What temp can burn your tortoise from a heat lamp?

[Jules321]

Does anyone know the temperature that tortoises can burn from a heat lamp?

I am very aware that heat lamp doesn't cover his entire body so he will stay under it even if he is getting too hot at the closest contact point if parts of his body are still colder. But I don't know where that limit is. I recently changed out a bulb from 100W to 75 W for inside his hide because when directly under it I measured his shell at 119F. With the 75W he will only get to 100F but now the hide is getting down to 68F at night where as the hide was maintaining 75F at night before.

I have plenty of options but the easiest is just putting the 100W bulb back in. 119 seems too hot to me and I can't find any information on what temperature they could burn at.
Picture for tax

 

[Lyn W]

What sort of heat lamp do you mean - a ceramic heat emitter (CHE), basking bulb or other?
Pics of them and your set up will help.

 

[Tom]

Does anyone know the temperature that tortoises can burn from a heat lamp?

I am very aware that heat lamp doesn't cover his entire body so he will stay under it even if he is getting too hot at the closest contact point if parts of his body are still colder. But I don't know where that limit is. I recently changed out a bulb from 100W to 75 W for inside his hide because when directly under it I measured his shell at 119F. With the 75W he will only get to 100F but now the hide is getting down to 68F at night where as the hide was maintaining 75F at night before.

I have plenty of options but the easiest is just putting the 100W bulb back in. 119 seems too hot to me and I can't find any information on what temperature they could burn at.
Picture for tax

Anything over 100 will slow burn and damage the carapace. Heat lamps and CHEs are not suitable for larger tortoises. You need to switch to radiant heat panels, Kane mats, or oil filled radiant heaters.

 

[Markw84]

@Jules321 Agree with Tom. Heating a night box with basking style lamps is not a good way to go. And 75° is really too cold for the ambient temp in a night box. You want the night box to maintain 80°+ in the coldest corners. An oil filled radiator, or kane mat / Radiant heat panel combo in a smaller box is the way to go.

104° is considered the lethal threshold for most tortoises for core body temperature. The surface of the carapace can be slightly higher than that while basking, but that is an overall heat in the sun that will quickly raise core body temps and stimulate moving out of the sun. A shell temperature of 112°+ for any extended period of time is most likely going to cause cell damage.

I certainly would not go with the higher wattage. IF you need a quick fix for now, put 2 or 3 75 watt bulbs spaced 12" apart and a bit higher to give a wide zone of heat. Also, keep in mind your tortoise needs it dark at night. So not sure what type of "heat lamp" you are using. For nighttime, you need it dark and 80°+

 

[Jules321]

Thanks all for the input everyone!

They are che bulbs. I do have a side mounted heat mat in the corner where he sleeps. The bulb is at the entrance of the hide so throughout the night he is about 2-3 ft depending on the orientation he chooses to sleep in. His actual "sleep box" is pretty small in order to feel more like a burrow. I'll look into panel style radiators they might be a better solution. The sleep box is in a solarium we added to the back of the house when moving from Arizona to Michigan and this is our first winter with him up here so definitely still getting things right, last night was our first below zero outside temp. The room has it's own minisplit off a heat pump. I usually turn the room down to 70 for the night and close up the hide and it stays warmer inside his hide, so it was only below 75 from 5am to 9am since I have his hide temp monitor set to text me when its below 70. I can change all that to 80 by the control to the room. It's just a higher bill until I safely keep the hide warm enough.
I've had him 23 years and he's definitely had some cold nights in PHX but he was in a burrow for those...
Thanks again guys!