Heat Lamp

[SlowMcClouskey]

I just set up a new tank for my tortoise. I was really excited, but after setting up the new lights I discovered they can't get above 78 degrees. They're the same lights I always used, 75 watt repti basking spot lamp. I need it to be around 86 degrees... I check the temperature and for some reason it goes up and down between 75-78 degrees. Can someone tell me what I should do?

 

[lismar79]

You could add a low wattage che. However, please consider building or buying a larger enclosure for that tort. This is much too small for proper temps, excersize, and habitat needs like humidity and a hiding spot.....

 

[Yvonne G]

We have some very good reading material for you at the Tortoise Library


I know you've had this tortoise for a long time, and she's grown under your care, but she would be much more comfortable if you made some changes to her habitat. RF tortoises come from South America, and while you may find a few out in the open area, mostly they are in the trees and bushes. In your small habitat, your tortoise has no place to hide. Take a look at some of the enclosures for RF tortoises here:

http://www.tortoiseforum.org/threads/heres-dales-new-enclosure-picture-heavy.11023/

http://www.tortoiseforum.org/threads/some-updated-pictures.10314/

http://www.tortoiseforum.org/threads/some-pics-of-pio.9999/

I don't know where you live, or what you're weather is like, but when it's warm enough outside, your tortoise is plenty big enough to have an outdoor habitat. But while she's in the house, you need to provide her with a much bigger space...something big enough so you can add plants, waterer and hiding places for her comfort.

I use the Mercury Vapor Bulb for my enclosures. It provides heat and UVB all in one bulb.

 

[SlowMcClouskey]

I agree but unfortunately it's the biggest one I can get that's still indoors The state I live in has very cold and rainy conditions so I can't keep her in a nice place outside, and I can't make a tortoise table until I move out which is in a matter of months so I hope this will be okay just for a little longer. That little rock wall decoration takes up some space too, I could always remove that to make it slightly bigger.

 

[tortdad]

Okay. First off welcome to TFO. Don't take any of what's coming personal because we only want whats best for the tortoises.

When we see your set up our first reaction is to gasp. It's all wrong brother, every bit of it and your tort has been suffering because of it. See all those bumps on the top of his shell?? That's pyramiding and it's caused by a lack of humidity.

Your tank is much much too small, it's like you living in a closet. Yes, it can be done but sucks to do so.

What kind of lights are those?

Your temps are not what you think they are. Those disc type temp and humidity gauges you have are notoriously inaccurate and you have them mounted too high. Heat rises so your only measuring the top. It's going to be colder down at tort level. Whatever you use should be down at tort level.

What kind of substraight is that?

To answer your original question. The best way to increase the heat is with a ceramic heat emitter. It puts out heat with no light and the most efferent way to control it is using it with a reptile thermostat.


Again, please don't take this as bashing you. We just want to show you how to make a simple set up that your guy can thrive in, not just survive in.

I hope you stick around. This is the best site on earth for tortoise and turtle info.

I hope I did not offend you. There's a lot of bad info and advice floating around pet shops and breeders. We here at TFO are just trying to set the record straight. If your interested in learning more on your your tort we can provide you with links to specific threads showing you how to improve on its care.

 

[tortdad]

I agree but unfortunately it's the biggest one I can get that's still indoors The state I live in has very cold and rainy conditions so I can't keep her in a nice place outside, and I can't make a tortoise table until I move out which is in a matter of months so I hope this will be okay just for a little longer. That little rock wall decoration takes up some space too, I could always remove that to make it slightly bigger.

Do you have the space to make it any larger at all? Larger doesn't have to be expensive. Plastic storage bins are cheap an make great enclosures. You could pick a few up and cut the side out and connect them.

Nobody's saying it needs to be massive but your tort needs more space. Removing that background won't really help.

 

[SlowMcClouskey]

Don't worry I came here for questions so it's whats to be expected! I want her to be happy. I did hear about pyramiding recently, and I didn't keep her cage as humid as I should have when she was younger. Now I'm much more active on keeping it humid and I'm planning on getting a humidifier soon!

So, first

One is a 13W "exo terra" visual spectrum lamp, the vet said the old one I was using wasn't giving the right amount of UV lights and told me to buy this one. The 2nd one is a 75w Repti Basking Lamp

I know the disk temperatures don't work, I'm going to buy new ones too (as well as a bigger food/water dish), I go by this thermometer that automatically turns on and off the heating light. (It's dangling near the bottom, you can't see it from this angle). Once it reaches the temperature it's set to, it turns off and turns back on once it gets like 3 degrees below. I check the temperature by turning the nob and seeing where it turns off.

Also, in the old set up we had the ceramic heat emitter as well as the light bulb I'm using now, but we never turned it on because it didn't go by timer like the other ones and I was worried of making her too hot. I still have it and I could just set it up and add it on, but if it wasn't very useful last time would it make a big difference now?

Secondly, I take her out whenever I can for exercise, which is mostly in the summer when the temperature is finally doable. In my backyard with the sprinklers on in the summer is the best. She digs up worms and eats the grass and enjoys herself. I was planning on switching from the cypress mulch to something with more soil, so that way I can put in some plants, pebbles, and worms for her to dig around in. Once I remove that wall decoration there'll be a pinch of more space, but this is just a really temporary habitat until I can do more. After a couple months of looking up what to do I was basically told there's nothing I can do that's doable indoors or outdoors unless I move somewhere warm.

 

[tortdad]

Don't worry I came here for questions so it's whats to be expected! I want her to be happy. I did hear about pyramiding recently, and I didn't keep her cage as humid as I should have when she was younger. Now I'm much more active on keeping it humid and I'm planning on getting a humidifier soon!

