Recommended wattage of a basking lamp for leopard tortoise in a 3' high terrarium.

[Wrts1289]

Hello again! I am inquiring as to an approximate wattage for a basking lamp to use in my 3' high terrarium. This is for a leopard tortoise and I do have a thermostat I can use for it to control temperature. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[ZEROPILOT]

I reccomend buying a non contact thermometer like this.
That way no more guessing.
How far it hangs from the top and how close it'll be to the tortoise will matter a lot.

 

[Tom]

Hello again! I am inquiring as to an approximate wattage for a basking lamp to use in my 3' high terrarium. This is for a leopard tortoise and I do have a thermostat I can use for it to control temperature. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Probably a 65 or 100w. You will need to adjust the height of the fixture to get the correct basking temperature under any wattage bulb.

Thermostats are for controlling ambient temps, not the basking bulb. The basking bulb should be on a timer.

Give this a read through. There is a heating and lighting breakdown along with a leopard tortoise care sheet at the bottom:

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[Levi the Leopard]

Like Tom suggested, I also used 65watt incandescent bulbs and would raise/lower the fixture to get the temperature I needed. I also keep digital hydrometer/thermometer combos at floor level in the corners of every enclosure and use a laser temp gun (like zero pilot shared) to spot check everywhere else.