Small testudo marginata - question

[vniveri25]

Well we are over the process, tortoise was chillin in the fridge for 2 weeks, he went down 3 grams on his weight. Waking up went smoothly, he started eating verry fast. He's now almost 200grams (34 grams when i bought him) He's growing fast, and he's more then 1 year old now, so i think its the time to change his enclouser, i raised him in big plastic container, like it was shown on the Garden State Tortoise Yt channel, now i'm going to build big wooden "table" like 180/90cm - this year i decided to raise him indoors becouse i'm worried about predators outside, when he will be a little bit heavier, maby next year, i'm going to build him some proper base in the garden. I'm going to buy metahalogen 25w or 50w, and i will fill the tortoise table with fir bark, maby i'll put some tortoise soil on the bottom layer and then go with the repti bark on the top, then i'll add some plants and i'll try to add some moss for the humidity - but i'll observe if he will not start to eat that, still can't really make him to eat dryied herbs from the garden, but lucky i can gather some plants all year, there isn't snowing much here, i had just a 1 week with snow, so now is the worst time for the fresh plants, but few weeks and the nature will start the process, then i will also plant some dandelions in his new base. Thank you all for help!

 

[Tom]

I'm going to buy metahalogen 25w or 50w...

Glad your brumation went well.

Here is a breakdown of the four heating and lighting essentials:

1. Basking bulb. I use 65 watt incandescent floods from the hardware store. Some people will need bigger, or smaller wattage bulbs. Let your thermometer be your guide. I run them on a timer for about 12 hours and adjust the height to get the correct basking temp under them. I also like to use a flat rock of some sort directly under the bulb. You need to check the temp with a thermometer directly under the bulb and get it to around 95-100F (36-37C).
2. Ambient heat maintenance. I use ceramic heating elements or radiant heat panels set on thermostats to maintain ambient above 80 degrees day and night for tropical species. In most cases you'd only need day heat for a temperate species like Testudo or DT, as long as your house stays above 60F (15-16C) at night. Some people in colder climates or with larger enclosures will need multiple CHEs or RHPs to spread out enough heat.
3. Ambient light. I use LEDs for this purpose. Something in the 5000-6500K color range will look the best. Most bulbs at the store are in the 2500K range and they look yellowish. Strip or screw-in LED bulb types are both fine.
4. UV. If you can get your tortoise outside for an hour 2 or 3 times a week, you won't need indoor UV. In colder climates, get one of the newer HO type fluorescent tubes. Which type will depend on mounting height. 5.0 bulbs make almost no UV. I like the 12% HO bulbs from Arcadia. You need a meter to check this: https://www.solarmeter.com/model65.html A good UV bulb only needs to run for 2-3 hours mid day. You need the basking bulb and the ambient lighting to be on at least 12 hours a day.

 

[vniveri25]

This is how it looks now, trying the moss, if he will not eat this i will leave it, first think he did was eating fir bark, like, i'm using it from the start, don't know what happend, but 1 small bark won't do harm. Waiting for led lights, now i have metahalogen and basking spot light, temperatures looks OK, hope he will like it

 

[Alex and the Redfoot]

Do you use metal-halide to provide UVB? Or just as an ambient light source?

 

[vniveri25]

Do you use metal-halide to provide UVB? Or just as an ambient light source?

I use metahalogen with the uvb spectrum, its connected with proper ballast + basking spot light + today post will deliver led lamp, becouse its still pretty dark in some parts of the terrarium

 

[vniveri25]

And the final setup with leds, now its pretty good i guess, tortoise is exploring terrarium, climbing on rocks, he's always looking for the hardest ways to pass through, when all stuff in on, i don't need any other light source in my room, its verry bright

 

[Tom]

I use metahalogen with the uvb spectrum, its connected with proper ballast + basking spot light + today post will deliver led lamp, becouse its still pretty dark in some parts of the terrarium

That bulb will cause pyramiding. Those are not a good option for tortoises.
Here is a breakdown of the four heating and lighting essentials:

1. Basking bulb. I use 65 watt incandescent floods from the hardware store. Some people will need bigger, or smaller wattage bulbs. Let your thermometer be your guide. I run them on a timer for about 12 hours and adjust the height to get the correct basking temp under them. I also like to use a flat rock of some sort directly under the bulb. You need to check the temp with a thermometer directly under the bulb and get it to around 95-100F (36-37C).
2. Ambient heat maintenance. I use ceramic heating elements or radiant heat panels set on thermostats to maintain ambient above 80 degrees day and night for tropical species. In most cases you'd only need day heat for a temperate species like Testudo or DT, as long as your house stays above 60F (15-16C) at night. Some people in colder climates or with larger enclosures will need multiple CHEs or RHPs to spread out enough heat.
3. Ambient light. I use LEDs for this purpose. Something in the 5000-6500K color range will look the best. Most bulbs at the store are in the 2500K range and they look yellowish. Strip or screw-in LED bulb types are both fine.
4. UV. If you can get your tortoise outside for an hour 2 or 3 times a week, you won't need indoor UV. In colder climates, get one of the newer HO type fluorescent tubes. Which type will depend on mounting height. 5.0 bulbs make almost no UV. I like the 12% HO bulbs from Arcadia. You need a meter to check this: https://www.solarmeter.com/model65.html A good UV bulb only needs to run for 2-3 hours mid day. You need the basking bulb and the ambient lighting to be on at least 12 hours a day.

