Greek question. Please help!

[sam22188]

Hey Everybody!

I am planning on purchasing a baby Greek tortoise soon and I wanted to go ahead and set up his enclosure to make sure the temps and humidity is right. So I am using a mercury vapor bulb on one side of the tank and the basking spot is reaching around 97, is that too high? Also the cool end is staying around 77-80, is that okay? I would really appreciate any advice or if this is fine. Thanks!

 

[Yvonne G]

Hi Sam:

Welcome to the Tortoise Forum!!

May we know where you are? (I'm just assuming that your name is sam???)

 

[Tortoise]

Welcome to the forum, I am sure you will get some help soon from the Greek tortoise fans.

 

[sam22188]

Hey. I live in south carolina. I was planning on keeping the tortoise indoors since it gets really humid here in the summer. And actually my name is steven. Sam is just my initials lol.

 

[Michael Bird]

I'm not sure about hatchlings since I haven't had the pleasure of a baby Greek in my home yet, but my adult Jordanian Greek seems to love having the hot spot around 110 degrees Fahrenheit. Immediately after eating, she will frequently sit directly under the lamp for 10-15 minutes, getting the top of her shell (4.5" closer to the lamp than the substrate) as hot as 120 degrees or more, then she'll move to the side of the lamp where the temperature is closer to 95 and snooze for a few hours to digest her food. After that, she'll explore the enclosure for hours before heading back to the lamp to do it all over again.

At first, I thought that temperatures over 100 degrees would be too warm, but she didn't seem quite right when I had the lamp set high enough to keep the temperature around 95-100 in the hot spot and she would sit directly in the center of the light and never move (as if she couldn't get warm enough) so I lowered it a few inches and soon discovered that she seems much happier and significantly more active when she is able to get really warm when she wants to do so..

 

[bikerchicspain]

It all depends on which species of greek you are going to get,
I have the Greaca nebeulensis, and the Greaca Greaca, They do not like it to hot, they come out for breakfast first thing in the morning when its about 27 celcius then go back to bed for the rest of the day until its slightly cooler.

The temps here during the day get to about 37 celcius and 27 celcius at night. The humidity is ranges from 50 to 65%, This is natural humidity, i do not dampen down their enclosures during the summer, Reason being is this is their natural habitat..

 

[TortieLuver]

Hi Steve and welcome to the forum!

 

[Fernando]

Hello Sam