soaking temp?

[Jenley]

I can not keep the water warm when he is soaking in it...It cools down way too fast (in my opinion). Hmmm

 

[tiff3grl]

Looks like you live in AZ. Same here. Have you ever tried giving an outside bath The water won't cool down too fast in our weather haha. And that would give your tort some time outside.

 

[Jenley]

Looks like you live in AZ. Same here. Have you ever tried giving an outside bath The water won't cool down too fast in our weather haha. And that would give your tort some time outside.

Duh, I didn't think of that. Good idea, thanks! I will start giving him his soak outside...

Should I put his "tub" in the sun? To me it seems like the sun hitting the water would hurt his eyes...but then again, I'm new to this whole tortoise thing...

 

[tiff3grl]

I would choose a nice shady area. Looks like you have a hatchling and you definitely do not want to let him/her overheat. Our weather is warm enough right now that a shady area should be perfect.

 

[Jenley]

I would choose a nice shady area. Looks like you have a hatchling and you definitely do not want to let him/her overheat. Our weather is warm enough right now that a shady area should be perfect.

thank you!

 

[Yvonne G]

One thing to think about...water sitting in a bowl on the counter in the house can't get any colder than the room temperature. So if your house is, say, 75F degrees, then that's as cool as your water will get. 75F is not too cold for soaking. Another thing...your body temperature is 98.6F degrees, so anything less than that is going to feel cold to your touch.

If I'm soaking babies, I usually position a light over one end of the tub so there's a place for them to warm up if it gets too cold for them.

 

[Jenley]

One thing to think about...water sitting in a bowl on the counter in the house can't get any colder than the room temperature. So if your house is, say, 75F degrees, then that's as cool as your water will get. 75F is not too cold for soaking. Another thing...your body temperature is 98.6F degrees, so anything less than that is going to feel cold to your touch.

If I'm soaking babies, I usually position a light over one end of the tub so there's a place for them to warm up if it gets too cold for them.

That's true. I just feel bad for him if I feel like the water is cold, you know? But it makes sense that it can't cool down below my house temp (which isn't lower than 80).

 

[Tom]

Sometimes I will let mine soak outside with the tub partly in the sun and mostly in the shade. I watch this VERY carefully so I don't end up with too much sun as it moves through the sky, or the water get to warm, but its a good way to get them sunned and soaked all at the same time.

 

[WillTort2]

If you're soaking them inside take a 1" thick piece of foam and place it under the soaking pan. It will slow the heat loss. Another idea is to heat a flat piece of slate under the basking light then use the slate to keep the temps up in your soaking pan.

Be careful using the sun or a light to heat the water; it would be very easy to over heat your tort.