Growth

[Wasa77]

I know Egyptian Tortoises are a little harder come by, but I wish there were more posts about these guys! I removed the UV fixture from her enclosure about a month ago and i noticed she started being a lot more active, as well as sleeping outside of her shell. I think the UV I had may have been harming her. Almost 6 months old!

53g - 11/13

 

[G-stars]

Hello,

I keep a young adult group just a little north of you. What kind of uv light bulb were you using?

 

[Wasa77]

Hi!

I believe I was using the zoomed 10.0 UVB T5. Since I’m in California I decided to get the tortoise natural sunlight on a daily basis instead. I think the height of the fixture was too low and I saw she wasn’t too active under the heat/light. Still new at this, she’s my first Tortoise.

 

[G-stars]

Those bulbs have been known in the past to burn reptiles eyes. Could be the possible reason for the lack of activity.

 

[PA2019]

I have a group that I'm raising as well. I use ZooMed 5.0 UVB T5 bulbs and find they will bask underneath it for around 30-40 minutes max. After reading some of @Markw84 posts about hatchlings potentially needing less UVB exposure I have the UVB set for 1 hour per day and have had zero growth/development issue thus far.

I also have a group of hatchling star tortoises that have a T5 10.0 Zoo Med in their enclosure and notice they try to look for cover after 20-30 minutes of being under the light while soaking, making me think that 10.0 may be unnecessary and too strong. I use 6500K LED bars for ambient light during the day instead of running UVB all day, saves money and creates less heat!