So, first

One is a 13W "exo terra" visual spectrum lamp, the vet said the old one I was using wasn't giving the right amount of UV lights and told me to buy this one. The 2nd one is a 75w Repti Basking Lamp

I know the disk temperatures don't work, I'm going to buy new ones too (as well as a bigger food/water dish), I go by this thermometer that automatically turns on and off the heating light. (It's dangling near the bottom, you can't see it from this angle). Once it reaches the temperature it's set to, it turns off and turns back on once it gets like 3 degrees below. I check the temperature by turning the nob and seeing where it turns off.

Also, in the old set up we had the ceramic heat emitter as well as the light bulb I'm using now, but we never turned it on because it didn't go by timer like the other ones and I was worried of making her too hot. I still have it and I could just set it up and add it on, but if it wasn't very useful last time would it make a big difference now?

Secondly, I take her out whenever I can for exercise, which is mostly in the summer when the temperature is finally doable. In my backyard with the sprinklers on in the summer is the best. She digs up worms and eats the grass and enjoys herself. I was planning on switching from the cypress mulch to something with more soil, so that way I can put in some plants, pebbles, and worms for her to dig around in. Once I remove that wall decoration there'll be a pinch of more space, but this is just a really temporary habitat until I can do more. After a couple months of looking up what to do I was basically told there's nothing I can do that's doable indoors or outdoors unless I move somewhere warm.

There's plenty of things you can do to make an indoor habitat that's doable without moving to someplace warm. There's lots of Canadian members here with Redfoots.

First off go to Walmart or any Home Depot and buy yourself a $5 timer. The lights should be on a timer set for like 12 hours a day, not on a thermostat turning on and off all day. The CHE should be what's on that thermostat so it can come on and off as needed.

You don't have any space in that tank for plants. Pull that background out and tape construction paper to the back of the glass to block the torts vision. Maybe you can get some fake ivy type plants from the dollar store and tape them to the glass walls about 3/4 of the way up the tank. This will give your tort the feel o hiding under plants like they like without taking up floor space. You just need to make sure they're not too close to the lights. I've never tried doing that, just spit balling here.

The cypress mulch is fine but maybe make it a little bit deeper.

Does that bulb your vet recommend put off any UVB or is it just UVA for heat?

 

[SlowMcClouskey]

The vet recommended this for UVB light. From what I understand, one light gives off the same chemicals the sun does that she needs, thats the one that I was told to be set for 12 hours a day. If I leave the heat light on, it'll just make her tank hotter and hotter and hotter (or, at least it did), so that one is set up to the thermostat. This current tank is taking up about 1/3rd of my room. When I was looking for a bin, they usually got no bigger than that tank. She's just really big, and for some reason when I look up red footed tortoises, the enclosures available for me to purchase were very small. I've been looking everywhere from pet stores to hardware stores. I even considered turning a dog house into a tortoise house haha. But again, I feel the perfect home for her would be in a big set up right in the backyard, but it's just too cold here. I really really reeeaaally can't afford to go bigger at the moment. But once I can I'm gonna, I'm just trying to find out how to make the situation right now as good as possible.

 

[Yvonne G]

I did a copy/paste of your light as you've typed it in your post above = 13W "exo terra" visual spectrum lamp - and then I pasted it onto a google image search, and it comes up with this picture:




IF THIS IS THE LIGHT YOU'RE USING, THEN THIS IS YOUR TORTOISE'S PROBLEM!!!!! Please discontinue using this light immediately! Your vet must not have heard that these lights are dangerous to baby tortoise's eyes. It causes a painful condition similar to snow blindness. We have many, many threads on this subject here on the Forum. If you'll buy a soothing ointment, such as this:



...and quit using that bulb, you should start to see an improvement in just a couple of days.

 

[SlowMcClouskey]

Oh yikes! That's the one! I JUST started using it so I'll swap it out ASAP. However, my tortoise is 10 years old will it still harm her?

 

[Heather H]

hi and welcome. Everyone here will help you. if you still have the receipt and box from the light you can return it. yes the light can still hurt her.

 

[Yvonne G]

It doesn't seem to affect the older tortoises as badly as the babies. But I wouldn't use it period. I use either a Mercury Vapor Bulb (this one has MVB plus heat all in the same bulb), or a tube type UVB fluorescent bulb.

 

[leigti]

I understand that this is temporary, but you can still make another temporary enclosure that is bigger and better for not much money. The goal is floorspace, so go check out plastic bin containers at Walmart Kmart etc. Home Depot and Lowe's may also have some. keep the CHE and get a mercury vapor bulb. hopefully you will have more room when you move. You can do this quick fix and then research a much bigger enclosure for after you move.

 

[SlowMcClouskey]

for a small amount of time, I kept her in the bathtub and hung lights over it. It wasn't the best since there was no mulch on the floor or anything. I'm considering putting her back there, but people didn't like it since it's the bath tub and they want to use it a lot. It still seemed kinda small tho. Not as small as this tank, but this is what it looked like

 

[leigti]

I think she would get much too cold in there. take a trip to one of the stores and see what you can find. And you can keep the lid of the bin also and use it to help keep humidity in.

 

[tortdad]

Yep. That UVB bulb is bad news. You need a UVB bulb that is a tube type. One HO (high output) 24" T5 UVB bulb will put out all the light an UVB your tort needs (with very little heat). Put it on a timer for 12hrs a day and use the CHE on a thermostat.

 

[tortdad]

Skip that tub, worse than your tank even if bigger

 

[SlowMcClouskey]

would that size be good tho for the next time I get a tank?

 

[tortdad]

would that size be good tho for the next time I get a tank?

No, still way too small. Yo need to be thinking something about 4' wide by 8' long (the size of a piece of plywood).