Morning. A few months ago I posted about keeping my Greek Tortoise in an indoor enclosure for the winter and, as I live off grid and therefore must be conscious of my power usage, using natural sunlight coming in the window as his basking area (as opposed to a heat lamp). Some folks cautioned me against such a plan, concerned that the tortoise would not be able to increase his body temperature in order to become active enough to eat and digest.
It is almost the solstice, the shortest day of the year in the northern hemisphere and also, therefore, the day with least amount of light (both in length and quality) coming in my windows for Oogie to bask in and I am happy to report that we are seemingly doing well. Currently, our outside temps at night are dropping as low as 9F and days are reaching between 34-45F. Oogie is up each morning at approx. 7AM and remains active off and on through out the day until he retires at about 4PM for the night. As the earth changes its position vis a vis the sun, the basking areas in my enclosure also change. Oogie is always successful at finding the right spot to warm up. He is eating consistently, has gained weight since early November and he poops and urinates each day. In mid November, I noticed a short period of slowing down but within a week he was back up to previous activity levels.
My biggest concern was for the occasional cloudy days that we get here in Northern New Mexico. On these days Oogie has a heat mat in his hide and he does slow down. But as his hide is made of rock, there is thicker substrate in it and the heat mat is under cement board and is insulated underneath. So on these days, we keep the heat mat on all day and are able to warm his hide well using thermal mass (the cement board, rock walls and substrate hold heat well).
I would not suggest these methods for every situation. Here are some of the reasons that I think, so far, I am able to do it:
- I live at altitude in a house that is heated using passive solar. ie. the sun is more powerful here and the house is designed to take full advantage of this fact. My basking areas on a sunny day at solstice are getting up to between 95-110F and my ambient temps about 85F. (One note about this is that, while more artificial environments can produce these results in consistent amounts year round, my situation produces shorter and longer lengths of basking heat depending on the time of year. But so far this has not been an issue)
- I live in New Mexico were we get comparatively fewer days of cloud in a year
- My enclosure is making good use of natural processes ie. thermal mass for the hide, placed in the window of my house for some direct sunlight (One note on this, as windows can also loose heat substantially faster than other building parts, I have a blackout curtain that I close each night on the window in front of his enclosure. This curtain prevents the cold from the window radiating into his home)
- I have his heat mat set to come on each day at 3AM and to turn off at 10AM. My thought with this is that it gives him a morning boost before the sun is at its fullest.
- I got Oogie as a 4 year old adult. I don't know much about raising hatchlings, but I from what I have read on this forum, my situation would not work well for them.
- And.....I'm not a dumbass
. I understand my natural and artificial environments well and what they are and are not capable of - which really is the key for any of us I guess.
Anyhow, that is it. I still have a second half of upward swing to go through as light begins to increase in quality and amount but so far so good I think.
It is almost the solstice, the shortest day of the year in the northern hemisphere and also, therefore, the day with least amount of light (both in length and quality) coming in my windows for Oogie to bask in and I am happy to report that we are seemingly doing well. Currently, our outside temps at night are dropping as low as 9F and days are reaching between 34-45F. Oogie is up each morning at approx. 7AM and remains active off and on through out the day until he retires at about 4PM for the night. As the earth changes its position vis a vis the sun, the basking areas in my enclosure also change. Oogie is always successful at finding the right spot to warm up. He is eating consistently, has gained weight since early November and he poops and urinates each day. In mid November, I noticed a short period of slowing down but within a week he was back up to previous activity levels.
My biggest concern was for the occasional cloudy days that we get here in Northern New Mexico. On these days Oogie has a heat mat in his hide and he does slow down. But as his hide is made of rock, there is thicker substrate in it and the heat mat is under cement board and is insulated underneath. So on these days, we keep the heat mat on all day and are able to warm his hide well using thermal mass (the cement board, rock walls and substrate hold heat well).
I would not suggest these methods for every situation. Here are some of the reasons that I think, so far, I am able to do it:
- I live at altitude in a house that is heated using passive solar. ie. the sun is more powerful here and the house is designed to take full advantage of this fact. My basking areas on a sunny day at solstice are getting up to between 95-110F and my ambient temps about 85F. (One note about this is that, while more artificial environments can produce these results in consistent amounts year round, my situation produces shorter and longer lengths of basking heat depending on the time of year. But so far this has not been an issue)
- I live in New Mexico were we get comparatively fewer days of cloud in a year
- My enclosure is making good use of natural processes ie. thermal mass for the hide, placed in the window of my house for some direct sunlight (One note on this, as windows can also loose heat substantially faster than other building parts, I have a blackout curtain that I close each night on the window in front of his enclosure. This curtain prevents the cold from the window radiating into his home)
- I have his heat mat set to come on each day at 3AM and to turn off at 10AM. My thought with this is that it gives him a morning boost before the sun is at its fullest.
- I got Oogie as a 4 year old adult. I don't know much about raising hatchlings, but I from what I have read on this forum, my situation would not work well for them.
- And.....I'm not a dumbass
. I understand my natural and artificial environments well and what they are and are not capable of - which really is the key for any of us I guess.Anyhow, that is it. I still have a second half of upward swing to go through as light begins to increase in quality and amount but so far so good I think.
