Advice please - outside living

[GraceB4]

Hi, we rehomed a 15 year old Herman last year.

I've been working on his outside set up and this is what we have so far. He has greenhouse with basking lamp and background heat so day temps are high 20's and a night box set to come on if temps drop below 12degrees.

He has access to an outside area connected to his greenhouse. He has recently started digging in the same area and likes to stay there for a lot of the day. I have been bringing him back inside the greenhouse around 3pm each day where he will stay under his lakp for abit then go to his night box.

My question is: should I be moving him inside his greenhouse on an evening like I am doing or leave him to do his own thing? I just don't want him getting cold on an evening but he does know he has free access so could go back inside? Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Just want to give him the best life. Please note I do have a roof / lid for the outside part (just not shown on the pictures)
Any tips on how to improve his enclosure would also be greatly received.

Thank you for reading.

 

[GraceB4]

Should add I'm in the UK

 

[wellington]

Does he have a way to warm up to 90-95F. They need to bask under that temp to properly digest their food.
Day temp should be 75-80 F the temp you listed is fine for night
Yes, you should put him in at night until he learns to do it himself, but then always check to be sure he went in

 

[GraceB4]

Does he have a way to warm up to 90-95F. They need to bask under that temp to properly digest their food.
Day temp should be 75-80 F the temp you listed is fine for night
Yes, you should put him in at night until he learns to do it himself, but then always check to be sure he went in

Thank you for the reply. Yes his basking lamp is in the greenhouse and is on a timer, comes on at 7am for 12 hours. I'll continue to bring him inside. Thank you

 

[Tom]

Thank you for the reply. Yes his basking lamp is in the greenhouse and is on a timer, comes on at 7am for 12 hours. I'll continue to bring him inside. Thank you

This sounds like a really great set up.

I'd set the night heat to 16-18C. That way, he'll take less time to warm up during the day, but it's still plenty cool for over night.

Definitely bring him in, and lock him inside every night. There are myriad reasons why they might choose to stay out, and inside is safer and better. Then just open the door in the morning so he can go out if he wishes.

 

[Markw84]

Thank you for the reply. Yes his basking lamp is in the greenhouse and is on a timer, comes on at 7am for 12 hours. I'll continue to bring him inside. Thank you

I would also add a good UVB light for your tortoise. Keep in mind you are at 54° N latitude. The farthest north any wild tortoise population has been able to survive is about 50° N. The farthest north for hermanns is about 44° N. Where you live just does not get enough sun intensity and the UVB is mostly all filtered out by the low sun angle. I personally feel that is a strong consideration in keeping a tortoise that far north. You must compensate for that.

 

[Tim Carlisle]

I would also add a good UVB light for your tortoise. Keep in mind you are at 54° N latitude. The farthest north any wild tortoise population has been able to survive is about 50° N. The farthest north for hermanns is about 44° N. Where you live just does not get enough sun intensity and the UVB is mostly all filtered out by the low sun angle. I personally feel that is a strong consideration in keeping a tortoise that far north. You must compensate for that.

Interesting geography lesson! Learned something new today

 

[The_Four_Toed_Edward]

I would also add a good UVB light for your tortoise. Keep in mind you are at 54° N latitude. The farthest north any wild tortoise population has been able to survive is about 50° N. The farthest north for hermanns is about 44° N. Where you live just does not get enough sun intensity and the UVB is mostly all filtered out by the low sun angle. I personally feel that is a strong consideration in keeping a tortoise that far north. You must compensate for that.

I live at about 62N myself. I have UVB for my tortoise indoors most of the year, but I never thought about supplementing it during the summer when he gets outside. The first year I counted that he got out 40 days that year weather permitting. The reason why I haven't supllemented UVB on the days he got out was beacause the weather forecast showed a UVI of 3 to 4, which I was told was a-okay.

UV index and tortoise outdoor enclousure

Hey! I have been planning an outdoor enclousure to house my tortoise outdoors in the summer here in Finland. I have already been worried about the heat, but one thing I have also been thinking about lately is the low UV index here in Finland. UVI 3 can be reached from May to August on a sunny...

tortoiseforum.org

Should I use UVB year round in the future?

 

[GraceB4]

T

This sounds like a really great set up.

I'd set the night heat to 16-18C. That way, he'll take less time to warm up during the day, but it's still plenty cool for over night.

Definitely bring him in, and lock him inside every night. There are myriad reasons why they might choose to stay out, and inside is safer and better. Then just open the door in the morning so he can go out if he wishes.

Thank you so much for your reply.

