Please also post a photo of your enclosure and tortoise.
That will not work. You need a light that gives uvb AND uva. You need to find a light ASAP.
You need to buy a strip uvb light or a murcury vapor bulb that emits uvb. They are costly, but they are the few that work. The problem with MVBs are that they stop making uvb in a few months, but there’s no way to tell when. Strip lights will last you forever, and emit a good amount of uvb.
MVBs aren’t recommended for babies, as they are very harsh, and dry out the shells quick.
If you go the strip light path, you will need a daylight heat lamp.
Also, tortoises need total darkness to sleep at night, so be sure to turn them off.
Tortoises can not produce their own body heat, and need heat sources like lamps. Your tortoise needs to have temps of NO LESS than 80 f for them to properly digest food and function.
I used this one but the packaging is in the bin.
Thanks so much I will definitely sort the light problem out. Can you recommend to me which heat, light and heat measuring supplies which I will need? Thanks I am extremely grateful for all of your help. I also read through the care sheet and mistake guide which you gave me.
Get a digital humidity gauge, and one of these-
https://www.homedepot.com/p/Ultra-Performance-Non-Contact-Infrared-Thermometer-39102/300227498
It doesn’t matter what brand you get, just make sure it has good reviews.
Your heat and lighting set up will depend on your enclosure, and yours is much too small to have a heat gradient. You need to switch to something bigger, like a 40 gallon tank.
You need to change your substrate to something that holds humidity, like fine grade orchid bark or coco coir (orchid bark is recommended), and make sure that your humidity stays at 70-80%, and do daily soaks in warm water for 20-30 minutes a day. Make sure the water stays warm.
It is really great that you found this forum. The day I found it , I learned that I had to change a lot of stuff to get it ready for my new baby tort. You made the right choice with sticking around
That is a good bulb, and as long as it maintains your temperatures correctly, that should be all you need for a while. This type of bulb will eventually stop producing UVB, even though it still lights up and seems to be "working". Without a meter, there is no way to know if your tortoise is still getting UV from the bulb or not. If your tortoise is indoors most of the year, you need to be sure you are providing the correct amount of UV from your bulbs. A good UV meter is a necessity in this case. Here is the only one I recommend: https://www.solarmeter.com/model65.html
Other things I see:
Hope these things help!
- I agree that you need a much larger enclosure in the near future.
- The sides on your food and water bowls are too steep. Terra cotta plants saucers work best, and you need to sink them into the substrate so the rims are near level with the surface. The water bowl also need to be large and shallow enough for the tortoise to climb into it and self-soak, in addition to you soaking the tortoise frequently in a separate tub.
- What is in the food bowl?
- Does the tortoise eat the dried colorful pellets?
- Beech chips are not a good substrate and they are much too dry and you can't dampen them. Your tortoise already has some significant pyramiding and this is caused by growth in conditions that are too dry. He needs a damp substrate. EIther coco coir or fine grade orchid bark will work well for you there.
- Related to the point above, you need a humid hide. Use and opaque plastic tub. Turn it upside down and cut out a door hole just big enough for the tortoise.
Beach chips may say that they are for tortoises, but like most products, they aren’t at all. They are based on decade old myths and misconceptions about tortoises that have recently been debunked, like people thinking that tortoises need to be kept dry.
Cucumber is not suitable to be fed often because it is 95% water and had little to no nutritional value.
You should not really feed those colorful pellets, because a food that is full of artificial color isn’t exactly trustworthy. I recommend the zoomed grassland tortoise food to mix in with greens, because your tort might not eat it without them.
You need to put in a humid hide immediately, because humidity is an absolute necessity for baby tortoises.
Look up pyramiding on google. I don’t think you want that
If you make these changes, you should be ready for a happy future with your tortoise.
I own a sulcata. They have almost identical heat and uvb needs, and the only thing that is different is that Russians need a temp drop at night. This is what I use for lighting.Not to mention that you don’t actually own a horsfield tortoise and know nothing about the lighting they use as you said on the other one.