Heat for Russian Tort

[RussianTortKing]

Hi everyone! I was just wondering how to keep my temps up when I go to school and at night. So I'm 15 and I have to go to school but my mom doesn't let me keep his light on because she thinks It will start a fire. Any way to make sure it stays up? Also I have a heat lamp that's 75 watts at night. Is this necessary? Thanks.

 

[Tom]

Your heat lamp needs to be on and running all day long. 12-14 hours. You need to use the correct fixture and mount it properly to make it safe. A "cloudy" cool indoor day once in a while won't hurt anything. Doing that everyday and regularly will not be good for your tortoise. Your tortoise needs his indoor "sun" so he can warm up and maintain the correct body temperature all day. If he doesn't have this, he can get sick or die.

Your heat lamp needs to be off at night. All tortoises need it dark at night and russians need a night time cooling period.

 

[GingerLove]

You need the heat lamp on during the day. Just make sure the heat lamp isn't near any plastic or anything, and it won't start a fire if you have it set up nice. If your mom is still worried, maybe you could set a timer for a cooling off period during the day? Though it is best to keep the light on all day and off all night. (It's okay if it gets a little colder at night).