Heating and UV in these cold winter months

[MaggieofNarnia]

Hello! Some of you may remember me from last winter when I got Darwin, my baby Sulcata tortoise as a Christmas present. You were all very instrumental in my caring for him and I wanted to start off by thanking you all for your help.
This winter I have run into a few problems. In June I moved permanently to Kentucky right by the Ohio River. I didn't have issues with humidity because I didn't have air conditioning and the midwestern humidity was great for Darwin. However this winter is a little different. My house is drafty and doesn't hold heat very well. Also, with the winter, humidity levels have dropped and I have had a horrible time keeping them up. They've been hanging around 50%, while they should be a bit higher since Darwin is a younger tortoise. Does anyone have any tips for keeping their humidity up in the winter? Darwin is in a Christmas Tree storage bin with a 70 W CHE and a 75 W flood light during the day.
Also, today I was given a UV bulb from the aquatics lab I work at who used it for an injured map turtle captured from the Ohio River who sadly didn't make it. This is an energy saver bulb, though, which I've heard can be harmful to their eyes. I keep in mind though that they only need about an hour of split up UV exposure a week from what I remember (Correct me if I'm wrong). Over the summer I just took him outside, but now I need to rely on a bulb. Will it be okay to use this energy saver bulb since it's use is limited?

Thanks for your help! You guys are a great resource to have!

Maggie

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I forgot to mention that in area's where the lights aren't at the heat is not exactly there. Where I have the CHE (Which is by one of his hideouts) it's in the upper 70's and 80's, and by the flood light it's in the upper 90's+, but the other side of his enclosure is in the 60's. He never exactly goes there most likely due to that.

 

[wellington]

Make the enclosure covered and buy a warm mist humidifier. I used the small personal sized ones from Bed, Bath and Beyond. Around 30 bucks. Either put it in the enclosure or pipe it in. Works great.

 

[MaggieofNarnia]

That sounds like a great idea. I have one from last year and I can build some sort of apparatus that will pipe it in since it's a little large. That may help with the issue a lot.

 

[wellington]

If it has a round outlet, where the mist comes out, you can use PVC pipe. Pretty easy. You will have to play with it, for how long you need to,have it on, etc. some have put theirs on a timer and had it come on for an hour or so then go off, and so on. It does make it much easier, then the constant misting, pouring and fighting it

 

[MaggieofNarnia]

If it has a round outlet, where the mist comes out, you can use PVC pipe. Pretty easy. You will have to play with it, for how long you need to,have it on, etc. some have put theirs on a timer and had it come on for an hour or so then go off, and so on. It does make it much easier, then the constant misting, pouring and fighting it

Thanks! I'll give that a try and play around with things for a little while. It's at my parents house so I won't be able to get it until Saturday when I trek home to visit, as they live quite a ways away from here. I'll get it and play around with it Saturday night (party hard!) This might solve a lot of the issues I'm having. He has been eating fine, showing no signs of sickness or pyramiding at all, but just recently lost a lot of activeness. I'll get him squared away.

 

[Tom]

A few things:
What are your night temps? Is your CHE on a thermostat? I've never seen a 70 watt CHE. Are you sure on that?

Those coil type bulbs do sometimes damage their eyes. I would not use that.

An hour of real sunshine a couple of times a week is enough, as a minimum, to meet their UV needs. More would be better. An indoor artificial bulb should be on 12 hours a day, since it is not nearly as good as the real thing. And don't forget to replace those bulbs regularly. We have a member here that recently shared his findings with his UV meter with us. Many of the bulbs we all recommend stopped putting out any UV after just 3 months.

This is a tropical species of tortoise. No part of his enclosure should be dropping below 80 ever, especially at night. Letting his temps drop into the 60s is a recipe for disaster, ESPECIALLY with humidity. This is most likely your biggest problem and the cause of the lethargy.

The way to contain heat an humidity is to use a closed chamber. Do a forum search for closed chambers and you will get all sorts of info on it. I'm pretty surprised that he still fits in a storage bin like that after a year. It is probably time for a new bigger enclosure anyway.

Once your temps are up all over the enclosure, a humid hide box might solve your humidity problems. Every tortoise should have one.

 

[Yvonne G]

You may have to cover the enclosure to keep it over-all warm. If you run the mist and its not warm enough you might make the tortoise sick.

 

[MaggieofNarnia]

A few things:
What are your night temps? Is your CHE on a thermostat? I've never seen a 70 watt CHE. Are you sure on that?

Those coil type bulbs do sometimes damage their eyes. I would not use that.

An hour of real sunshine a couple of times a week is enough, as a minimum, to meet their UV needs. More would be better. An indoor artificial bulb should be on 12 hours a day, since it is not nearly as good as the real thing. And don't forget to replace those bulbs regularly. We have a member here that recently shared his findings with his UV meter with us. Many of the bulbs we all recommend stopped putting out any UV after just 3 months.

This is a tropical species of tortoise. No part of his enclosure should be dropping below 80 ever, especially at night. Letting his temps drop into the 60s is a recipe for disaster, ESPECIALLY with humidity. This is most likely your biggest problem and the cause of the lethargy.

The way to contain heat an humidity is to use a closed chamber. Do a forum search for closed chambers and you will get all sorts of info on it. I'm pretty surprised that he still fits in a storage bin like that after a year. It is probably time for a new bigger enclosure anyway.

Once your temps are up all over the enclosure, a humid hide box might solve your humidity problems. Every tortoise should have one.

Thank you, I will work on this and get his humidity up. If I continue to have these issues, I'm considering asking if he can live in the aquatics lab on the site where I live and work. They already have to keep the temperature up for the fish and mussels living there, so he may respond better. For now he is still eating, drinking, and is getting his daily soaks. Additionally, I'm not seeing any signs of sickness.

He has a relatively slow growth rate for a tortoise such as himself. he still fits in the bin fine. Is there anything I'm doing to cause this? He gets Mazuri, spring mix, dandelions when they are in season, and a calcium supplement a couple of times a week.