Water heater drip pan plastic affected by sun?

[Wpagey]

Hi Everyone! Hope everyone is enjoying their yard dinosaurs as much as we are. Yesterday I saw our 12 year old sulcata drinking from the dog’s water dish even tho I give him fresh water every day in his own dish—a large, black plastic water heater drip pan. His dish is placed in a shady spot that may get occasional sun, but this time of year it gets more sun exposure. Does anyone know whether the plastic from this type of dish may give off some kind of unpleasant (or harmful) odor or flavor when exposed to the sun? This thing works great otherwise, large, shallow, lightweight, easy to clean, and does not seem to be getting brittle at all after a year of use. I haven’t found anything else that works this well yet.

 

[wellington]

Seeing it's not used to actually hold water a human would be drinking, I'm not sure I would use it. That's just my guess. See what others say.

 

[Maro2Bear]

Im sure it’s perfectly fine. I‘ll bet you are constantly changing out & filling up the water dish every day or two. The water isn’t sitting in that container long enough for “bad things” to slough off & into the water.

 

[ZEROPILOT]

Im sure it’s perfectly fine. I‘ll bet you are constantly changing out & filling up the water dish every day or two. The water isn’t sitting in that container long enough for “bad things” to slough off & into the water.

I agree.
I've used both metal and plastic AC drain pans before for various RF that I've had.
(Although this was years ago) with the drain hole epoxies over.
My issue was that they are very smooth and my RF had issues climbing in and out. A taller, larger tortoise should be fine.
Outdoors the sun will heat that shallow pan. So keep it in the shade.
I ended up using some giant rough texture plant saucers. And finally just made two permanent pools.

 

[SarahJoy]

I have a Sulcata; he hates anything black. Thinks it's a hole. Mine is very depth perceptual. I have to add rocks or some type of texture where he knows there is a base..try it.

 

[Wpagey]

I first tried some smaller rocks that didn't seem to change anything, but after swapping for several rocks large enough to be visible above the water surface, he is using his own water dish again. Of course he still knocks over the dogs water all the time...