Outdoor heat needed?

[orgetorix]

Hello. I am trying to determine if/what kind of heating to provide in my outdoor night box. I have an 8-year-old desert tortoise that is spending time outdoors over nights for the first time. He seems totally fine being placed in his night box and ventures out on his own during the day (I'd love for him to go back at night). I'm wondering if he required night time heating. His night enclosure is a modified enclosed chicken coop with timothy hay as a bedding. I am in Southern California so it hardly ever gets *that* cold. If heating is recommended, is a mat the best way to go? Is it safe to use with hay as a substrate?

 

[The_Four_Toed_Edward]

Maybe @Tom can help you.

 

[Tom]

Hello. I am trying to determine if/what kind of heating to provide in my outdoor night box. I have an 8-year-old desert tortoise that is spending time outdoors over nights for the first time. He seems totally fine being placed in his night box and ventures out on his own during the day (I'd love for him to go back at night). I'm wondering if he required night time heating. His night enclosure is a modified enclosed chicken coop with timothy hay as a bedding. I am in Southern California so it hardly ever gets *that* cold. If heating is recommended, is a mat the best way to go? Is it safe to use with hay as a substrate?

Yes, night heat is needed, and daytime heat sometimes too. Best to make an insulated box. I explain and show pics of how to do this in this thread:

The Best Way To Raise Any Temperate Species Of Tortoise

I chose the title of this care sheet very carefully. Are there other ways to raise babies and care for adults? Yes. Yes there are, but those ways are not as good. What follows is the BEST way, according to 30 years of research and experimentation with hundreds of babies of many species. What is...

tortoiseforum.org

I like to set the ambient temp in the box to around 65, except when trying to induce brumation in the fall and winter. Then I use a basking lamp on a timer during cooler weather like today with the thick marine layer, and over the next few days. If it's in the 70s and sunny, then there is no need for the heat lamp as they can warm up in the sun. They need this heat to get warmed up and function in our more coastal climate. Look at your weather in Orange and compare it to Palm Springs. It's a lot warmer and a lot sunnier out there most of every year. The warmer ambient keeps your tortoise from getting too cold at night, and the basking lamp allows him to warm up and get his immune and digestive systems working when its cold and overcast outside with our May gray and June gloom coming up. You can just turn the heat lamp off when its warm and sunny. The basking lamp will also warm up the ambient temp during get day in a well insulated box.

I prefer to use a thin layer of dirt for bedding in any heated box with any heating method.

 

[orgetorix]

Thank you @Tom. One other question. Any strategy to get a tortoise to actually go in a night box at night? It's only been a week or so but my loveable dummy just seems to shut down doing whatever he was doing and I have to pick him up and place him in the box at night. Not a big deal, until he decided to get right in the middle of an opuntia patch last night.

 

[Tom]

Thank you @Tom. One other question. Any strategy to get a tortoise to actually go in a night box at night? It's only been a week or so but my loveable dummy just seems to shut down doing whatever he was doing and I have to pick him up and place him in the box at night. Not a big deal, until he decided to get right in the middle of an opuntia patch last night.

I've had some really stubborn ones over the years... Here are some tips that have helped me:
1. Just put the tortoise in there every night around dusk. Try to do it while it's still a little light, instead of letting them get into a pattern of full sleep in full darkness in the wrong spots every night. Most tortoises will get the idea after two or three weeks of this. Open the door every morning so the tortoise can come out when it wants.

2. Make a temporary "ring" around the door way each evening with cinder blocks or something. 6-10 feet out should do it. Make it so there is absolutely no cover and nowhere to hide inside the ring, and most of them will willingly walk in since there is nowhere else to go.

3. Try the ring technique on cold day and on really hot days. On cold days some times they will go in to get warm. On really hot days, they will learn to go in so they don't cook in full sun. Be very careful with either of these so your tortoise doesn't get too cold or too hot. They aren't the brightest animals and we don't want anything bad to happen.

4. There is a training technique called "approximation". Baby steps. On night one, tonight, put the tortoise 3/4 of the way in its box and let it walk in the rest of the way on its own. Use your hands or a cinder block to stop it from trying to back out. Tomorrow, put it only half way in the door. Next day 1/4. Next day put it right at the door. Next day 3 inches in front of the door... etc... Keep gradually backing up. Best to do this BEFORE the tortoise parks in a corner and goes to sleep at night. In time, the tortoise forms a pattern of walking into its door on its own.

5. If you have door flaps, lift them out of the way and use a rock or clamp to hold some of the flaps up and out of the way so the tortoise doesn't have to push through a "wall". Let the flaps down after the tortoise is in and shut the door. The next morning the tortoise will push through the flaps to get out.

6. The box should be your tortoise's sanctuary. Try not to disturb him in there as much as possible. Open the lid to make sure he's in but do it quietly and carefully to disturb him as little as possible. They don't like their sanctuary as much if big hairless ape predators are constantly messing with them while they are in there.

 

[orgetorix]

I've had some really stubborn ones over the years... Here are some tips that have helped me:
1. Just put the tortoise in there every night around dusk. Try to do it while it's still a little light, instead of letting them get into a pattern of full sleep in full darkness in the wrong spots every night. Most tortoises will get the idea after two or three weeks of this. Open the door every morning so the tortoise can come out when it wants.

2. Make a temporary "ring" around the door way each evening with cinder blocks or something. 6-10 feet out should do it. Make it so there is absolutely no cover and nowhere to hide inside the ring, and most of them will willingly walk in since there is nowhere else to go.

3. Try the ring technique on cold day and on really hot days. On cold days some times they will go in to get warm. On really hot days, they will learn to go in so they don't cook in full sun. Be very careful with either of these so your tortoise doesn't get too cold or too hot. They aren't the brightest animals and we don't want anything bad to happen.

4. There is a training technique called "approximation". Baby steps. On night one, tonight, put the tortoise 3/4 of the way in its box and let it walk in the rest of the way on its own. Use your hands or a cinder block to stop it from trying to back out. Tomorrow, put it only half way in the door. Next day 1/4. Next day put it right at the door. Next day 3 inches in front of the door... etc... Keep gradually backing up. Best to do this BEFORE the tortoise parks in a corner and goes to sleep at night. In time, the tortoise forms a pattern of walking into its door on its own.

5. If you have door flaps, lift them out of the way and use a rock or clamp to hold some of the flaps up and out of the way so the tortoise doesn't have to push through a "wall". Let the flaps down after the tortoise is in and shut the door. The next morning the tortoise will push through the flaps to get out.

6. The box should be your tortoise's sanctuary. Try not to disturb him in there as much as possible. Open the lid to make sure he's in but do it quietly and carefully to disturb him as little as possible. They don't like their sanctuary as much if big hairless ape predators are constantly messing with them while they are in there.

Awesome ideas. Thank you so much.