sleeping under the heat lamp?

[Hayley1321]

My tortoise has dug a hole on the heat mat and gone to sleep with the heat lamp directly above him, is this safe?

 

[LeopardTortLover]

Hmmm.... im going to guess at no if it's directly touching him/her. It could cause a burn before the tort has chance to move. I've heard not to use heat mats.

 

[Hayley1321]

thanks, he moved shortly after anyway. Im new to this tortoise business so i am asking a lot of questions on here as the info from the pet shop seems to be wrong, maybe i will do a research on heat mats.

 

[Tom]

You need a temp gun, so you can check surface and carapace temps. That is the only way to know.