The Tortoise Table

Hi we are going to put a heat mat in Dynamites cave bit of his wooden enclosure how would you fit that?
Many thanks

Hi Amber,

Is this wooden enclosure indoors or outdoors? Indoors he really shouldn't need a heat mat in his cave, unless the temperatures drop below, say, 14C at night, and that doesn't happen too often indoors,and usually only in the middle of winter in houses that don't have heating. In the wild tortoises do experience temperature drops at night, and one of the things that gets them going in the mornings is to sense the heat and light outside their cave, so they wake up and walk towards that heat to bask and warm up. Outdoors it could be useful to have heat if he is going to stay out all night, but it's also important that anywhere that he sleeps or stays at night outside is protected from predators.

If you are going to install a heat mat, it's really important that it is not placed under the tortoise, as tortoises can experience burns to the underside of their shell if they are sitting on top of a heat mat for any length of time -- even if that heat mat is under the substrate and is of low wattage. If you install a heat mat the best place is on the roof of the cave, or you could also put it on the side of the cave -- just do not put it on the floor.

I hope that helps, but do let me know if I've misunderstood anything.

Nina