A question about natural sunlight

ZEROPILOT

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My small out door R/F pen only has sun from the east side and most of the day the light that reaches the pen is partial sun light. How much direct sun light would a baby need? Is indirect sunlight as good? Good enough? I notice that in my larger pens, adults seek out partial shade and almost never step into full sun light unless they just went for a dip in the water. How much beneficial UV, UVB reach the shaded areas?
 

wellington

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In my opinion, indirect sun light is better for a baby, less worry of over heating. As long as they get enough time in this indirect sun, they will get what they need.
I have read many threads/post where members RF don't really bask much under the artificial lighting in the enclosures. A lot of them must not like the bright light or maybe some other reason. For this, indirect or filter sun light would work better for them anyway. Just my opinion, of my info gathering, I don't own RF.
 

CharlieM

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My cherryheads (I'm NOT pretending to be experienced, lol) enjoy direct sunlight. They are often times found soaking up the rays with their legs stretched out. They have the opinion to be in the sun or not so they decide.
 

tortdad

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Red foot live naturally in the shade of the tropical rain forest. Shade is good. Is there a part of the enclosure that gets direct sun light part if the time? If so your fine.


0.0.1 Redfoot (Spike)
0.0.1 Cherryhead Redfoot (Bruce Wayne)
1.0 Sulcata (Hal Jordan)
 

pfara

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My cherryheads (I'm NOT pretending to be experienced, lol) enjoy direct sunlight. They are often times found soaking up the rays with their legs stretched out. They have the opinion to be in the sun or not so they decide.

I'm with @CharlieM . As long as you provide choices for your tortoise, they should be fine. My outdoor enclosure is on the south side of the house (so it gets light for most of the day). However, some parts are heavily planted and some parts are covered by a deck.

All of my reds love to bask. They sprawl out right under the incandescents in their indoor enclosure. Mind you, indoor lighting is not as intense as the sun. Redfoots can definitely handle brighter areas. Just like people, it depends on the tortoise; I usually don't like being in the sun, while other people *have* to be in it. Remember, younger, smaller reds just naturally hide all day so we can't assume it's always because of bright lights.
 
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