As advised, I have replaced the MVB from my greek hatchlings setup with an incandescent. (I think it is flood type, please see attached pics to confirm and let me know if it needs replacement or a hood.)
I made the mistake of not providing night heating thinking they are greeks and they are hardy, resulting in half of them entering brumation during a recent cold spell. I did not realize it at first, I kept waking them up every day for a soak until some of them dug themselves really deep in the substrate that I couldn't find them, then I understood what was happening.
I have stopped waking them up and let them be. Now 4-5 are still awake basking and eating every day.
What should I do now to avoid adding further stress to the babies?
(1) Provide a CHE to keep day and night temps up to wake everyone up,
(2) completely turn the lights off so everyone goes to brumation.
Even though they are not brumating directly below the basking spot, some are not very far and I am afraid the basking light during daytime is keeping the temps too high for healthy brumation.
This keeper's tort brumated in his bedroom resulting in the tort dying because the house temps kept the metabolism high and it consumed all of its fat and was mummified by next spring. Here's the very informative video if anyone is interested. We should start a thread "A million ways to kill a tortoise". macabre I know, but it could save many lives in the long run.
I made the mistake of not providing night heating thinking they are greeks and they are hardy, resulting in half of them entering brumation during a recent cold spell. I did not realize it at first, I kept waking them up every day for a soak until some of them dug themselves really deep in the substrate that I couldn't find them, then I understood what was happening.
I have stopped waking them up and let them be. Now 4-5 are still awake basking and eating every day.
What should I do now to avoid adding further stress to the babies?
(1) Provide a CHE to keep day and night temps up to wake everyone up,
(2) completely turn the lights off so everyone goes to brumation.
Even though they are not brumating directly below the basking spot, some are not very far and I am afraid the basking light during daytime is keeping the temps too high for healthy brumation.
This keeper's tort brumated in his bedroom resulting in the tort dying because the house temps kept the metabolism high and it consumed all of its fat and was mummified by next spring. Here's the very informative video if anyone is interested. We should start a thread "A million ways to kill a tortoise". macabre I know, but it could save many lives in the long run.