Temps
- Thread starter TortieGal
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I don't worry about the weather. I have a small group of Russians that live outside 24/7. The summers here get into the 100's occasionally, but mostly in the upper 90's. During the hottest part of the summer the Russians will dig down into the earth under their shelters and estivate for a week or so, coming back out when the weather cools a bit.
Matilda is kind of a funny Russian she doesn't dig. She just sleeps right on top her substrate. I will hear her do a few scrapes and that's it. I never see her trying to dig outside. I worry about putting her out and leaving for work because if it gets to hot I won't be here to bring her in. But you gave me a good idea I will dig a little hole for her under her hide and fill it with leaves.
Should I use oak of madrone leaves? I think either one will be ok but correct me if I'm wrong because I'm sure she will eat them she eats everything I put in front of her. She will come right to me and eat out of my hand what a great personality!
Should I use oak of madrone leaves? I think either one will be ok but correct me if I'm wrong because I'm sure she will eat them she eats everything I put in front of her. She will come right to me and eat out of my hand what a great personality!
I'm not sure, but I thought oak leaves were toxic. Do you have access to a mulberry tree? Those are good eating and would make a great substrate. You could also use grass hay in there. Its nice and soft for digging into.
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- Aug 10, 2010
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I keep Turbo's temp when she is inside around 80 degrees and the humidity in the arid range. I don't take her out much because I'm worried about the temp and humidity differences.
I was told that oak leaves are okay- this is a thread I made when I found my Russian eating dried oak leaves:
http://tortoiseforum.org/thread-13605.html?highlight=oak
http://tortoiseforum.org/thread-13605.html?highlight=oak
Directly under my UVB bulb my temps usually read around 92F or so. I don't keep a rock under it as from what I've read 92 is hot enough? Cool side is usually around 72ish (too cold?) and my tort never hangs out on the cool side.
Thanks everyone, I decided to let her go outside today after digging a bit of a hole and leaving some most dirt in it to dig in. I didn’t use leaves. The hole is under her log and shade above the log. She seemed fine when I got home. I did call my husband at lunchtime and told him to go out and spay the area with some cool water. It was 95 in the shade here today, Hot!
TortieGal said:
As long as they have plenty of shade they should be ok. I live in AZ and temps and get up to 116 outside. They usually burrow down but I've also created shelters for them. I've had them outside 2 years and they are thriving. I'd also have water available for them - goes without saying.
TortieGal said:
That's not an average - just a very hot day in AZ. I have a thermometer in their underground borrow and it never gets hotter than 95 regardless of how hot it is outside. I dug down approx 1 foot and then inserted a "hide" for them. I then buried it with dirt to make sure they could weather these hot days. At some point I'll post pictures of their enclosure...just haven't had time yet. Definitely keep them outside all the time if you're able to.
wpk-I am for 90/95 at the substrate level as this will be hotter at the tort's mid level. If its a hatchling I'd do more like 95/100 as they like it hotter. Even if you keep your thermostat the same temps will vary slightly daily due to fluctuations and humidity, so remember to measure temps regularly with an accurate thermometer (like a temp gun), and adjust the bulb if needed. If this is a recent reading, that sounds just fine. A cool temp of 72 is great. I'd aim for 70/75. My tort spends most of his time in the 80s, so I try to maximize the amount of space in the enclosure that is in the 80s but still have a spot at 70/75 for him to cool down. Having a large enclosure but having much of it too cold means that they won't use the whole enclosure. Having a temp gun is very helpful because you aim and press the button all around the enclosure to see the range. You may find yourself wanting to use two bulbs instead of one (like a MVB plus a CHE) if a lot of the enclosure is cold and not being used. I get away with only the MVB in the warm months and use a CHE on 24/7 plus the MVB on 12-14 hours a day in the cooler months.
I don't have a temp gun, I'll have to look into one. I'm using two of the digital thermometers that have the wired probes on them, one on each side of the enclosure. Ivy does tend to stay on the warm side of the enclosure so far, though I haven't seen her basking right under the bulb. She's lately been spending the days in the log hide on the warm side. When I put the temp probe inside there I got a reading of around 84ish if I'm recalling correctly. I'm at work right now, I can get a better reading tomorrow.
One of the care sheets I read stated that temps in the high 60s, low 70s are desirable at night. The night temps (after the mvb timer has shut itself off with the timer) seem to be holding steady around 68-69F. Would you suggest some sort of heater going 24/7 on the warm side?
One of the care sheets I read stated that temps in the high 60s, low 70s are desirable at night. The night temps (after the mvb timer has shut itself off with the timer) seem to be holding steady around 68-69F. Would you suggest some sort of heater going 24/7 on the warm side?
ChiKat said:
Just wanted to let you know that I was wrong- do not feed oak leaves to your tort!!
http://tortoiseforum.org/thread-18045.html
wpk-I'd get a temp gun so you can get an accurate map of what the temps are in the entire enclosure, but if you say she is spending all her time in the warm side, and its not for an obvious reason like you have the food/water/hides there so she has no reason to go to the cooler sides, than all or parts of the year you might want more heat on that other side to the point that you still have a good temp gradient (70/75 to 95) but there are more temps in the 80s than the 70s so the tort can use more of the enclosure. 68/69 F at night is great. For an adult Russian I'd feel comfortable going down to 60 F at night (keep that in mind for the winter--not sure how cool you keep your house). I wouldn't be surprised if she is spending all her time on the warm side if the hottest it gets is mid-80s. They need to get 80/85 just to digest food, so she is having to spend longer to get warm enough than if you had a 95 F basking spot. I'd lower the MVB to bump up the basking spot to 95 and get a temp gun (I got a PE1 for $25 on Ebay) and take it from there. If you have a 100 Watt MVB, just make sure the bulb face is between 12 and 18 inches from the substrate. Any closer and its too much UVB and any further and not much useful UVB gets to the tort. Its rare to get correct temperatures outside of that range though, but I thought I'd throw that out there. I don't remember off hand what the range is for the 160 Watt, so if you have that one, look it up to double check. How big of an enclosure? I like to use a pile of timothy hay and fake plants for hides on the warm side because they tend to stay a little warmer than a box or half log hide. Torts will choose shelter over heat or food. Make sure you have hides in all the temperature zones.
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