Heating issue
- Thread starter Mbyler
- Start date
How old is he? Hatchling to about 3 years need a closed chamber with high humidity. That would likely fix the heat question at least during the day.
What about night heat? Their heat should never go below 80. You might need to add a ceramic heat emitter or two.
Post pics of the enclosure and we can you get it right.
What about night heat? Their heat should never go below 80. You might need to add a ceramic heat emitter or two.
Post pics of the enclosure and we can you get it right.
He is about 4 months old. Thank you!
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You need to follow the advice that was given to you in your other thread. The changes need to be done now before your baby gets sick and dies. All the advice is in the other thread.
What other advice? To enclose the hatchling? I see so many that have and keep them in open air homes.
Think this will help? It’s thick heavy duty plastic. Humidity and heat are already on the way up!
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Thread 'New leopard tortoise owner!' https://www.tortoiseforum.org/threads/new-leopard-tortoise-owner.196089/
The thread I linked above is your thread. Most if not all the help/questions has been answered and also the caresheet attached.
If you want to do it right, then you use a closed chamber, no mercury vapor bulbs and temps and humidity where we and caresheet suggest. If you want to do it wrong then follow those you say are doing it in an open top enclosure. Look at my leopard in my avatar. That's from way back and the wrong way. Or you can raise him smooth by following the right way. They are suppose to be smooth.
Ok, I did enclose it with a thick plastic. That should work, right?
That plastic will work but not they way you are using it. It could melt and cause a fire. Those clamps on the lights have been known to fail a lot and will cause a fire or burn your tort. If you don't want to lower the substrate as I suggested in your other thread, so you can lay wood across the top of the tub then use wood or pvc to build a frame over the enclosure to hang lights from so the plastic doesnt touch the lights.
Ok, thank you.
The unfortunate truth of the matter is that open topped enclosures simply do not work. Adding the plastic will help a little, but that plastic lacks the insulation capability that is needed. You need to build a frame out of PVC pipe, or some 2x3s or 2x4s to drape the plastic on, but better to just get the correct type of enclosure. You can also safely hang your light fixtures from the frame work.
Those clamps always fail. Hang the fixtures from over head and remove the clamps. You also need to be using ceramic based fixtures. The plastic bakelite type is not reliable. I've seen them short out and fail many times. The ceramic based ones are safer and more reliable.
Mercury vapor bulbs are wrought with problems and should not be used over tortoises. There are better more reliable heating and lighting sources.
There are four elements to heating and lighting:
- Basking bulb. I use 65 watt incandescent floods from the hardware store. Some people will need bigger, or smaller wattage bulbs. Let your thermometer be your guide. I run them on a timer for about 12 hours and adjust the height to get the correct basking temp under them. I also like to use a flat rock of some sort directly under the bulb. You need to check the temp with a thermometer directly under the bulb and get it to around 95-100F (36-37C).
- Ambient heat maintenance. I use ceramic heating elements or radiant heat panels set on thermostats to maintain ambient above 80 degrees day and night for tropical species. In most cases you'd only need day heat for a temperate species like Testudo or DT, as long as your house stays above 60F (15-16C) at night.
- Ambient light. I use LEDs for this purpose. Something in the 5000-6500K color range will look the best. Most bulbs at the store are in the 2500K range and they look yellowish. Strip or screw-in LED bulb types are both fine.
- UV. If you can get your tortoise outside for an hour 2 or 3 times a week, you won't need indoor UV. In colder climates, get one of the newer HO type fluorescent tubes. Which type will depend on mounting height. 5.0 bulbs make almost no UV. I like the 12% HO bulbs from Arcadia. You need a meter to check this: https://www.solarmeter.com/model65.html A good UV bulb only needs to run for 2-3 hours mid day. You need the basking bulb and the ambient lighting to be on at least 12 hours a day.
The Best Way To Raise A Sulcata, Leopard, Or Star Tortoise
I chose the title of this care sheet very carefully. Are there other ways to raise babies? Yes. Yes there are, but those ways are not as good. What follows is the BEST way, according to 30 years of research and experimentation with hundreds of babies of many species. Babies hatch during the...
tortoiseforum.org
Questions are welcome. It is obvious that you tried really hard to make a nice enclosure for your tortoise and that a lot of effort and expense went in to it. That is admirable. Its really a bummer that most of the care info found out in the world is just plain wrong and will lead to failure in one or more ways. We only want to help you succeed.
Yes this will work. I have used them and many others too.
