Lighting question from Sue White

New member @sue white sent me a private message, but I think she meant it for the Forum:


I'm a new member and new at tortoises so I thought I ask you guys. I have a hatchling Redfoot that I've had for a month . Guessing she's 2-3 months old now (2 1/2 inches long). My "Finn" hides a lot but she seems healthy. Eats good- poo's regular. The question I have is "how important is a basking light for her"? For the last 2 days I haven't used the basking to see what she does but I do use a heat emitter to keep the temp around 80-85 degrees in the warm spot and a 5.0 UVB lamp. When I had the basking on she rarely used it anyway. I do try to take her outside for about 30 minutes a day to get her a little sun. I built her a little enclosure out there that I keep mostly shaded . what you folks think?

a basking light isn't important at all for her i use one but i've NEVER seen my redfoot bask it's all about just lighting the enclosure for him

if the UVB is met and the brightness is enough for them to see then no basking is requires in my opinion

RF tortoises don't need a warm side/cool side. You can get by with some sort of heat source that keeps the overall temperature in the habitat around 80F degrees. For UVB you can use one of these:



This provides UVB without heat, so you'll need a heat source, either a regular incandescent bulb or a CHE (ceramic heat emitter).

Thank you very much your reply I did mean this for the forum too but am still trying to figure out how to move around this site here's what I've got closest- basking, then- emitter, then UVB

Hi your tort is a forest species that needs high humidity which your enclosure doesn't appear to provide.

Can I suggest that you read this which is very helpful on the care required by red footed torts

http://www.tortoiselibrary.com/species-information-2/chelonoidis/

Thanks Joesmum sorry I wanted you guys to see the inside of it Half of this always has a clear plastic Rubbermaid lid over it (above the cooler end ) to hold in the humidity. This done,the humidity stay pretty good at about 80-90 degrees with a couple of misting's a day. Is this too much humidity? thanks for the link I need all the info I can get

I would move the lights/heat more to the middle so you don't have a "cool side."

thanks will do