Chicken coop heater for tortoise house

tashahlb

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I'm debating whether a chicken Coop heater is safe for my tortoise. They stand up straight and acts like a radiant heat panel. Wondering what's everyone's thought about this.

The house is about 80x40x40 big

Attached is a photo of what I am looking into.

Thanks a lot!
 

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jsheffield

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I'm debating whether a chicken Coop heater is safe for my tortoise. They stand up straight and acts like a radiant heat panel. Wondering what's everyone's thought about this.

The house is about 80x40x40 big

Attached is a photo of what I am looking into.

Thanks a lot!
I have one that I use in an outside enclosure, in the warming box my Redfoot hides in... it has two heating levels and tons of reviews that insist it cannot burn chickens (and I assume torts), but I still run it through a thermostat to make sure she's safe.

Jamie
 

Lomasoweb

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Unless you keep the tortoise enclosure in a room that is very warm it probably wont be enough to heat an enclosure of that size. You will most likely need an additional heat source.
That said I have used them and they have held up well for now, even with high humidity.
They can also be mounted with screws to the wall of the enclosure if you do not want to use the bracket legs.
I had my husband mount the panel to the top of the enclosure so the tortoise would not come in contact with it and scrape the lens. Also to mimic the heat of the sun beaming down. The lens is not as heavy duty as the ones made for reptiles, and a tortoise scraping along it could be very damaging.
It was not easy to mount that way, but he managed somehow.
I use a thermostat as well.
 

wellington

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Unless you keep the tortoise enclosure in a room that is very warm it probably wont be enough to heat an enclosure of that size. You will most likely need an additional heat source.
That said I have used them and they have held up well for now, even with high humidity.
They can also be mounted with screws to the wall of the enclosure if you do not want to use the bracket legs.
I had my husband mount the panel to the top of the enclosure so the tortoise would not come in contact with it and scrape the lens. Also to mimic the heat of the sun beaming down. The lens is not as heavy duty as the ones made for reptiles, and a tortoise scraping along it could be very damaging.
It was not easy to mount that way, but he managed somehow.
I use a thermostat as well.
How high above the ground/tort is it and does it heat to the ground? I ask cuz heat rises and likely won't radiate in the way you are comparing to the sun.
I use a radiator style radiant heater in a large shed and have to keep a ceiling fan on to keep the heat going back down to the floor where torts are.
 

wellington

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I'm debating whether a chicken Coop heater is safe for my tortoise. They stand up straight and acts like a radiant heat panel. Wondering what's everyone's thought about this.

The house is about 80x40x40 big

Attached is a photo of what I am looking into.

Thanks a lot!
For that size area you will need more then that type heater unless you don't get very cold where you are. Also if you have higher ceilings, 5 feet and up a ceiling fan on low will keep the heat flowing back to floor. My ceiling in my tort shed is about 6 feet. I use both the fan, a radiator style portable heater and they all also have basking lights. I run on a thermostat and have a back up on a thermostat.
 

Lomasoweb

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How high above the ground/tort is it and does it heat to the ground? I ask cuz heat rises and likely won't radiate in the way you are comparing to the sun.
I use a radiator style radiant heater in a large shed and have to keep a ceiling fan on to keep the heat going back down to the floor where torts are.
It was mounted in an indoor enclosure as a supplemental heat source. It definitely radiated to the top of the tortoises shell, when scanned with a heat gun the carapace temps were between 95-100.
 

tashahlb

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I have one that I use in an outside enclosure, in the warming box my Redfoot hides in... it has two heating levels and tons of reviews that insist it cannot burn chickens (and I assume torts), but I still run it through a thermostat to make sure she's safe.

Jamie
Do you mount it to the side or top? Or do you let it stand on the ground?
 

tashahlb

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For that size area you will need more then that type heater unless you don't get very cold where you are. Also if you have higher ceilings, 5 feet and up a ceiling fan on low will keep the heat flowing back to floor. My ceiling in my tort shed is about 6 feet. I use both the fan, a radiator style portable heater and they all also have basking lights. I run on a thermostat and have a back up on a thermostat.
Will you recommend a heat mat like the one from zoomed more?
 

wellington

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Will you recommend a heat mat like the one from zoomed more?
Heat mats are okay as long as there is also heat above the mat. Tortoises warm themselves from above. Only warming from the bottom will keep thrm on the mat too long and possibly get burned.
 

tashahlb

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Unless you keep the tortoise enclosure in a room that is very warm it probably wont be enough to heat an enclosure of that size. You will most likely need an additional heat source.
That said I have used them and they have held up well for now, even with high humidity.
They can also be mounted with screws to the wall of the enclosure if you do not want to use the bracket legs.
I had my husband mount the panel to the top of the enclosure so the tortoise would not come in contact with it and scrape the lens. Also to mimic the heat of the sun beaming down. The lens is not as heavy duty as the ones made for reptiles, and a tortoise scraping along it could be very damaging.
It was not easy to mount that way, but he managed somehow.
I use a thermostat as well.
I plan to use it for my indoor enclosure where the night Temps gets down to 21C (70F) in the summer. I do have a deep heat projector outside the hide set to 25C (77F) at night but inside the hide it gets colder. So I want to make sure they don't catch a cold
 

wellington

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Do you mount it to the side or top? Or do you let it stand on the ground?
They mounted it on top, sorry, the other member mounted on top.
However, if you mount on side or let stand, you need to protect it from tortoise even if they can't get burned from it, you don't want it tipped over incase it has auto shut off and of course a tort could just ruin it.
 
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Yvonne G

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I was thinking along the same lines as Lomasoweb - that one wouldn't be enough to heat the space. If I'm interpreting it correctly, the unit heats what's in front of it, not the air in the space. So your tortoise would have to be parked in front of it to get warm. So you would probably need one at each end, depending where inside the night house the tortoise likes to sleep.
 

MsParedes

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How do you mount them so the tortoise doesn't pull them off the wall? They only use 2 screws and just hang on them. Not very secure. A good upward knock and it's down.
Does anyone recommend a more secure way?
 

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