need to keep tort from hibernating/indoor setup

[high_d_bear]

two weeks ago i took my tort to the vet because she had a runny/bubbly nose. The vet said it appeared that she did have a respirtaory infection and i shouldnt let her hibernate. so my question is what kind of setup should i use indoors? As of right now i let her out during the day to graze and get her sun but at might i bring her in. I cant let her have free roam of the house because she'd either injest something she's not supossed to or she'll keep using the carpet as her potty spot and that isnt good either..

 

[lvstorts]

What kind of tort do you have?

 

[high_d_bear]

she's a desert tortoise.

 

[Yvonne G]

I have a couple of desert tortoises with abscesses on their noses that I've had to keep up for the past three winters. Here it is, Autumn again, and both of them are still suffering with the abscesses, so they'll have to be kept up AGAIN!!

I have a 4'x8' pen built for them. My pen is on the car port, so it also has a plywood roof. You can just as easily build your pen in a bedroom or a less-often-used room of your house, and in that case you wouldn't need a roof. My pen is also insulated, but in the house you wouldn't need to to that.

I have a pig blanket on one end, two hanging light fixtures with a day and a night light, and a water dish.

This has served them well for three winters. Now if I could only get rid of the abscesses!

 

[high_d_bear]

what kind of lights do i need? can u possibly post a pic of your setup?

 

[Maggie Cummings]

what kind of lights do i need? can u possibly post a pic of your setup?

You just need a decent sized container, try Kmart or Walmart, put some substrate in it and a UVB light and a black light bulb for nighttime. You keep the UVB or MVB light on for 13 hours and that should keep it from wanting to hibernate

 

[Yvonne G]

If you do go the plastic container route, be sure to get the biggest one you can buy. A full-grown desert tortoise needs quite a bit of space.

I buy my light fixtures at Home Depot or Lowe's. Its called a clamp light fixture. If you're going to be using a UVB bulb or a CHE (ceramic heat emitter) then buy a fixture with a ceramic base, NOT one with a Bakelite base (that's brown plastic-like material). Then I take the clamp part off and I hang the fixture so it "shines" straight down. You can hang it from a chain from the ceiling, or make some sort of stand that will hang it. But you want the light to be appx. 12" from the back of your tortoise when she's sitting under it. The directions on the UVB light box usually say to mount it 12". Not any closer.

Here's what it looks like closed:

Then open:

(Note the inventive use of plastic grocery bags as insulation on the edges. )

This is what the right side looks like:

And the left side with the waterer and the pig blanket:

Cautionary note: One of our members who is an electrician, has said that it isn't safe to hang the lights like I do from their cord, as they weren't made to be used like that and the connection between cord and light might not be strong enough. Its a case of "do as I say, not as I do."

 

[dmmj]

Hey yvonne I think that is a awesome looking winter enclosure, thanks for posting pics of it. Gave me some ideas.