Hello and Welcome. Tortoises need to heat up to at least 85+ to properly digest their food. If you have hot sunny days all the time then you could get away without a light. However, seeing every place has it's gloomy days, I would get a basking light for those days and the rest of the days they could use the sun.
Hello and Welcome. Tortoises need to heat up to at least 85+ to properly digest their food. If you have hot sunny days all the time then you could get away without a light. However, seeing every place has it's gloomy days, I would get a basking light for those days and the rest of the days they could use the sun.
Because a tortoise is a cold blooded animal, this means they don't have a natural heat inside them like we do. Our body temperature is 98.6. We have that naturally. A tortoise doesn't have the ability to have a warm inner core temperature. So if you keep him in a room that's, say, 75F degrees, then the tortoise's inner core will be 75F degrees. It takes at LEAST 80F degrees for him to be able to digest his food. So, to answer your question, yes. A tortoise must have a heat source where he can sit and warm up his inner core...a light or a ceramic heat emitter.
OK thanks guys for your answers my parents finally made a choice they didn't want me to get one because its so expensive and my parent cant afford it but thanks guys
Just keep your interest alive and know that one day, you'll have your own money and place and can make a perfect home for a wonderful little tortoise.
Using this forum for help and advice of course!