# Ceramic Heat Emitter question



## bobthehedgehog

So I just got a CHE today for my hedgie, how long does it take to fully heat up. I got a 60 watt one, and it says that with the distance I have it should heat up to 30 celsius. However my probe is only reading 20.1 currently. I do have a heating pad set under neath half of his cage until this warms up to it's fullest, but how long will it take. I have been running it since 4pm (now 8pm) on full blast.


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## Haley

Ours is 100 watt, I think, it heats up really fast. 15 minutes at most, however it can take a few hours to heat up the cage. I have a digital laser thermometer so I know our bulb gets over 100 degrees in a matter of minutes.


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## bobthehedgehog

Yea it finally heated up to where I wanted to! All good now


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## Lilysmommy

What kind of cage do you have? The bulb should be very hot if it's working right - if it's not, then it's probably defective. If it's pretty warm & seems like the bulb itself is working, then it's probably not strong enough for your cage size, especially if it's an open cage like a C&C.

CHEs are one of the best ways to heat a cage, but you can't use just a CHE bulb - you need a thermostat to control the bulb and turn it on/off to keep the temperature steady. Having the cage at 30*C is going to be too warm. You want it to be somewhere between 23-27*C, and it should stay pretty steady.

Personally, I'd return the bulb you have now as it sounds like it's either defective or too weak of a wattage to heat the cage. I would get a 100 watt bulb (possibly 150) and a thermostat to control it. In the meantime, you need to try and get the room warmer - a space heater can do that if you have one, or raise your house temp by 2-3 degrees. A heating pad is okay for supplemental heat, but it's not going to keep him warm enough with the air temperature at 20*. Also, keep in mind that if you have a larger cage (a 2x3 C&C for example), you'll probably need two 100/150-watt lamps in order to keep the temperature warm & steady in the whole cage.

Edit: Glad that it did finally heat up.  I would still highly recommend getting a thermostat though - having the bulb on just by itself won't let it adjust to any changes in the room temperature, so it may end up varying too much.


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