Heat Lamp

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I bought a Solar Glo Professonal series 125w heat lamp for my future torts. and I was wondering if I should buy another heat lamp that does not produce light. Or can I just leave the solar glo on during the night as well?


Thanks

 

[Yvonne G]

Oh no! You must turn off the "sun" and give them a dark night. If it gets too cold where you have your redfoots tortoises set up, then you can provide some sort of heat that doesn't make light. A ceramic heat emitter (CHE) comes to mind. If they're outside and its getting too cold at night, then you'll have to bring them in at night.

Please read all you can in the redfoot section. Some folks feel there really isn't a need for the heavy duty UV light for redfoots.

 

[tortoisenerd]

Agreed! It needs to be dark at night. You don't want to be using a bright bulb nor a UVB bulb for redfoots--they get their D3 from their diet as they are omnivores, and they live in the dark and moist ran forest floor. Since this is in the redfoot section I assumed that is what species you are writing about, but you did say future torts. That bulb is great for Desert type torts, although the Mega Ray or T-Rex Active UV Heat are slightly superior. You may be able to return it if you won't be having a species except redfoots. Many people just use ambient light and then use a heat bulb/s for redfoots to maintain around 85 F in the day, or maybe a dim light over the food. Redfoots are more kept at one temp with a lot of ground cover. How cold is your house at night? That will determine whether you need night heat or not. In the summer, you are likely fine. At least 65 F is good. For animals to thrive, they need conditions that mimic their natural environments, which includes a day/night cycles (12 hours day and 12 hours night is a good start), temps, humidity, diet, enclosure, etc.

 

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Thank You my house temp. at night is between 60-65f but I think I will buy a heat emmiter for them just in case.
Should I also buy a thermostat as well?

Thanks Again

 

[Madkins007]

Thermostatic controls make a heat lamp 'set it/forget it' simple. I vote for one.

 

[Madkins007]

You don't want to be using a bright bulb nor a UVB bulb for redfoots--they get their D3 from their diet as they are omnivores, and they live in the dark and moist ran forest floor.

Just to clarify... the above statements are more accurate for the Yellow-foot Tortoise and some other species.

Most Red-foots live in the savannah, scrubs forests, forest edges/openings and so forth, and no one has ever established that they get much D3 from their diet and most of their wild 'meat' is insects and invertebrates (although they probably get D2 from fungi).

(One source of this info is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red-footed_tortoise but it also appears in other places.)