chuck21570
Member
Hello all. I posted about this in a thread I started in the Russian tortoise thread, but thought I would share it here too, since this is a more generic thing, and can potentially help other owners.
I am new to all of this tortoise ownership, we have had him 11 days now. But I was worried because my son's new tortoise stayed buried underground non-stop the first 3 days we had him. I posted about it on the forum, and most people said it just a baby and trying to get used to its new environment. But then someone finally suggested maybe he didn't like the lights, and asked what lights I was using. I had heard coil lights could hurt tortoise's eyes, but I thought I didn't have a coil light, because I did not have a light like this:
However, I came to find out, when I answered that persons question, that these are also considered coil lights, despite the fact they don't actually "coil" as you would traditionally think of, and that is what I was using:
So, once I found that out, I changed to a T5 as suggested, and the little guy is completely different since, spending most of his day above ground, and even slept above ground for the first time last night. So it appears it was all about the lights.
His appearance is also different. On day 2-3 of having him, I noticed his eyes seemed puffy, with white rings around them. I didn't make much of it at first, because I was like "hmm, maybe they were always like that and I didn't notice it", because as my wife will tell you, I am not the most observant person in the world. But since we have changed the lights, that puffiness is gone completely, and his eyes are back to the way I remembered them being when we first got him.
So I would suggest seriously re-considering if you are planning to use, or are using, those kinds of lights.
I am new to all of this tortoise ownership, we have had him 11 days now. But I was worried because my son's new tortoise stayed buried underground non-stop the first 3 days we had him. I posted about it on the forum, and most people said it just a baby and trying to get used to its new environment. But then someone finally suggested maybe he didn't like the lights, and asked what lights I was using. I had heard coil lights could hurt tortoise's eyes, but I thought I didn't have a coil light, because I did not have a light like this:
However, I came to find out, when I answered that persons question, that these are also considered coil lights, despite the fact they don't actually "coil" as you would traditionally think of, and that is what I was using:
So, once I found that out, I changed to a T5 as suggested, and the little guy is completely different since, spending most of his day above ground, and even slept above ground for the first time last night. So it appears it was all about the lights.
His appearance is also different. On day 2-3 of having him, I noticed his eyes seemed puffy, with white rings around them. I didn't make much of it at first, because I was like "hmm, maybe they were always like that and I didn't notice it", because as my wife will tell you, I am not the most observant person in the world. But since we have changed the lights, that puffiness is gone completely, and his eyes are back to the way I remembered them being when we first got him.
So I would suggest seriously re-considering if you are planning to use, or are using, those kinds of lights.
