New enclosure check for safety...

[Wirick27]

So I'm planning my new tort enclosure (Hermann), and need to check a few plants just to be on the safe side, please let me know if there is anything on here I should take out:

Hibotan (Moon cactus)
creeping jenny
lamium maculatum Aurea (Dead Nettle)

also I have a small cacti & succulent collection see photo: are all types of cactus ok?

I also have a 75 watt repti-halogen light, do they need heat overnight, should I have a heat emitter?

I got a piece of quarts flagstone for a basking rock as well.

 

[tortoisenerd]

Night heat depends on ambient temperature and the age of the tort. For a Hermanns, I'd say for a hatchling you'd want to use night heat if the room is below 70/75, and for an older tort, if its below 60/65. Ceramic heat emitters are ideal for night heat. A reptile halogen light doesn't emit UVB, which your tort will need if it doesn't get outdoors on a regular basis. Doesn't matter if its a "reptile" halogen...it has to say UVA and UVB on the box, and some brands are much better than others. Many of the "reptile" lights are just marked up in price from household bulbs and do nothing special. A Mercury Vapor Bulb is the best you can get for UVB. Buy a 100 Watt Mega Ray, T-Rex Active UV Heat, or Powersun. They put off light, heat, and UVB all in one fixture and last 12 months. Get a ceramic socket hood fixture which hangs from a lamp stand which can be adjusted in height. Mount the bulb face parallel to the subsrate. Get an accurate thermometer like a temp gun and use it regularly. Have the bulb on 12-14 hours a day.

I'm personally against basking rocks since I think they create very concentrated hot spots with the lights we use...heating the tort from below. I would only use a tile for feeding, not basking.

I don't see the point in putting a potted collection of cactus in a tort enclosure...they won't eat them and they can't hide under them, which is what I use as criteria. For a Hermann, I'd use containers, boxes, fake plants, a pile of timothy hay or orchard grass, or similar for hides (I personally find the half logs dangerous as torts love to climb them and flip over while getting down), and keep the food separate (bring it into the enclosure). Its very tough to get plants going in an enclosure...so for a first time tort owner I'd focus on the enclosure first, and down the road think about plants and such. If you choose to go with live plants, I'd go with potted plants which can be eaten and/or hidden under, which are non-toxic, and organic (not bought from a nursery in most cases...organic is tough to find in stuff that humans don't eat), grown from seeds, or have sat out for 12 months to leech out the chemicals. Prickly pear cactus pads are great as part of a varied diet. Hopefully someone else comes along soon to answer your plant toxicity questions.