UVB Lighting

[MizzyMaree]

Hello!

We have a 2-month old sulcata and I noticed s/he has been rubbing her eyes lately. We have her in an open enclosure. We live in the Philippines and the temperature and humidity are just right.

I just recently read that CFL can cause blindness in tortoises so I'm worried that might be why s/he is rubbing her eyes.

Until we can replace her CFL with MVB, we plan to just have her graze out in the lawn during the early morning. How long would s/he need to graze in the sun to satisfy her uvb requirements? S/he is about 3 inches.

Thank you.

 

[Blackdog1714]

CFL's are very bad and the MVB's are not much better. Honestly UV is not necessary if you can provide outdoor time in the sun 2 hours 2 days a week.

Please include photos of your setup and answer the following
1. What are your four temperatures? Basking spot, warm side, cool side, and night?
2. What do you heat with and how do you measure temps
3. Lights (regular & UV) you use and schedule they are on
4. Substrate used
5. Humidity Levels - Overall. Hide
6. Diet
7. Soaking schedule and for how long and at what temp?

 

[MizzyMaree]

Here is our open enclosure. We put a screen at night.

1. Basking temp is 35-37; we have a hygrometer and it reads 26-27 during the day, temp goes to about 24-26 at night. We just have a basking side and then the other side is where her hide and food and water are. We don't measure the spots in between and hust rely on the temp reading on the hygrometer

2. We don't have any heat because it really doesn't get that cold here at night. We have an infrared temperature gun to measure our temps.

3. The basking light is a hallogen light (the white clip on) and the uvb on the other end (black lamp is reptisun 10.0 CFL. Both are turned on from 730-8am then off at 530-6pm. No lights on at night.

4. Substrate used is Reptibark.

5. Humidity levels are 80+ all the time. The Philippines is a humid country but on particularly dry days, we mist the reptibark every now and then to make sure to hit the 80+ humidity level. As for the hide, we don't really measure the humidity level in there but make sure to mist it more often than the rest of the enclosure so it's more humid.

6. Diet is carabao grass as base and then we mix in kang kong (water spinach), romaine leaves, pechay (chinese lettuce in english, i think?). We give Exoprime pellets 2-3 times a week (not sure if you are familiar with the brand but reviews said it is better than mazuri). Snacks like opuntia cactus, hibiscus flowers, and squash are given once a week. We sprinkle calcium powder with D3 on the food every other day.

7. We soak her once everyday for 20 minutes with initial temp at 35, never going below 30. But s/he recently passed urates that were a bit too gritty so yesterday, we started soaking her twice a day for 30 minutes.

 

[Blackdog1714]

please check out this thread. For babies a closed chamber is best since it allows you to have precise control over the temp and the humidity. Variances in either can cause poor shell growth and effect eating/pooping. The overall day temp is close but should be 31-32C during the day and no lower than 27C at night. Now when they get to about two years old you have fantastic conditions for a sulcata when you add a heated night box. Good Luck

The Best Way To Raise A Sulcata, Leopard, Or Star Tortoise

I chose the title of this care sheet very carefully. Are there other ways to raise babies? Yes. Yes there are, but those ways are not as good. What follows is the BEST way, according to 30 years of research and experimentation with hundreds of babies of many species. Babies hatch during the...

www.tortoiseforum.org

 

[MizzyMaree]

Thank you ???

 

[ZEROPILOT]

Yes
Discontinue that uvb bulb altogether and if the weather is warm enough there in the Philippines, just letting your tortoise outside to graze may be more than enough UVB already.
Can you give him/her both an INSIDE and an OUTSIDE enclosure?
That'd be best.

 

[MizzyMaree]

Yes, we do have a big plastic tub with the bottom cut out. We put her in there so we don't lose her in the yard.

We are gonna build a permanent outside enclosure when s/he is big enough.

Thank you. ?