When is it time to turn on a heat lamp outside for Mr. Turtle?

[Mamadee]

Hello folks. Remember me, the noob who adopted a 15 year old Sulcata tortoise named Mr. Turtle? Well last Spring when I got Mr, Turtle I asked at what outside temperature I needed to turn on the heat lamp I would have installed in Mr. Turtle's house which is in my back yard. I never got a response. Now Fall is here and I really, really need to know when my baby will be getting too cold!

PS: Mr. Turtle and I have bonded well. He even lets me wipe his eyes and touch way inside his shell on his shoulders. He follows me around the yard even if I am just doing his poop patrol. Never regretted a day adopting him.

 

[Mamadee]

This is the house I had built for Mr. Turtle. The roof lifts up so I can clean inside.

 

[Mamadee]

Here is a more recent picture of Mr. Turtle.

 

[Tom]

Heat lamps are not the way to go for this. They emit light, which is no good, and they slow-burn the top of the carapace on the big ones like Mr. Turtle. Here are some examples of boxes and heating strategies that work better. A key element is to have your heating equipment set on a thermostat. This will keep the temp where you want it all year. I set mine to 80 for adult sulcatas. If the box is already warm enough, the heat stays off. Anytime the temp drops below my thermostat setting, the heat kicks on and warms the house back up.
http://www.tortoiseforum.org/threads/another-night-box-thread.88966/
http://www.tortoiseforum.org/threads/my-best-night-box-design-yet.66867/
http://www.tortoiseforum.org/threads/double-door-night-box.129054/#post-1205002

 

[Yvonne G]

While it is convenient to have your heat source on the thermostat, I will gently disagree with Tom on the 80F degrees. I think it's important for a big tortoise like yours to have a cooler night temperature. If I lived in Florida, like you do, I wouldn't use any heat during the day. I would, however, have some sort of heat source on at night, but I would have it so it came on at a cooler temp than 80F degrees. The infra red heat panels work well for this. The larger tortoises maintain quite a bit more heat in their inner core than the smaller tortoises do, and food digestion heats up their insides a bit too.

My sulcata 'retreat' is a shed. So I use a red heat light hanging from the ceiling, however, it is up about 5' higher than the tortoise's back, and it heats the whole shed nicely. I don't set his heat up until around October 31. We usually get our first freeze at around that time. So during the day he depends upon the sun to warm up, but at night he has a 250 red brooder lamp that heats up the shed, plus a pig blanket that has an adjustable rheostat that I can manipulate on really cold nights. During the days, his pig blanket usually stays off unless it's a real cold day, but he comes out and sits in the sun to warm up. If there is no sun, he still comes out, grazes then goes back in the shed.

I try to not let it get any cooler than about 70F in Dudley's shed, but I have taken in quite a few tortoises who have lived through our winters here with no winter heat at all, because the owners thought the tortoise should hibernate, and they seemed none the worse for wear. I wouldn't do it on purpose.

 

[Jodie]

What a good looking guy. I think a Kane mat and a heat panel will work great. You might need to insulate it some.