Outdoor Heat (UK)

sbwalker5

Member
Joined
Jan 26, 2014
Messages
79
Location (City and/or State)
Sheffield, UK
Hi all, just after a bit of expert advice for night heat in the UK (or similar climates).

I'm nearly done with a new outdoor enclosure for my 3 year old (about 6 inch long) Marginated tortoise, Douglas.

ImageUploadedByTortoise Forum1467643765.253731.jpg

I've had this little house built for a night box...
ImageUploadedByTortoise Forum1467643953.878807.jpg
Temperatures are still as low as 12-13 Celsius at night, and 20ish in the day at the moment (middle of summer!)
In direct sunlight, temperatures reached around 35, which is pretty good.

So I'll be needing extra heat at night, especially in spring and autumn as it gets cooler. I was thinking a ceramic heater would best, but I'm a bit concerned about it being too close to his shell (I've read on here about it being bad for s tortoise's shell?). The little house as a height of around 30cm. I'm not sure how far a CHE would dangle down, and if this would be too close?

I have a mini greenhouse for added warmth, which I'll be monitoring temperatures over the next couple of days. We're having a hot spell at the minute, but I fear during cloudy / cooler days, even the greenhouse won't reach temperature above 25 degrees of so..

Would a good idea be to have a day / night thermostat on the CHE? I could maintain around 35 degrees in the day, and let it drop to 20ish at night?

Any advice, or expert opinions would be great, thanks!
 

Pearly

Well-Known Member
5 Year Member
Joined
Jul 14, 2015
Messages
5,287
Location (City and/or State)
Central Texas, Austin area
Beautiful enclosures! I'll be working on my night boxes next year and thinking of nice thickly insulated walls/roof, oil filled heater and maybe CHE on thermostat.
 

New Posts

Top