My Valentine Hates Her Light

[Casjoyce5]

Hello!
Maybe Suzanne is right about mounting height for lamps. CHE, perhaps gives more heat to the room, than to the enclosure. You can try to lower it a little and make temperatures in bedroom lower. When adjusting height, put thermometer under it for 1 hour. Check, that temperatures are acceptable (no more than 85). I think you use thermostat with CHE, but if not, please get one.

Humidity of 25 percent is very low. This could be the reason for tortoise to stay in humid hide. You can make an easy experiment - put CHE fixture and UV lamp on top of the mesh, cover mesh around the fixtures with a aluminium foil. If it helps with temperatures, humidity and tortoise activity - consider some sort of permanent cover, like a portable greenhouse top.

Also, you can try to provide shady areas in the main part of the enclosure - like potted plants or boxes and check if it helps too.

Thank you so much for your kind advice Alex! I lowered the CHE really close to the screen and it’s warming her enclosure better so I don’t have to have the room as warm! I’ll experiment with some fun little shady areas and get her humidity up! I have a humidifier that I can also start using in the room. Montana’s winter is basically here so the humidity can definitely help in the home, in general. Thank you so much for your help! : )

 

[SuzanneZ]

Thank you so much Suzanne! I lowered it with that elbow and got it close. Her enclosure is heating up better this way, without my room needing to be as warm! As I said above, who knew such an easy fix haha?! Thank you for making me feel better about this! : )

Yay!

 

[Alex and the Redfoot]

Thank you so much for your kind advice Alex! I lowered the CHE really close to the screen and it’s warming her enclosure better so I don’t have to have the room as warm! I’ll experiment with some fun little shady areas and get her humidity up! I have a humidifier that I can also start using in the room. Montana’s winter is basically here so the humidity can definitely help in the home, in general. Thank you so much for your help! : )

Hello! You are always welcome! I'm glad that a simple fix worked. And thanks for coming back with an update!
Humidifier in the room would help a little. But due to difference in room and enclosure temperatures the effect won't be very noticeable. It's better to separate "climatic zones" of the room and the enclosure. Using greenhouse top is the easiest, cheap and convenient way to do that, but of course there are other options.

Just as an extreme example: my redfoot needs humidity of 90%+ with a temperature of 80-85F. If I'll try to use a humidifier in the room to achieve that humidity in the enclosure I'll get water dripping of the walls and ceiling and still have overly dry enclosure.

 

[TammyJ]

I think the greenhouse solution is a good way to keep the tortoise enclosure conditions separate from the room conditions. This is a proven method.