Heat-upper or lower?

[Cowboy_Ken]

So I'm wondering about people's thoughts on heat for their torts.
I've seen it suggested that belly heat is needed in that this is where the bulk of the internal organs are located.
I've seen it suggested that overhead heating is best as this simulates the real world better for a basking tort.
Any comments would be appreciated.
Maybe this needs to be in debatable thread? Thanks in advance for your time.

 

[Yvonne G]

I've had turtles and tortoises for over 35 years. For the babies I never used a pig blanket because they seemed to be too small to realize that they could move off the pad if it got too hot. So for babies I use overhead heat.

I've always had pig blankets for my tortoises. Always. Three years ago I had solar panels installed on my roof because my power bill is outta sight. It is still outta sight. So I've been trying to re-think my winter time tortoise keeping.

This winter I'm going to try mounting the pig blankets on walls of the sheds instead of on the floor. I think in this way I can get away with using fewer pads. Instead of having 4, one in each corner of a shed, I can mount two, one each on opposite walls. Then I can put a thick layer of substrate on the floor, and hang a heavy duty brooder red light in the center of the sheds. (I have four tortoise sheds plus 5 other winter houses to heat)

If this doesn't make a difference in my heating bill, the only thing to try next is get rid of the tortoises. Yeah, right...like that's gonna' happen.

 

[Cowboy_Ken]

Very good logic. Logic dictates that heating the enclosure is way better that producing hot spots. I like this, and am surprised I didn't think of it on my own.
I think what I'll aim for is a good 80+ish ambient temp and an oxbow stanfield hog pad. As well as a T5 uv tube lite with a timer. Thanks for jogging the brain.

 

[Cowboy_Ken]

Ummm, Osborn.

 

[Mgridgaway]

Simply put, I use both. Heat ropes for the bottom (which I actually have to re-do because now that it's getting colder it's not keeping the area as well heated... need to condense it to the specific area they spend the most time in), and a MVB and CHE from above.

Yvonne, I can't even begin to imagine what your monthly electricity bill is!

 

[StudentoftheReptile]

For young tortoises, I use both: CHE for basking (above) and heat cable under the substrate (below).

Larger tortoises go outside.