Under tank heat for young sulcatas

LetsTacoBoutTorts

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Most things I've read say not to use under the tank heat pads for young sulcatas. But, then, I read on the forum that their actual burrows in Africa are warm and damp (especially during the time of year the babies hatch). And, to add to this, when they are larger, people house them with large animal/pig heating mats.
So. . . Why wouldn't it be recommended to use an under the tank heat source (localized, of course) to keep up night time heat in their burrow/ hide?
Insight, experience, advice, ideas & suggestions, please.
 

Tom

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The ones we use for adults are being used outdoors in large boxes and the tortoises can move off of them. They also have built in safeties to prevent overheating. It is very difficult to heat a larger sized tortoise from over head with heat lamps. You never get their core warm enough, and the top of the carapace gets too warm and burns. This is not an issue with smaller tortoises and overhead bulbs work fine to warm them and their relatively small indoor enclosures in a relatively warm room. These Kane mats are an effective and safe way to heat larger, outdoor housed, tortoises all the way through. The cold ground in many people's outdoor tortoise houses can act like a heat sink and suck the heat right out of a tortoise that is trying to warm itself. These mats prevent and counteract that effect.

The reptile mats sold in the pet trade that would be used in the manner you are asking about do not have built in safeties. They can and do overheat sometimes. They are cheaply made, and their performance bears this out. Also, when a tortoise feels too warm, their instinct is to dig down into the cooler earth and try to get away from the sun and the heat at the surface. With a heat pad at the bottom, this behavior moves them closer to the heat source and makes them even hotter, which makes them dig down and get even closer to the heat mat. Many are burned this way and many die this way. Their little reptile brains do not understand that there is hot mat down there and that they should get off of the mat. They don't have the powers of reason and logic that we do. In the environment that they evolved to survive in, heat comes from the sun above, and the ground below is always a cooler sanctuary.

It took a lot of people and a lot of dead tortoises to learn these lessons. The hope is that now that the lesson has been learned, new keepers don't have to learn it again and again at the expense of their tortoise.
 

LetsTacoBoutTorts

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Thank you so much for your reply. This makes perfect sense. My theory was to only put the pad under a small portion of their hide box, but it did not occur to me that they couldn't determine digging deeper would make them warmer & not cooler. Duly noted. I will not repeat an experience already determined to be a failure. We shall continue to use the ceramic heater at night & basking bulb during the day.
However, if you have any other suggestions on keeping the burrow warmer, I'd love to hear. I have a wifi therm/hemo and the ambient & basking temps are proper, just not the temp from the probe thermometer I have in their burrow. So, the burrow is still too cool.
 

Tom

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Thank you so much for your reply. This makes perfect sense. My theory was to only put the pad under a small portion of their hide box, but it did not occur to me that they couldn't determine digging deeper would make them warmer & not cooler. Duly noted. I will not repeat an experience already determined to be a failure. We shall continue to use the ceramic heater at night & basking bulb during the day.
However, if you have any other suggestions on keeping the burrow warmer, I'd love to hear. I have a wifi therm/hemo and the ambient & basking temps are proper, just not the temp from the probe thermometer I have in their burrow. So, the burrow is still too cool.
When done correctly, the entire enclosure should be warm day and night. There shouldn't be a way for the burrow area to be too cool.

Your CHE should be set on a thermostat so it can run 24/7, any time the temperature drops below the set point. This will maintain the correct ambient temp at all times. Then your basking bulb can be on a timer to give them a warmer basking area for 12 hours a day. Some enclosures need two CHEs to spread the heat out more evenly. Even better is to use a radiant heat panel on the ceiling of a closed chamber.

Have you seen all of these already:
 

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