Enclosure help
- Thread starter CheriL
- Start date
Only your hygrometer can answer that question.
What species of tortoise have you got ad what size is it?
The red bulb has to go ASAP, and if there is a cfl type florescent in there, it should go too.
Check this out:
Info For New People. Please Read This First.
Hello and welcome to tortoiseforum.org! We are all glad you are here! There is no other forum like this anywhere. We have tens of thousands of members from all over the world ranging from kids with their first tortoise to people who have been breeding and keeping high end tortoises since the...
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CheriL
New Member
Only your hygrometer can answer that question.
What species of tortoise have you got ad what size is it?
The red bulb has to go ASAP, and if there is a cfl type florescent in there, it should go too.
Check this out:
Info For New People. Please Read This First.
Hello and welcome to tortoiseforum.org! We are all glad you are here! There is no other forum like this anywhere. We have tens of thousands of members from all over the world ranging from kids with their first tortoise to people who have been breeding and keeping high end tortoises since the...
Only your hygrometer can answer that question.
What species of tortoise have you got ad what size is it?
The red bulb has to go ASAP, and if there is a cfl type florescent in there, it should go too.
Check this out:
Info For New People. Please Read This First.
Hello and welcome to tortoiseforum.org! We are all glad you are here! There is no other forum like this anywhere. We have tens of thousands of members from all over the world ranging from kids with their first tortoise to people who have been breeding and keeping high end tortoises since the...
Only your hygrometer can answer that question.
What species of tortoise have you got ad what size is it?
The red bulb has to go ASAP, and if there is a cfl type florescent in there, it should go too.
Check this out:
Info For New People. Please Read This First.
Hello and welcome to tortoiseforum.org! We are all glad you are here! There is no other forum like this anywhere. We have tens of thousands of members from all over the world ranging from kids with their first tortoise to people who have been breeding and keeping high end tortoises since the...
4 week old Sulcata. The day bulb is pictured. I read a lot of the new people threads but unsure if completely covering top is going to give any airflow. Humid hide is staying at 80% F and 70% humidity and “outside” I’m losing humidity down to 20% so I know it needs to be covered but do they need “air holes”?Only your hygrometer can answer that question.
What species of tortoise have you got ad what size is it?
The red bulb has to go ASAP, and if there is a cfl type florescent in there, it should go too.
Check this out:
Info For New People. Please Read This First.
Hello and welcome to tortoiseforum.org! We are all glad you are here! There is no other forum like this anywhere. We have tens of thousands of members from all over the world ranging from kids with their first tortoise to people who have been breeding and keeping high end tortoises since the...
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Your best course of action would be to buy the correct type of enclosure, rather than trying to modify what you've got. If you cover the top and keep humidity and moisture up, you will create several problems:
1. The wood will rot in a few months.
2. This enclosure is too short, so the lights will have to be on the outside. This will create a chimney effect that draws the heat and humidity up and out. Then you will try to add more heat and moisture to compensate for this effect, and that will cause more evaporative cooling, which requires more heat, which makes everything too dry, so you add more water, etc... Its a downward spiral. The heating and lighting need to be inside the enclosure.
3. It will not be air tight, and there will be plenty of airflow.
Another solution that some people have had success with is to buy a large plastic green house tent and put the enclosure, heat and light inside it. I've never used that, but several people here have and its better than an open top.
That is the wrong heat lamp and it will cause your tortoise to pyramid. You need a regular incandescent flood bulb from the hardware store for basking.
What are you using for night heat? The whole enclosure needs to stay 80+ degrees at night when the heat lamp is off.
We will help get you all squared away.
CheriL
New Member
So the red light is for night heat - evidently not good. She stays in her humid hide from about 6pm to 8 am - she's never under the red light - it's just heating the whole enclosure. I got this day bulb for basking b/c I read they need the UVB so they do not pyramid and this bulb has that so I'm confused. I will eventually (several months) be able to do a better enclosure but I need to use this for now ($).
You are reading the wrong material. There is a ton of old wrong info out there. Let me explain a few things, so you can make informed decisions:
1. UVB is needed to prevent metabolic bone disease. It has nothing to do with pyramiding.
2. That spot bulb has no UVB.
3. Pyramiding is caused by growth in conditions that are too dry. Every day that your tortoise is in a dry open topped enclosure, irreversible damage is done. Your tortoise needs the correct conditions now. Today. Months from now your tortoise will be permanently disfigured. Get the greenhouse tent, or make something up to provide the necessary warm, humid monsoon conditions.
4. The red light messes with their heads. Swap to an inexpensive ceramic heating element instead, and get a $20-30 thermostat to control it.
We will help you sort all of this out. We do this with new people all the time. We know that it is very frustrating and confusing, but your tortoise needs you to figure all of this out ASAP.
This thread will explain a lot. Then read the heating and lighting breakdown near the bottom. Finally, click on the sulcata care sheet at the bottom for more info:
Info For New People. Please Read This First.
Hello and welcome to tortoiseforum.org! We are all glad you are here! There is no other forum like this anywhere. We have tens of thousands of members from all over the world ranging from kids with their first tortoise to people who have been breeding and keeping high end tortoises since the...
tortoiseforum.org
CheriL
New Member
It took me a couple of weeks but Tilly is happy in her new home!
