Heat Hide:

[Millerlite]

I still have my 4 mountain tortoises, they been living outdoors for a little over a year, I just built a heat hide, pretty much looks like a chicken coop with two lights inside and foam insulation. Keeps its pretty warm on our colder night (40s-30s)

Quick question, can they seen red or black light? My ceramic bulb broke finally stop putting off heat, and all i had were spare red and black bulbs i used for my leopard geckos. They both are 100 wats, the shed stays in the 70s at night, i'll post pictures in a little bit

 

[Yvonne G]

We've had a debate recently about that very subject. I use black bulbs at night without noticing any stress from my tortoises, but some here think that they CAN see the light from a black bulb.

 

[abra]

Rambo sleeps in under a red light sometimes, when it's freezing in my room. He doesn't mind, sometimes he sleeps under his log and sometimes he'll sleep outside. Actually he slept outside of it the other night when I had the red light on. I love the red light, it helps me sleep Probably depends on the tort, maybe go outside and see how they're doing once in a while?

 

[Len B]

I think either one will be ok, most mt torts sleep with their heads pulled in against the wall, in a corner, or up against another tort,the light most likely wont effect the eyes, I never had a problem with the black or the red.But to answer your question,Sorry I don't know.

 

[Millerlite]

I check them three times a day when I can just to make sure it's not to hot in there since I just built it, so far it's been like 75-80 degrees at night inside, when outdoor temps are 35-40 not bad I guess. Also might keep the black light, and put a ceramic heater on the other bulb side. I'll post pictures tomorrow, make it easier to show what I'm talking about.

Also any ideas on keeping humidity up in there?

 

[Millerlite]

here are a few i snapped with my phone not very good quality but works for now, i'll take better ones tomorrow. The box is 3 feet wide, 1.5 feet wide, and 2 feet high. so 3x1.5x2, it has two ceramic light fixture one with a red bulb other with a black. Its about 40 degrees out side, inside the heat hide right now is 73 degrees, so a good 33 degrees warmer.

PS: this enclosure is my temp, tort table, i'm redoing there outdoor enclosure right now making it bigger!
Front side:

Inside, you can kind of see the bulbs

 

[biglove4bigtorts]

I have used red lights without any noticeable affects to the nocturnal animal's day/night cycle. I would suggest that your heating box is a bit too warm for night time sleeping temperatures and the torts would do better between 60-75F,with less than 3 year olds getting temps 65F and above. Adults would likely tolerate the high 40sF, if the days were warm enough.

 

[Millerlite]

yeah most the time they choose if they want to be in or out of the heat hide, 50s they usually sleep outside, and i can dim the lights up and down, The temp. is now 68 in the heat hide like 34 outside.

 

[Millerlite]

any ideas on how to raise the humidity inside of the hide?

 

[biglove4bigtorts]

The lights that you are using will be very drying, but an ultrasonic humidifier fitted with a timer and a PVC tube on the outlet will dump in loads of moisture rich fog and can be scaled back to fit your needs...these worked excellently for watering chamelons automatically, since the drink from droplets and misting by hand daily was tedious and frightening to them. I can't recall my favored brand, but the good ones are around $60 for a 2 gallon one.