MVB change

[Snapper]

Hello everyone

So about a week ago I switched MVB's. I went from an exo terra solar glo, to a power sun. I also use a regular exo terra daylight bulb along with the MVB to get the temps to the desired range.
When I was using the solar glo, my tortoise would spend a lot of time basking under it, but now that I switched to the power sun, he prefers sitting under the other bulb that just emits UVA. I switched MVB's because I thought power sun was the better bulb, but I don't understand why my tort now prefers basking under the regular light. Could it be this power sun bulb is faulty?
Thanks for reading!

 

[DeanS]

The hotter lamp is going to be their favorite...you could drop the Solar Glo and pick up a CHE...

 

[Snapper]

But he's now basking under the cooler bulb. It is beside the power sun.
The solar glo is put away.

 

[Yvonne G]

You might have the new bulb placed too close to the floor of the habitat. Have you measured the temperature under the light?

 

[Snapper]

It ranges from 96-100 F. It is 12" above the floor of the habitat. Its also the same distance away that the sloar glo was.

 

[Madkins007]

Tortoises are driven to bask by a desire to warm up and/or expose themselves to UV light. They can probably see UV but probably only in the UVA range (in the outdoors, UVA would always be accompanied by UVB so no need to see it.

The 'old bulb' is doing something he likes- temps he is looking for, liking the UV lighting, maybe it is the combination of high heat to lower light levels, or something.

If the temp and brightness under both is about the same, maybe the older one is 'brighter' to him because of the UVA. I would try turning it off for a while and see if he chooses the new one then.

 

[Snapper]

Ok thanks for the replies. I will look into getting a CHE. I just like having extra light, and the CHE doesn't provide that...

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Madkins007 wrote:
If the temp and brightness under both is about the same, maybe the older one is 'brighter' to him because of the UVA. I would try turning it off for a while and see if he chooses the new one then.

The older one is the solar glo, and has both UVA abd UVB. It is not being used now. It is the exo terra daylight bulb that he is using, and that is the one that produces only UVA.