Red basking?

[THEADEMARCO]

So my basking bulb blew (someone please recommend a long lasting one) and I’m gonna get a new one tomorrow when school ends.
I have a basking bulb, but it’s infrared which I’ve heard is bad for tortoises. My question is should I leave this infrared basking bulb on while I’m at school, or should I just have no basking bulb for a day?

 

[wellington]

If it were me, I would use it. But then I would get a back up when I replaced the one that blew and dump the red one.
A basking bulb should be a incandescent flood bulb. 65watt seems to work for most. Not sure you will find any on the stores, but you can online at lightlyourreptiles or Amazon. They are getting hard to get, so buy a few.

 

[THEADEMARCO]

Thanks, I’ll leave the red one on and order some on Amazon that’ll arrive tomorrow.

 

[ZEROPILOT]

Red bulbs make everything red.
Including substrate and other non edibles in the enclosure. Many tortoises are hardwired to eat red things.
An incandescent, clear or "white" bulb would be a better choice. And in an emergency, even a "black" light at night.
"Black" lights put out warmth and a dim purplish glow that shouldn't interfere with the night cycle. But they burn out pretty fast and they're getting hard to find too.
I used to have 60 watt black lights in my outdoors tortoises houses. I liked them because I could tell they were working at night because I could see the glow. But it seemed like every time I NEEDED them to be working, one or more was always not working. I switched to CHE and they are unbelievably reliable.

 

[wellington]

Red bulbs make everything red.
Including substrate and other non edibles in the enclosure. Many tortoises are hardwired to eat red things.
An incandescent, clear or "white" bulb would be a better choice. And in an emergency, even a "black" light at night.
"Black" lights put out warmth and a dim purplish glow that shouldn't interfere with the night cycle. But they burn out pretty fast and they're getting hard to find too.
I used to have 60 watt black lights in my outdoors tortoises houses. I liked them because I could tell they were working at night because I could see the glow. But it seemed like every time I NEEDED them to be working, one or more was always not working. I switched to CHE and they are unbelievably reliable.

He isn't replacing the red bulb with a red bulb. He's buying a flood but only has a red as a back up until the flood gets there.