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Air Conditioning Dangers © - Darrell Senneke
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Current Global Weather Conditions - Darrell Senneke
The summer is one of the
most dangerous times of the year for turtles and tortoises that are kept
indoors. The reasons for this are often overlooked so I will iterate them here
as a warning to all - for we all learn from ours and other's mistakes.
In the winter many people use under tank heat pads to keep our charges warm. These can be dangerous come spring because many of these are not thermostatically controlled, they merely they raise the temperature 15 degrees F or so above ambient (8 degrees C). To leave them on as the temperature increases risks cooking our beasties. Because of this we often turn them off or dial them down or otherwise adjust them.
Another thing that many of us do in the winter is pump in extra humidity into the habitats because homes are so dry - particularly in sub freezing areas. In the spring this also becomes less necessary.
All this works fine, until summer arrives and we turn on the air conditioning. Now the temperature in the house may actually be colder than it is in the winter and the humidity once again drops dangerously low depending on species. Now is the time that we must recheck the temperature and humidity in our habitats. There is a good possibility that now that it is summer that those heat sources need to be turned back on or up, and you may need to mist more often now as well. Man structures his own "micro climate" we must take special care that we make allowances for our charges. What is comfortable for us - can be dangerous for them.
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