My First Sulcata is my enclosure ok

[Tharris6915]

Hi i am new to forum and i have a baby Sulcata tortoise that is around 3 weeks old. My friend from work gave me this little guy today on short notice and im running round trying to make him a home.I purchased a starter kit from pet store for beaded dragon because lady said it is the same for tortoise. Kit came with a 20 gal habitat that has cypress mulch bedding.On my cold side of tank i have 1 5.0 UVB bulb and i just found out i need a 10.0 that i will change in AM. On the hot side it has a double lamp with 100w repti basing spot lamp and 100w nocturnal infrared heat lamp and i purchased a log for hit hiding spot.

Question: in the double lamp do i need the nocturnal one for night? everything i read says to turn off all lights at night, if i dont need the bulb is there something else i should use with the basking lamp?

#2 is it ok to have the uvb buln on cold side and heat on the other or should they be on same side? i read the uvb is only light and no heat so it should still be cold on that side right?

#3 where shold my log go on the hot or cold side

anything that else that can help will be much appreciated for me and my new little guy

 

[leigti]

Welcome to the forum. Unfortunately, it looks like you have been misinformed by the pet store. Don't feel bad, it's happened to most of us. Please look in the species specific section for the care sheet at the top of the sulcata page.
I would recommend that you take back the majority of what you got. I don't mean to be harsh, but you can return the stuff and spend the money on things that you will be able to use for a long time to come.
A few quick pointers though that are very important. You should not have a cold side, the temperature should not drop below 80° around the clock. Get rid of the double dome and the coil UVB bulb. Get a large ceramic doom, they have them at feed stores for 10 bucks, with a mercury vapor bulb. Get a ceramic heat emitter with the same large type dome fixture and use it for nighttime heat. The coil bulbs are thought to damage tortoises eyes, especially hatchlings. The learning curve is quite steep at the beginning for hatchling, read Tom's threads and they will tell you all you need to know.

 

[Tharris6915]

Welcome to the forum. Unfortunately, it looks like you have been misinformed by the pet store. Don't feel bad, it's happened to most of us. Please look in the species specific section for the care sheet at the top of the sulcata page.
I would recommend that you take back the majority of what you got. I don't mean to be harsh, but you can return the stuff and spend the money on things that you will be able to use for a long time to come.
A few quick pointers though that are very important. You should not have a cold side, the temperature should not drop below 80° around the clock. Get rid of the double dome and the coil UVB bulb. Get a large ceramic doom, they have them at feed stores for 10 bucks, with a mercury vapor bulb. Get a ceramic heat emitter with the same large type dome fixture and use it for nighttime heat. The coil bulbs are thought to damage tortoises eyes, especially hatchlings. The learning curve is quite steep at the beginning for hatchling, read Tom's threads and they will tell you all you need to know.

Welcome to the forum. Unfortunately, it looks like you have been misinformed by the pet store. Don't feel bad, it's happened to most of us. Please look in the species specific section for the care sheet at the top of the sulcata page.
I would recommend that you take back the majority of what you got. I don't mean to be harsh, but you can return the stuff and spend the money on things that you will be able to use for a long time to come.
A few quick pointers though that are very important. You should not have a cold side, the temperature should not drop below 80° around the clock. Get rid of the double dome and the coil UVB bulb. Get a large ceramic doom, they have them at feed stores for 10 bucks, with a mercury vapor bulb. Get a ceramic heat emitter with the same large type dome fixture and use it for nighttime heat. The coil bulbs are thought to damage tortoises eyes, especially hatchlings. The learning curve is quite steep at the beginning for hatchling, read Tom's threads and they will tell you all you need to know.

Does the mercury vapor bulb do both heat and uvb? I live in Arizona and with no heaters the habitat will stay around 75 so will I need heater at night or turn everything off

 

[leigti]

The mercury vapor bulb will do both heat and UVB. But you still need to keep it at 80 or above even at night. So use the ceramic heat emitter for that. Your baby needs high humidity so you don't want it to get cold. High humidity and cold temperatures will lead to a respiratory infection. The substrate should be damp but not soggy. And you should soak your tortoise once a day in lukewarm water for about 20 minutes.