strane behaviour

[matty0071]

i have a horsefield torthowever it moves away from the light all the time ive tried all different bulbs and different colours it is 40 c in the basking area all the time it just moves to another corner and when i move the light on it in another corner it moves again why is tis can anone help???

 

[Laura]

Then change it to a Ceramic Heat Emitter CHE and not a light.. but make sure he get outdoor time.. ??

 

[-ryan-]

We need more information. The temperature is good, if that is the surface temperature (how are you measuring it?), but have you considered the fact that perhaps the tortoise is becoming stressed by constant changes of his environment? (moving the light around). Usually I use this motto "trust in the tortoise", whenever I see that my tortoises are doing something odd like sleeping more often or not wanting to eat/bask. Even my active tortoises bask only for short periods of time, and not even every day. It's typically a behavior I see mostly for about thirty minutes after eating. Then they spend a while lying just outside the beam of the basking bulb.

I wouldn't bother changing to a CHE, because it seems to me that this may be a matter of stress and not lighting. Can you give us more information about the tortoise? How long have you noticed this behavior? How are his eating habits? What is his habitat like? etc. etc. etc. There's no such thing as too much information

 

[GBtortoises]

I suggest keeping a light, not a ceramic heater. Your tortoise still needs light for normal activity when indoors too. How far from the tortoises carapace is the light mounted? What is the temperature of the cool end of the enclosure and how big is the enclosure? Photos of the set up would help a great deal.
Does your tortoise seem to be acting normal otherwise? Eating, drinking, expelling wastes, actively walking about?
Some tortoises simply don't spend alot of time basking either. It isn't always dependent upon species, individuals have their preferences too.