbs make almost no UV. You need a meter to check this: https://www.solarmeter.com/model65.html Here in our climate, you shouldn't need indoor UV.
 

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