 

[GraceB4]

I would also add a good UVB light for your tortoise. Keep in mind you are at 54° N latitude. The farthest north any wild tortoise population has been able to survive is about 50° N. The farthest north for hermanns is about 44° N. Where you live just does not get enough sun intensity and the UVB is mostly all filtered out by the low sun angle. I personally feel that is a strong consideration in keeping a tortoise that far north. You must compensate for that.

Thank you so much for your reply.

 

[Markw84]

I live at about 62N myself. I have UVB for my tortoise indoors most of the year, but I never thought about supplementing it during the summer when he gets outside. The first year I counted that he got out 40 days that year weather permitting. The reason why I haven't supllemented UVB on the days he got out was beacause the weather forecast showed a UVI of 3 to 4, which I was told was a-okay.

UV index and tortoise outdoor enclousure

Hey! I have been planning an outdoor enclousure to house my tortoise outdoors in the summer here in Finland. I have already been worried about the heat, but one thing I have also been thinking about lately is the low UV index here in Finland. UVI 3 can be reached from May to August on a sunny...

tortoiseforum.org

Should I use UVB year round in the future?

The UV index you see from weather reports is not totally applicable to our tortoise UVB needs. The UVI I see on my local reports for weather is always quite a bit higher than the UVI I get when I check with my solarmeter. It seems the UVI for weather is more of a total UV reading and includes mostly UVA. As sun angle decreases, the shorter wavelength UVB is filtered out more than the UVA. When the weather report - and my own weather station - report a UVI of 3, my solarmeter often barely will read 1.0.

 

[The_Four_Toed_Edward]

The UV index you see from weather reports is not totally applicable to our tortoise UVB needs. The UVI I see on my local reports for weather is always quite a bit higher than the UVI I get when I check with my solarmeter. It seems the UVI for weather is more of a total UV reading and includes mostly UVA. As sun angle decreases, the shorter wavelength UVB is filtered out more than the UVA. When the weather report - and my own weather station - report a UVI of 3, my solarmeter often barely will read 1.0.

Thank you!

 

[Littleredfootbigredheart]

Hi, we rehomed a 15 year old Herman last year.

I've been working on his outside set up and this is what we have so far. He has greenhouse with basking lamp and background heat so day temps are high 20's and a night box set to come on if temps drop below 12degrees.

He has access to an outside area connected to his greenhouse. He has recently started digging in the same area and likes to stay there for a lot of the day. I have been bringing him back inside the greenhouse around 3pm each day where he will stay under his lakp for abit then go to his night box.

My question is: should I be moving him inside his greenhouse on an evening like I am doing or leave him to do his own thing? I just don't want him getting cold on an evening but he does know he has free access so could go back inside? Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Just want to give him the best life. Please note I do have a roof / lid for the outside part (just not shown on the pictures)
Any tips on how to improve his enclosure would also be greatly received.

Thank you for reading.

Thank you for rehoming an older tortoise! Such a beautiful thing to do! And you’ve created a lovely little space for him! Feel free to give these links a read

For the indoor side of things, This thread covers correct equipment(uvb, heating bulbs, lighting etc, definitely double check bulb types, folks unfortunately sold the wrong ones often), correct levels, appropriately maintaining the humidity, safe substrates, there’s lots of visual examples for everything, and the tortoise table link(Really useful tool)

Housing adult Russian and Hermans indoors

Hello there! In this thread I’m going to include some information an example of an appropriate indoor set up for an older Herman/russian. As much as it’s encouraged to have tortoises in a safe outdoor enclosure, I understand being from the uk myself, that some climates make it difficult to...

tortoiseforum.org

Now that housing thread discusses an open top set up, which is fine for adult tortoises, but I will say, knowing how cold our uk winters get, for those who don’t brumate their temperate species(not sure if you plan to or not), they can really struggle keeping their temperates where needed, a cover can come in really handy for maintaining your heat, the most efficient closed set ups are melamine/pvc vivs. A place called Southdown aquatics actually does custom sized vivs in the uk If you’re ever considering an upgrade inside, or perhaps something like toms heated night box would work for you!

Visual inspiration

Hi guys! I’ve had some lovely messages complimenting me on my care sheets I made for all the visuals they include! That makes me so happy because as a visual learner myself, that was my goal🥰 I’ve recently had some requests for some more visual inspiration for set ups that can house babies/...

tortoiseforum.org

Lastly, this one here is good to go over and keep on hand, it’ll help you avoid the wrong bulbs, substrates, housing etc, I always encourage double checking purchases on the forum too before buying

Common keeping errors

Hello everyone! I’d been a long time lurker on this site long before joining just under a year ago now, over that time I’ve seen these husbandry issues come up time and time again, sometimes with dire consequences☹️ I thought this thread might serve as a good visual guide for these common...

tortoiseforum.org

Welcome from a fellow uk member! Let me know if you ever need any uk links to products or anything