Help changing from Vivarium to Table

[andy230uk]

Hi,

I've been a tortoise owner (Mediterranean Spur Thighed) for about 9 years and always had a vivarium but after doing a bit more reading recently, have decided to change to a table.

From what I've read so far I'm going to go for a table + mercury vapour lamp for UVA and UVB and heat.

I'm looking at this table
http://goo.gl/KwyE2G

But not sure how to get the bulb to fit. It doesn’t come with a bracket and I think I’ll need a ceramic bracket for the mercury vapour bulb. So I’ll need to fit this myself. Any advice for this?

Or does anyone have something like this clip-on bracket? Might be a bit easier.
http://goo.gl/4Rv1oo

Any help or advice would be much appreciated.

Cheers,

Andy

 

[Yvonne G]

Hi Andy, and welcome to the Forum!

You can probably throw something together yourself a lot cheaper than that tort table. I would go with sides taller than what that one shows too. Once you add about 4 or 5" of substrate your Greek tortoise would be able to climb right out.

Here are a few light stand ideas:

http://www.tortoiseforum.org/thread...our-homemade-light-stand-hanger.108893/page-2

 

[spud's_mum]

Is there any specific reason for changing to a table?

 

[Yvonne G]

If you've had your Greek tortoise for about 9 years, I'd say it's about time to set him up outside in the garden.

 

[Rue]

...and that particular table? I think it's too small for a fully grown animal.

 

[Tom]

Hello and welcome Andy.

While it would be much easier to just go buy something, no one makes anything suitable that I have seen. There is nothing wrong with a viv, as long as it is large enough.

If you want to use a table, it will need to be much larger than the one you are looking at there.

 

[Gillian M]

A very warm welcome to the forum!

Please post picture(s) of your tort, as what Rue mentioned may be true: the table may be too small. But this will depend on the size of your tort.

 

[andy230uk]

Thanks for your replies.

The reason I'm changing to a table is the lamp fixtures and fittings in the vivarium are starting to fall apart, it's a little on the small side so time to upgrade and and I've read about the positives of tables over vivs.

He does spend most of his time in the garden and vegetable patch outside (with 'hutch' access). The table is mainly for the colder evenings and when it gets really cold in winter. Generally though, he lives in the garden and can roam as much as he likes. The ebay link is a 4ft table which is larger than the vivarium I have at the moment and best fits the indoor space I have available.

I've added the only photo I can find that gives some size perspective (I'm at work at the moment). He's probably about 6 inches long.

Any more help would be much appreciated.