It's quite big when you see it in life size
Plus he does go out side a lot
Mine has never ate substrate
The viv is also changing I'm making some improvements
How big is the vivarium? The tortoise? I agree about the bulb, you can get a lot of heat without a bulb being close like that with a normal house or incandescent bulb.
In addition to red/infrared lights....you can use a black night bulb....this cuts down on any light but offers up heat....you can also use a ceramic heat emitter.....the red light works fine also, I have used them for night heat and then turn them off during the day and use day bulbs for day hours....
Ditto on the black light! I use it for my redfoots so I can still see them, but they don't have bright lights on them (which redfoots hate). Keeps temps up nicely, and low cost on electric bill
I had it of for the pic
I usually turn the uv light off when he's asleep to save energy and when he's awake I turn it back on so he can get his d3 and a nice light to wake up to
I'm glad you switched out the red light. one thing everyone is gonna pick at is the size of your enclosure. unfortunately, your species of tortoise travels far distances in the wild and is driven to wander. i know building a larger enclosure is sometimes difficult but maybe it's something you could save up some money and put it on your to do list