Met a young lady this weekend w/ a Russian Tortoise who lives outside most of the year, but is kept inside during the months that are too cold for a European tortoise (around here, that's typically mid-October through mid-March, give or take), although she takes him outside on warm days for a few hours as often as possible during those months. It does have proper heating in it's inside home (basking spot stays about 97F) and she's kept her RT in this manner for about 10 years. It's a very healthy RT with a good strong shell and the usual RT voracious enthusiasm for greens and weeds.
So, the question she wants to know is, does her tort really need a UV lamp when it never goes more than a week or so w/o some hours of unfiltered sunlight, even in the winter of Texas? Told her I didn't see that it'd hurt having one, but that I really didn't know if she was hurting it, either, and I'd see what my fellow tort-fanciers thought.
What say ye?
So, the question she wants to know is, does her tort really need a UV lamp when it never goes more than a week or so w/o some hours of unfiltered sunlight, even in the winter of Texas? Told her I didn't see that it'd hurt having one, but that I really didn't know if she was hurting it, either, and I'd see what my fellow tort-fanciers thought.
What say ye?