Sulcata Tortoise Lighting Help

[Patrickstyblo]

Hello I have a Sulcata hatchling about a month old. I have him living in a 44 gallon plastic bin approximately 4 feet long. On one end I have timothy hay, and down on the other end i have coconut fiber substrate. My question to you is how do i regulate the lighting? I have a 5.0 uvb bulb and an infrared heat lamp. Should i have both lights together at one end? Should i have them both on for atleast 12-14 hours a day? How do I know if the heat settings are keeping my little squirt happy?

 

[Dizisdalife]

Welcome to the Forum and congratulation o your new baby. I know your question was about lighting, but I am first going to suggest that you get rid of the timothy hay. It will get moist and mold. Baby sulcata need to be kept in a very humid environment. The coconut fiber is a good substrate to use.

The ambient temperature should be 80 - 85*F and a basking spot at about 100*F. To keep the ambient temp at 80*, I had to use two ceramic heating elements (CHE) controlled by a thermostat. The CHE's were positioned at the third poits of the length of the enclosure and the pickup probe from the controller was in the middle. The basking spot was heated by a PowerSun MVB. It had heat and UVB combined and it was on a timer for 12 hours each day. The light and the CHE's were hung straight down and not clamped onto the sides of the enclosure. I used a ifared temp gun to spot check the temperature, especially at the basking spot. It also helped to get the soaking water at the correct temp and to check the ground temperature outside when it came time to expose my baby to the elements. To hold the heat and the humidity in I covered most of the top of the enclosure. This took a little creativity, but it proved to be a key ingredient to raising a healthy tortoise.

 

[Livingstone]

The most effective way to control temperatures is by knowing what they are first. With that being said you should invest in an temperature gun (amazon has them for cheap). Once you know what your temps are in the various areas (basking spot, cool spot) you can start to adjust the height of the lights or the number of lights to get the temperatures to the correct level for the species. These are the basics and you will need to do some constant checking because things like humidity (very important for babies) should be around 70 to 80% and with that kind of moisture in the air the temperatures will drop and some adjusting will again be necessary. It takes alot of checking, rechecking and so on, but it is well worth it in terms of the animals health and in the long run will save you from unneccessary vet visits.

Based on what you are using I would say that it is necessary to have both lights on together because the 5.0 UVB is not producing any usable heat. The best thing you can do is invest in a mercury vapor bulb which provides all the UVA/UVB and heat for the tortoise during the day (check out Zoomed 100watt) and use the other bulb for night heat only.

***If your flourescent UVB bulb is a coil bulb you need to find a replacement right away, the coil bulbs cause eye damage and blindness.

Also please feel free to read the links in my signature they have very detailed information about care for babies.

 

[Tom]

Hello and welcome.

Good advice above. I don't like infrared bulbs. You need to simulate daytime light during the day and darkness at night. The infrared prevents both. Where do you live? If you live in an area with warm temps most of the year, you can just use a regular incandescent flood bulb on a 12 hour timer during the day. Then you can set up a ceramic heating element on a thermostat to maintain your ambient around 80 all the time. I like to also use a long florescent tube for added light during the day. For simplicity, I just run both the flood bulb and the florescent tube on one timer.

Lots of sulcata info in my signature.