Heating lighting and humidity for hermann's hatchling

Acrismore

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Hello from Indiana,
I have a hermann's hatchling and cannot find much information on heating and lighting at night. I will post a picture of the lamp I am using. My question is, do I turn both heating and uvb lights off at night or just uvb? Also what humidity should I keep her enclosure at? Currently I keep it between 40 and 60% and banking temp of 95 and the rest 70 degrees.

Screenshot_20181112-194916_Chrome.jpg
 

Ray--Opo

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Welcome you are on the right forum. Do the suggestions here and you will give your new friend a happy healthy life.
Would love to see pics of the little guy!
 

Acrismore

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Thank you for the help. So I read that they turned the lights off and covered the enclosure. I am just worried she will get cold as she is a hatchling. I also read the humidity level should be 70% I read elsewhere its 40 to 60 so it's a little confusing. What levels do you use for your hatchlings?
 

Acrismore

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Welcome you are on the right forum. Do the suggestions here and you will give your new friend a happy healthy life.
Would love to see pics of the little guy!
Here is a picture of Marshmallow and her enclosure. I plan on changing her water dish to the same as her food dish as it is hard for her to use.
 

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Ray--Opo

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Here is a picture of Marshmallow and her enclosure. I plan on changing her water dish to the same as her food dish as it is hard for her to use.
Yes change the water dish so you don't have the possibility of flipping over. Marshmallow is a little cutie. You may get suggestions to enclose your container so that you can hold the humidity and temp in. Hang in there you will get more info.
 

Acrismore

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Yes change the water dish so you don't have the possibility of flipping over. Marshmallow is a little cutie. You may get suggestions to enclose your container so that you can hold the humidity and temp in. Hang in there you will get more info.
Thank you, I will have my husband make some sort of top for her, I am finding that I have to spray it very often.
 

Acrismore

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I would also like to add that I had an organic potting soil mixed with play sand as a substrate with repti bark on top but she was not pooping or eating and was not active at all for days. I got scared she was getting impaction so I switched her to only repti bark and gave her some mineral oil and lots of soaks. She finally pooped and has been eating and more active. Not sure if the sand was the problem or the little white balls in the potting soil, or maybe even her humidity level. Now that she only has the repti bark I feel it may not keep humidity levels or warmth. I do put smagmoss in her hide.
 

Ray--Opo

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20180307_122559.jpg 20180307_122645.jpg 20180609_174921.jpg It wouldn't hurt to mix some coco coir with your substrate to help hold the moisture. This is what I did to enclose Opo's first hold
 

Yvonne G

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I don't have knowledge of the Hermanni species. I'm pretty sure Chris addresses all the ins and outs of Hermanni care in his care sheet linked above. But I would like to say something about that light and the fixture. We don't recommend using the compact fluorescent bulbs, especially mounted vertically, like that one is. The main reason is because they have been known to cause eye problems in young tortoises. Another reason is they don't really give off all that much UVB.

What I use for my baby tortoises is a tube type fluorescent UVB bulb with a radiant heat panel. You can also use a ceramic heat emitter with a Mercury Vapor Bulb.

I don't know the temperatures Chris says for baby Hermanni, I'm sure it says in his care sheet, but I keep my species of babies at around 80-85F degrees day and night - all over the whole enclosure. I don't allow it to get down into the 70's. It may be different for Hermanni - you'll have to read the care sheet.
 

Ray--Opo

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Wow that looks great thanks
Those are 2 separate sections with the plywood inserts. You can cut different plywood inserts if you need to change the layout. After painting it the humidity stayed up. When it was bare wood the wood soaked up the humidity. I put it on a furniture trolley so I could roll it around. I had bought the tub and then found out I needed to enclose it. If I would have found this forum first. I would have went with a different setup completely. But it worked for Opo when Opo was a little tort.
 

Ella’s Gigi

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I have a Western Hermann’s who is only 3 months old. I found most of my items for his enclosure on Amazon. I have 2-3 inches of clean, new top soil and another 3-4 inches of cypress mulch on top of that. I got all of the mulch very wet and mixed it in a little with the topsoil. He loves bo burrow on the mulch but not the soil. I have a basking light that gets to 90 directly under it. A UV 10.0 light and a ceramic heating emitter (CHE). His enclosure is big for his size but he has many temperature options throughout the enclosure. I spray his enclosure 2 times a day to keep his humidity at 65-70%. I bought a digital laser temperature gun at Home Depot (28.00). I use it to do spot checks around his enclosure. It’s been low 20’s here at night so I’ve been leaving the CHE only because I want him to have a warmer option but it still gets down to 65 at night.

Hope this helps :):tort:
 

Sadiegirl

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Thank you for the help. So I read that they turned the lights off and covered the enclosure. I am just worried she will get cold as she is a hatchling. I also read the humidity level should be 70% I read elsewhere its 40 to 60 so it's a little confusing. What levels do you use for your hatchlings?
 
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