Piggy's New Pen!

[SulcataSarah]

Thanks to the wonderful help of Mira_kaylee, We have refurbished piggys pen. with a pool, a new house, a log, some better substrate, and just all around improvement from his old sad pen lol. (there are three rocks in his pen, but the glare kind of hides them)

The next step will be to secure his lights better and maybe hang the uvb bulb above the tank for a wider coverage area. and add a few plants around it. So anyways i'm attaching a photo, what do you think? not to bad for some newer mothers to the tortoise world? ^_^

 

[Yvonne G]

Sometimes having a red light on during the day makes the substrate and rocks and "stuff" look appetizing to a tortoise and they eat what they shouldn't eat. (Just goin' by what I've heard, not by first hand experiance)

 

[wellington]

Not sure, but substrate looks like sand? If so you should mix it with another substrate or use something else. Sand can cause impaction. Also the UVB does need to point straight down. Humidity? I might have seen some pyramiding, but not sure if it is just the pic. Torts need humidity to help prevent pyramiding. Is the hide a humid hide and do you do soaks every day?
As far as the enclosure, I like it.

 

[joshtaylor123]

Not sure, but substrate looks like sand? If so you should mix it with another substrate or use something else. Sand can cause impaction. Also the UVB does need to point straight down. Humidity? I might have seen some pyramiding, but not sure if it is just the pic. Torts need humidity to help prevent pyramiding. Is the hide a humid hide and do you do soaks every day?
As far as the enclosure, I like it.

Okay I'm getting mixed responses to this, but I had my UVB bulb in a dome pointing down, but was told it needed to face sideways...??? Why should it face down??

 

[Jacob]

You need all your light pointing downwards, it increases there life and doesn't burn out as quick.
also on the MVB its more efficient if the rays are pointing straight down on your tortiose.

 

[wellington]

Bulbs don't give out the best UVB as it is. Never any as good as the sun. However the best we can get from it is with it pointing straight down. I have never heard of someone saying to put it on a slant.

 

[joshtaylor123]

You need all your light pointing downwards, it increases there life and doesn't burn out as quick.
also on the MVB its more efficient if the rays are pointing straight down on your tortiose.

Okay thank you!

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Bulbs don't give out the best UVB as it is. Never any as good as the sun. However the best we can get from it is with it pointing straight down. I have never heard of someone saying to put it on a slant.

Read my UVB thread... And you can see what I was told.

 

[SulcataSarah]

the substrate is a mixsture of sand and topsoil, the sand is a calcisand kinda thing so if he does eat some of it it will be easier to process and give him the extra calcium. (i rely more on a multivitamin spray for those.) he hated the last one i tried and wouldn't eat anything if i put it on his food. he seems to love the new stuff i got today though. the red bulb is for heat, i live in missouri and though we haven't had much snow, it has been colder than normal. I try to take him outside when the weather is nice though, and he seems to love it (except when the neighbor flicks their cig. butts in my yard and he trys to eat it.) >=/

As for the pyramiding comment, no his shell is still pretty smooth, he had a little sign of it when i got him (there were two others in the pen so i dont think he got enough to eat) but its smoothed out quite a bit, but hes round now so i probably fed him a little too much at first. xD