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Heater for a tortoise pen?
Hello :)
I wanted to know if I can buy a heater for a tortoises pen. I have a crappy infrared light that emits heat, but also emits red light. I find it annoying at night and so does my Russian tortoise.
Is there a heater for such things? Which brands are good?
Also how do you prevent the tortoise from being burned if they burrow near it? My tortoise is always digging and burrowing when sleeping.
Thanks :)
Hopefully you guys can help me with this. I want my tortoise to sleep warm with no light so it can sleep calmly and not annoyed at a red light.
He has everything he needs "(sunlight during the day or a reptile light that has a UV component)". I have followed this articles steps to keeping a Russian tortoise please take a look. He has an outside pen which is huge ( I don't have dogs or anything else so he has a huge space out there). I have him in a rubber maid tub for the moment just like this article shows: http://russiantortoise.net/care_sheet.htm He is little and we just got him. My brother and I are working to build him an indoor pen or at the very least a turtle table. Thank you for your concern, but I believe I am doing the best possible to house our little tortoise.
I just thought that the light bugged him because I thought that tortoises can actually see in colors (including red) and have a better and wide range than we do so I thought he would find this annoying.
He has a basking area and all of the right bulbs as the article states Please take a look. He has that extra red light when it is night tim
opps "time".
Thank you for the articles links Vick. I believe there is a lot of controversy over letting your Russian Tortoise hibernate or not. I will check out the links and bring him into the vet to see what she has to say.
Thanks for the movie Dan M
3 Answers
- Dan MLv 78 years agoFavorite Answer
There are infra red emitters that screw into the same fixture as the red glowing bulb. They do not glow. Tortoises should have some access to sunlight during the day or a reptile light that has a UV component.
Red light is practically invisible to some animals, and it is absorbed by the blood in eyelids making it less likely to be a problem to the tortoise while it is asleep. Nature is almost never totally dark, even on a moonless night. The perpetual total darkness inside a house at night can be stressful to pets that have not been domesticated for thousands of generations.
Source(s): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fAFZOgL5aDA - Anonymous8 years ago
You should not be using infra red light for a tortoise.
Use a reptile basking lamp or a standard 60w spot lamp in conjunction with a 5% UVB ultra violet lamp or a combined heat/UV lamp such as a 'Megaray'.
A 60w spot and 5% UV tube should be at a height of 12" (30cms).
Your tortoise should be kept on a tortoise table NOT in a tank, vivarium or anything like it. During the summer, the best place for your tortoise is in the garden, exposed to natural sunlight.
Apart from 'the US', you do not say where you are. But it is winter in the greater part of the states and your tortoise should be hibernating. That is why it keeps burying itself. The Horsfield (or Russian Tortoise) is a hibernating species.
However DO NOT put the animal into hibernation now. It will need to starve for a period in order to clear its gut. THIS IS ESSENTIAL, otherwise your tortoise will not survive.
The proccess is to much or me to explain here, so I suggest you go to www.tortoisetrust.org or www.tortoise-protection-group.org.uk and download either of their excelent care sheets and detailed instructions for hibernation.
