pig blanket

[Yvonne G]

I've been asked where I buy my pig blankets and rather than PM I thought I'd make a thread so you all can hear my answer. I use the Stanfield Heat Pad. It comes in different sizes. I also use the F911 controller. They make a smaller/cheaper controller, but it doesn't work as well as the F911 does.

I buy directly from the factory:

Osborne Industries
1 800 255-0316

They sometimes have specials on their web site:

http://www.osborne-ind.com

They are very good people to deal with and I've always received my shipment within a week of when I placed the order.

I ♥ Tortoise Forum!!

[bettinge]

Thanks Yvonne!

What kind of restrictions would you advise a "newbie to pig blankets" to be aware of? Can I bury the blanket out side in the dirt? Can it get wet? Do they puncture easily? Are there fire hazards? Things I should never do with them?

I basically want to burry one several inches to provide a very low level heat for May and September. It has to be low enough in the soil that a nesting female will not hit it.

Any thoughts?

[chairman]

I have the same pig blankets as Yvonne. They are not designed to be buried, the manufacturer suggest that they might catch on fire if you do place substrate on top of them. If you want to bury a heat pad, go with a seed germinating pad or aquarium heat rope.

As for controllers, I use the cheaper controller but I have to thermostatically control the air at the controller's level. My setup works well, but prior to thermostatically controlling the air at the contoller level Yvonne is absolutely correct, the cheaper controller was terrible.

[Yvonne G]

If you follow the instructions that come with the pad, you won't allow anything to sit on the pad. I sweep my pads off every morning and every evening, and clean up any poop in the house at that time too.

I don't think a pig blanket is a good idea for use with baby tortoises. They don't seem to have enough "common sense" to get off the pad if they get too hot. Maybe its because they're so small and the pad is so big...it might seem like their whole world is too hot and they really don't know where to go.

I have pig blankets in every outside house. If the house is big enough, there's a pig blanket in every corner. If its a small house, only one pig blanket.

I used to have all my pads raised up on 2x4's, but started having a roach problem so I took out the 2x4's and the pads now sit directly on the floor. Its a lot harder to clean under them this way, but now the roaches have no place inside the houses to hide. In some of the houses I have a nice layer of cypress mulch down first, with the pad on top of the mulch. In some of the houses, the pads sit right on the floor. The reason for the mulch is for the Burmese and YF. That way I can keep it moist in their houses.

[lynnedit]

Would this be in an inside enclosure or shed?
How about waterproof heat cable? This can be zip tied, looped into lines, to a piece of wire (I used plastic garden wire cut to the shape I needed). Use it with a thermostat with the probe next to the cable. Water can be poured on it if you need moisture.

http://www.bigappleherp.com/Big-Apple-Fl...Heat-Ropes

[SulcataSquirt]

Yvonne, do you use the farrowing or the nursery blanket? and which watt blanket do you use for your sulcatas?

[Yvonne G]

I have different sizes. Mine are all called farrowing pads. I have quite a few of the 1 and a half foot x 2 foot and those are 95 watts. But I also have a couple 2x3 and I think those are 150 watts. I have some 1x3 and those are 80 watts.

Oh, sorry I just re-read your post. Dudley, my sulcata, sits on a 1 and a half foot x 2'. He hangs all off the edges, but he doesn't care. I doubt I'll ever give him a bigger one.

My 180lb Aldabran sits on a 3'x3'. Its way big and takes up a lot of room in the shed, but there's still room on the floor for them to get off the pad, so its ok.

[cemmons12]

Thanks for that great info Yvonne! I will have to get Cooper 1 of those in the not so distant future. Your the best! Have a great day!!!

[bluesman925]

Be careful with blankets as this story points out:

Tortoises' heating pad blamed for garage fire


The Associated Press

CASTRO VALLEY, Calif. —
Authorities are blaming a garage fire in Castro Valley on a heating pad used to keep a pair of tortoises warm.

The fire began around 3 a.m. Tuesday in a detached garage in a residential neighborhood and took about ten minutes to put out. Alameda County Fire Battalion Chief Dan O'Hara says it appears an electrical malfunction in the heating pad caused the blaze.

The two African tortoises, each about 3 feet in diameter, escaped unharmed.

A firefighter was treated for heat exhaustion at a hospital and released.

The fire caused an estimated $50,000 in damage.

[Laura]

anything electrical is a risk... it does cross my mind...
btw... Osborne is the cheapest ive found. You will find similar or the same sold for Dogs.. its cheaper to get things for livestock.. just fyi...

[bettinge]

Yvonne,

What temp do you set your thermostat at? 75-80?

[Yvonne G]

The controller doesn't really have temperatures, per se. You dial it up to a certain number (I usually start at about 9) then use your probe in an hour or so to see what temp the pad is showing. If its too hot (which 9 is), you dial it back. I usually end up around 5 or 6. But if its a really cold night, 5 may not be warm enough. You have to keep adjusting it with weather changes.

[Tom]

Just for variety in the idea department, I use the Kane heat mats. All of them now come with an embedded thermostat secretly built into the pad and a dial to adjust the temp. They are surprisingly accurate. They have an automatic cut off so they can never get too hot. The manufacturer would never tell you that you could put anything on top of it for liability reasons, but I bet if you were using non-flammable, damp soil or dirt it would work fine. I have not used them this way, so I'm just speculating from what I know of the product from years of use and many conversations with Craig Kane, the owner of Kane Mfg. I don't know how effective it would be though. I set plastic tubs of water on them in my lizard cages and they heat the water just fine. Keeps their drinking/soaking water warm and humidifies the cage. I've done this for many years with no problems. I did an experiment last year using a heat pad instead of a heat lamp and the hatchlings thermoregulated just fine on it. I used an 18x18" pad in a 3x5' enclosure. They "basked" on their heat pad about as much as their siblings in regular enclosures basked under their heat lamps. I had the pad on a timer and a florescent light bulb on the same timer right over the pad. I intend to try this again this year. Some technical issues interrupted my experiment.

[dmmj]

Someone mentioned this to me, have you ever tried hanging the mats from above? would they still radiate heat down on top of the tortoise?

[EricIvins]

I've used Kane heat mats ever since I started keeping Reptiles outside.......They are built to last and take hard usage very well.......Just another FYI.......

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(02-23-2012 06:42 PM)dmmj Wrote:  Someone mentioned this to me, have you ever tried hanging the mats from above? would they still radiate heat down on top of the tortoise?

It doesn't work like that, and all you'd be doing is wasting heat energy......

For that, you'd need a radient heat panel, which is designed to do what is described above.......