14 month old Sulcata. Opinions on shell?

[turtlejet]

Hello all. I'm a paranoid parent. We've had Momo (short for Morla) for almost a year. I think he was kept a little dry before we got him, but we keep him in a very humid enclosure now and give him soaks and time in the garden every day. Indoors he has a mercury vapor bulb for basking and a seperate coil to keep things from getting too cool at night. Can anyone comment on his shell? I know it's not going to be completely smooth, but hopefully we're on the right track? Thanks for any comments or guidance!

 

[wellington]

You will get the pyramidimg to stop if you stop using the mercury bulb. Years ago they were the best, we thought. It has been proven that they are to harsh on the shell and still cause pyramiding even in the highest humidity and they don't give out the best uvb
As for the coil bulb? Is it a coil light bulb? Or a ceramic heat emitter that kinda looks like it's coiled?
Get a incandescent flood bulb for basking, a tube florescent for uvb if you can't get him out for natural sun 3-4 times a week and the ceramic heat emitters for night heat with no light and added day heat if needed
Otherwise he looks great, and changing the bulbs out will keep him that way.

 

[turtlejet]

Thank you!

Sorry, yes it is a ceramic heat emitter that kinda looks like it's coiled

Could you recommend a good bulb to replace the mercury vapor bulb? We have been using a powersun uva/uvb from zoo-med.

He does spend at least an hour in the sun in our yard every day.

 

[wellington]

Look on Amazon for any incandescent flood bulb you would buy to use at your house, 65Watt. They are getting harder to find, as incandescent is slowly being eliminated. If you can't find any on Amazon, I believe Arcadia sells them. They are more expensive though.
As long has he gets natural sun then he doesn't need a UV bulb

 

[Tom]

Hello all. I'm a paranoid parent. We've had Momo (short for Morla) for almost a year. I think he was kept a little dry before we got him, but we keep him in a very humid enclosure now and give him soaks and time in the garden every day. Indoors he has a mercury vapor bulb for basking and a seperate coil to keep things from getting too cool at night. Can anyone comment on his shell? I know it's not going to be completely smooth, but hopefully we're on the right track? Thanks for any comments or guidance!View attachment 363941

Hello and welcome. You need this thread right here. Look for the heating and lighting breakdown and that sulcata care sheet near the bottom.

Info For New People. Please Read This First.

Hello and welcome to tortoiseforum.org! We are all glad you are here! There is no other forum like this anywhere. We have tens of thousands of members from all over the world ranging from kids with their first tortoise to people who have been breeding and keeping high end tortoises since the...

tortoiseforum.org

 

[Alex and the Redfoot]

Hello! As mentioned above, it should be two lamps:
1. Incandescent (not halogen) bulb (with some luck you can get them from Amazon or buy an Arcadia Solar Basking Floodlight). Put it instead of the mercury vapour bulb.
2. UVB lamp (not essential with 3-4 hours of sunlight a week, however it is better to have one). T5 HO lamp (long straight tube), length of 22-24 inches should be sufficient. Either Arcadia Desert 12% or Zoomed Reptisun 10.0. Should be turned on for 3-4 hours a day.

Check if CHE (that coil thing) is not mounted too low. It should not create a hot spot, but ambient warmth. The could be the reason of shell drying as well.

And, please, check the care sheets, Tom linked. I was going to add these links myself, but he was the first

 

[turtlejet]

Hello and welcome. You need this thread right here. Look for the heating and lighting breakdown and that sulcata care sheet near the bottom.

Info For New People. Please Read This First.

Hello and welcome to tortoiseforum.org! We are all glad you are here! There is no other forum like this anywhere. We have tens of thousands of members from all over the world ranging from kids with their first tortoise to people who have been breeding and keeping high end tortoises since the...

tortoiseforum.org

Thank you! I'm so glad I found you all. It seems like there are some things I can be doing better in addition to the lighting. I thought I had researched enough and figured things out months ago, but it seems I still have more to learn.

Hello! As mentioned above, it should be two lamps:
1. Incandescent (not halogen) bulb (with some luck you can get them from Amazon or buy an Arcadia Solar Basking Floodlight). Put it instead of the mercury vapour bulb.
2. UVB lamp (not essential with 3-4 hours of sunlight a week, however it is better to have one). T5 HO lamp (long straight tube), length of 22-24 inches should be sufficient. Either Arcadia Desert 12% or Zoomed Reptisun 10.0. Should be turned on for 3-4 hours a day.

Check if CHE (that coil thing) is not mounted too low. It should not create a hot spot, but ambient warmth. The could be the reason of shell drying as well.

And, please, check the care sheets, Tom linked. I was going to add these links myself, but he was the first

I live in California, so it seems that Amazon will just not ship incandescent bulbs to me. . . . I'll have to try my luck at the hardware store tomorrow.

 

[Alex and the Redfoot]

I doubt, there are any left in hardware stores. Perhaps, you have to go with Arcadia (it's not THAT expensive, just 2-4 times more expensive than casual ones).

Good news - you don't need to stockpile them, your sulcata will outgrow indoors enclosure soon

 

[Tom]

Thank you! I'm so glad I found you all. It seems like there are some things I can be doing better in addition to the lighting. I thought I had researched enough and figured things out months ago, but it seems I still have more to learn.

I live in California, so it seems that Amazon will just not ship incandescent bulbs to me. . . . I'll have to try my luck at the hardware store tomorrow.

Yeah... the lunatics running our state made them ILLEGAL to sell here. So stupid. You have to have someone out of state buy them and mail them to you, or go out of state and buy them yourself.