heat/ uvb light

[laney]

Ive got my new enclosure set up but I need to get one of those heat bulbs. What should I get???
I'm joining their old enclosure with a ramp and in there they have a ceramic heater and a strip ibn light. I'm scared of the heat bulbs incase of fire but I'm sure this is what I need for their new extension.
Help please..
Type??
Power??
Does it just keep getting hotter and hotter?
Their extension is open top, old bookcase
Thanks

 

[GBtortoises]

I prefer to use a combination of a standard incandescent bulb of appropriate wattage to produce the basking temperature required and a tube style flourescent UV bulb. The advantage of this combination is that the incandescent bulb can be lowered or raised along with increasing or decreasing the wattage of bulb used to produce very good basking temperatures as well as white light. The tube style UV bulb not only provides better UV saturation throughout the entire enclosure but also better overall lighting which better simulates daytime for the tortoise. MVB bulbs do none of this well except to provide localized (often too hot) basking heat and very localized UV. The tortoise has to be directly under or in very close proximity of the light to reap any benefit of the UV being produced. This essentially forces a tortoise to sit in the hottest possible spot to absorb beneficial UV, even after they may have already heated their body up to activity level temperatures when they would normally be out foraging for food. By using two seperate lights it enables the tortoise to only have to sit under the basking light for as long as it needs to and still be exposed to UV rays while foraging and exploring. Much more like it would take place naturally if they were in the wild.

 

[laney]

that sounds good to me
For the bulb for heat that you spoke of, could I just use a normal desk type lamp? Or would I need to get something better? What watt bulb would you recommend? Sorry for all the questions, I'm used to using a heater on a thermostat so a bulb for heat is alien to me lol
Thanks

 

[avelovestorts]

Hello everyone, I am new to the tortoise forum and soon to be owner of a baby sulcata. I am trying to find the right kind of UVB and heat lamps to put in my enclosure. I have gotten confused on which UVB lights are bad and which ones are good for tortoises. Can anyone help me?

 

[StudentoftheReptile]

I prefer a ceramic heat emitter for 24/7 heat and a tube florescent bulb for UV lighting.