A safety note: Those clamps always fail, and many houses have burned down as a result. Don't use the clamps. Hang the fixtures from over here.

More helpful info here:

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Questions welcome.

 

[vniveri25]

Damn thank's for the advice about clams, i need to change it, about metahalogens ( i use it 4 hours a day) some people said that u can choose between metahalogens or that HO tubes

 

[Alex and the Redfoot]

Damn thank's for the advice about clams, i need to change it, about metahalogens ( i use it 4 hours a day) some people said that u can choose between metahalogens or that HO tubes

I think @Markw84 or @jaizei can comment on metal-halide lamps. I wish we could get an advice on safe usage.

I only know that MH lamps provide exceptional visible spectrum light, less harsh than mercury vapour bulbs in terms of infrared and that UV output degrades faster than for T5HO tubes (just rumours, I don't have a proof).

 

[jaizei]

I use metahalogen with the uvb spectrum, its connected with proper ballast + basking spot light + today post will deliver led lamp, becouse its still pretty dark in some parts of the terrarium

Can you post a picture of the ballast and fixture?

I think @Markw84 or @jaizei can comment on metal-halide lamps. I wish we could get an advice on safe usage.

I only know that MH lamps provide exceptional visible spectrum light, less harsh than mercury vapour bulbs in terms of infrared and that UV output degrades faster than for T5HO tubes (just rumours, I don't have a proof).

If its the metahalogen I found, it doesn't seem to be widely available so it may have never had the spectrum been tested.

 

[vniveri25]

I have the Metahalogen 50W FLOOD MEGA RAY, this is how the ballast looks like, basking spot lamp is 100w, it keeps temperatures verry well i have like 38 degrees in basking spot

 

[vniveri25]

humidity - well i would like to have it higher to avoid piramyding, its easy to keep it 50% degrees, but to get over 50 its not easy, i need to figure out to do something to get it to like 60-70%

 

[The_Four_Toed_Edward]

humidity - well i would like to have it higher to avoid piramyding, its easy to keep it 50% degrees, but to get over 50 its not easy, i need to figure out to do something to get it to like 60-70%

Is your enclosure a open top or closed chamber?

 

[vniveri25]

Open top, but i'm going to make it closed

 

[The_Four_Toed_Edward]

Open top, but i'm going to make it closed

Making it closed should help with your humidity issue.

 

[vniveri25]

Hello guys! My tort is growing, he's 448g now. He went brumination 05.12.2025, and he's male (he showed he's pp once in bath). Well i'm a little bit concerned about brumination. I bought him a fridge that i don't use or open often its just for him. I weighted him today and he lost 5% of his bodyweight in 1 month. He had empty bowels, i prepered him with the forum guide about brumination. First 2 weeks when i was checking him, he was reacting pretty fast, when i touched his legs he was hiding it fast, now he's reacting verry slowly, has closed eyes all the time, he's not hiding his back legs, he's reacting with front part of his body pretty slow - is it a bad sign or he's just deeply hibernating? I'm not sure if some of this weight loss was a pee, can't see anytning in his box, temperature is around 6-8 celcius degrees all the time. Should i wake him up or wait few weeks, checking the weight? 5% seems a lot, it should be like 1% monthly

 

[vniveri25]

i will refresh a thread

 

[COmtnLady]

@Tom

 

[vniveri25]

Ok today i did another weight test, so last week there was something wrong with the scale, couse today, (did this 3 times to check) he's weight is 436g so we lost 11g in 1 month and 10 days (2%), i checked on him, always closed eyes, but he can move all his "legs" and he reacts on touch, i'm just worried that he's not really hiding those back legs and they look like they look when the animal is dead. But i don't see any other bad signs, well sorry guys its our first long hibernation, i also added jars with water in the fridge (he has his own small fridge) and it stabilised the tempreture perfectly! When the fridge was empy i was around 7-10, now we have like 8 all the time(Celcius degrees)

 

[vniveri25]

Hello again friends. My baby is now about 570 grams, and almost 2 years old. I guess he's male, sometimes he's not hiding his pp fully, but most of the time he's hiding it well, hope there's nothing to worry about. Well i think i got some pyramiding on the top, i'm building big outside enclosure this year, i'm wondering about species, and how big it will get, he was hibernating and got well fast after hibernation, but i'm not sure about the species now, i was reading about tunesian species, and it looks like it, so i don't know now if he should really hibernate, can somebody tell me a little bit more about this guy with those pictures? I really want to give him good enviorment