Viv heat

[Lynnielou]

Hi all my baby horsefield has a temp of about 80f in her viv but there are cool spots in there at night we turn both lights off and the temp is about 60 is the correct heat for my baby horsefield?

 

[Maro2Bear]

Greetings and Welcome to the Forum.

Take a read here, lots of great info - https://tortoiseforum.org/threads/russian-tortoise-care-sheet.80698/

• Heating and lighting:
• If your tortoise gets regular sunshine for most of the year, you do not need any artificial indoor UV. An hour outside a couple of times a week is enough to meet their UV needs, but more is better. If your tortoise must live inside all the time, then I recommend long tube style florescent UV lights or mercury vapor bulbs. No reason you can't use both. Since my Russians do get sunshine all year, I just use 65 watt incandescent flood bulbs from the hardware store to meet my heating needs. I hang my fixture over one end of the enclosure and raise or lower it to get a basking spot of around 100. I hang my lights over a flat piece of slate or sandstone, which spreads the heat out a bit and allows them to get some safe belly heat while they bask. This can be used in conjunction with a long florescent UV tube, if needed. I don't use any other heat for Russians, and I let the temperature of the rest of the enclosure fade to room temp away from the single heat source. In most cases night heat for Russians is not necessary. Night temps in the 60s are fine as long as they can warm up the next day. If your Russian is trying to hibernate as fall approaches and you don't want it to, upping your temps (including the night temps), lengthening the days on your light timer and brightening the enclosure with more lights, are all ways to help convince them to stay up. For most Russian tortoises of any age, its really that simple. Put a 95-100 degree basking spot on one end for 12-14 hours a day and that's it.

 

[Tom]

Hi all my baby horsefield has a temp of about 80f in her viv but there are cool spots in there at night we turn both lights off and the temp is about 60 is the correct heat for my baby horsefield?

80 as a daytime ambient is fine, but they still need a basking area that reaches 95-100 directly under the bulb. 60 at night and a high of 80 during the day with no basking area, is likely to lead to sickness.