Che and basking light not enough?

[Sh3wulf]

Woke this morning to find that Benny's hot end of his habitat is only hitting 95.4 in his basking area. He had a nice warm soak to bring up his temp and he seems fine.
My question is, why all of a sudden does my light, zoomed 100W intense basking, no longer appear to be giving off heat? Only replaced it two months ago.
Any thoughts on how I might improve or change his setup? (Again) lol
As you can see, I take advantage of some natural sunlight in the morning, but it doesn't provide any heat.
I need to get this figured out quickly cause I'm out of town for a few days in a week and have to leave Benny in someone's care that will only give him his food, but won't touch him


Two kids, One husband, One Hines57, One Leopard Tortoise, and a room at the sanitarium lol

 

[Millerlite]

95 seems warm enough to me. That's plenty of heat for a tortoise to warm up on. Idk why your bulb would put off less heat, is it cooler in your house?

 

[wellington]

My thought too. Cooler in your house. Do you have air conditioning on? Also, you do know that uv will not go through glass or plastic. Also, be careful that the sunlight does not end up over heating the enclosure. Is your temp gauge accurate? If its one of those puck like kind from the pet stores, they usually are not very good. Get a temp gun, around 20-25 bucks, Home Depot.

 

[mainey34]

My concern is the sunlight that you have coming in your enclosure. Your temp. Is fine. If you just replaces the light my guess would be to replace the guage next.

 

[WillTort2]

With that enclosure I'm amazed that 95 is your high temperature. It appears that the top is mainly covered. Like advised above, get a temp gun and check all of your temps.

I think your tort would enjoy a deeper substrate. They can self regulate their temperature better if they can dig into their substrate looking for the cooler more moist area.

I would also advise a larger water dish, perhaps a 8" terra cotta planter base about 1 inch tall. They are easy for the tort to self soak or drink. It's also great for them to cool off if it's too warm.

 

[Tom]

With that enclosure I'm amazed that 95 is your high temperature.

This is what I was thinking.

I think your thermometer might be suspect. Try popping the batteries out for a minute and seeing if it resets itself.

Is your CHE on a thermostat?

 

[Sh3wulf]

The AC is on in the house, but I keep the vents in that area closed so it stays relatively warmer than anywhere else, especially with the sunlight coming in through the patio doors.
I have three thermometers going. Two electronic and the stupid little puck/disk things that he came with. The electronics are new, I purchased when I joined the forum, bought during the initial "ah, we are doing everything wrong" panic.
Tom I will try pulling the battery out to reset it, and I will look into a temp gun. If someone could post a pic of what I'm looking for and which department I might find it in that would be great. Trips to big stores like Home Depot make me anxious and I hate trying to find things in there.
Benny has a large zoomed desert dish for his soak pool it measures 8" across at its widest, but he still gets a morning soak from me everyday too. This includes a shower where he gets rubbed a lot to ensure he's used to being handled. He's learning that we won't hurt him when we touch his head and chin.
His enclosure is enclosed for the most part. I use tin foil over the holes for the lights, helps to keep the humidity up and heat in. Another "ah moment!"
My CHE isn't on a thermostat, but rather plugged into the timer with the heat bulb. They just switch in the evening. How does the thermostat work differently? And could I use this to set the CHE to a low temp during the day to help keep temp in the enclosure up?
Thanks for all the help everyone. Really am trying to do my best with this little guy.





Two kids, One husband, One Hines57, One Leopard Tortoise, and a room at the sanitarium lol

 

[andreita01]

wow nice oneee!

 

[J REED]

My envlosure is in my room and goes betweem 95-105...point straight down,raise/lower light to adjust heat.95 is ok but prefer 102-105

Jeremy

 

[wellington]

The thermostat would turn your CHE on or off depending in the temp you set it too.. Would always keep it with in a couple degrees of set temp you wanted.

 

[Beck]

The one I found at my Home Depot was this one:

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Ryobi-Non-Contact-Infrared-Thermometer-IR001/100674438

I found it in the power tool section, near the laser levels. If they have it in store, you can buy it online and pick it up at Customer Service. That way you don't have to worry about looking lost in Home Depot.

 

[J REED]

My thermo/CHE keeps my enclosure at 82° at night....thermo is a great investment

Jeremy

 

[Sh3wulf]

Thanks all. I'm going to go for the thermostat and get that going. To start and my friend has a gun so when she comes down in a couple weeks will bring it to me.
I placed some slate in Benny's enclosure, right under his basking light and he loves it. Lays on it all the time to warm up. I noticed the temp has risen to 100 with that in there so heat must be absorbed by the stone and reflecting back into the enclosure.
I just got a shipment of organic soil delivered and am planning to redo his enclosure with a burrowing area and some dandelions for munching on. Going to try and maintain and indoor garden for the winter.



Two kids, One husband, One Hines57, One Leopard Tortoise, and a room at the sanitarium lol

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Apologies for all the posts with bad grammar and spelling errors, sometimes a phone keyboard and autocorrect just suck!


Two kids, One husband, One Hines57, One Leopard Tortoise, and a room at the sanitarium lol