heating cable question

[Creature]

hello all!

well when i pick up my tortoise and give him a bath he feels cool. he is spending most of his time hiding and i am afraid being in his hide he isnt getting warm enough. i have two bulbs that provide heat. a 90w regular bulb and 100w ceramic heater. i place the ceramic heater right in front of his hide.


well i have read a few times people are using heating cable? how do you use it? just dig into the substrate and cover it? how deep do i put it into the bedding if so? i just wanna be sure he is warm and can digest his food! i still have not seen a bowl movement and i have given him 3 soaks.

so any tips would be helpful!

EDIT: i forgot to mention the temp is 77-80 in the cooler side hot its around 90

 

[Redstrike]

Most of us use heat ropes to boost humidity, but I'm sure warming the substrate a bit for burrowing hatchlings isn't a bad idea either. I believe most tortoises heat receptors are located on the carapace, not their plastron, (makes sense to me as they'd be warmed via sunlight) so I'm always apprehensive to add large amounts of heat from beneath the tortoise, but I've also heard this is a common misconception. Either way, heat ropes shouldn't cause your tortoise to over heat if you spread them throughout the substrate (i.e. I wouldn't recommend packing 12 feet of rope beneath the hide).

I cut this directly from a previous thread I had responded to:

A number of us use heat ropes under the soil/substrate to boost humidity. The ropes are hooked up to a dimmer switch/rheostat. I sandwich my ropes between two layers of soil (8-10cm deep on top and bottom), then top this with ~15-20cm of cypress mulch. Topping the enclosure, or a portion of the enclosure, will also help you raise the humidity. I usually add 500ml of water to a single spot, allowing the water to spread under the cypress. I've had bad luck with shell rot when I just poured water all over the substrate - constantly wet substrate seems to cause rot, even when keeping things quite cleanly (daily feces removal, weekly substrate turnover, bi-monthly substrate exchanges etc.). I dig a small pit in the mulch and pour the water in.

The humidity may help curb your tortoises pyramiding. These are the ropes I use:
http://www.bigappleherp.com/Big-Apple-Fl...Heat-Ropes
There are others out there that may be comparable, just be sure they're waterproof (not water resistant - I believe Zoo Med's are water resistant).

My humidity remains >70% most of the time. It gets down to ~60% beneath and surrounding the area where my MVB is running.

I hope this was helpful.

 

[Madkins007]

Installation is pretty easy. Expose the bottom of the habitat. If it is fairly heat-proof, you can tape the rope right to it. Otherwise you can use a thin bed of sand or some other material. I like hardware cloth- not only does it hold it off the floor a bit, it also lets you tie the rope to it to prevent shifting or getting dug up.

Spacing the rope affects the heat. The closer together the ropes lay, the warmer it will get in that area. I recommend spacing them about an inch apart and using a thermostatic controller to regulate the heat.

Cover the rope with 1-3" of substrate, depending on what it is. In my situation, cypress works better than soil-based substrates. Then- keep it somewhat wet. The idea is that it will heat the water, which rises as gentle, humid heat


I am not sure anyone has ever proved that tortoises do not benefit from 'belly warmth', but I do think that the typical 'clammy' substrate we get in captivity with high humidity is not great for them. One thing I like about the rope is that it does not really 'heat' the substrate- it more gently warms it with moist heat.