Help with new Hermanns tortoise

[andy h]

hi every one i have just brougt a 5 mounth old hermann and i need your help guys as i am new to tortoise keeping i am from the uk and need some good advise with my
baby herman
i am using a 60 watt bulb for the basking lamp and the bulb was 6 inchs from substrate
and the temp is 95 degrees around the bulb area and the temp in the center of my tortoise table was 80 degrees
so i changed the hight of the bulb lenth to substrate is now 12 inches and now the center heat is 72 degrees and around 80 near bulb

i am not happy with this and i am going to buy a 100watt bulb and a new basking lamp with a stand so i an get better heat temp and get the bulb at a safer hight not sure on the best basking lamp and also i am going to turn my basking on at 7 am and going to turn it off at 7 pm
please tell me the thing i am doing wrong thanks

 

[Yvonne G]

Hi Andy:

I don't know anything about the Hermann's tortoises, but we DO have a nice care sheet here on the forum:

http://tortoiseforum.org/thread-1000.html

I just wanted to...

you to the forum!!

 

[egyptiandan]

I'm glad your getting a new basking bulb. What kind of bulb were you looking to get? Probably the best one to get would be a mercury vapor bulb (MVB). These bulbs produce heat as well as UVB which will help your tortoise produce most of the vitamin D that it will need to grow healthy bones.
A temperature of around 95F under the basking lamp is what you should be looking to do.
Are you using a calcium supplement?

Danny

 

[Ozric]

Hi Andy! You do need a UVB source of some kind as well as heat for your tortoise. The plain light bulb can be quite good for the heat side of it if you are keeping the torotise in your home but there would not be any UVB in there unless you provide some.

One way to provide the UVB is with a striplight such as the reptisun 10. This provides decent UVB but no heat.

Another way to provibe both heat and UVB light is with a combined lamp. There a few different ones on the market such as powersun

http://www.rocketaquatics.co.uk/bul...418_615.html?gclid=CITJ67qdvp8CFRxk4wod_nfizQ

100watts would be enough for what you need. I have not bought anything off that supplier but there are lots of online places where you can buy these items.

My personal view is that a combined lamp is convenient (only one thing to plug in) and provides the amount of heat and UVB your hermann needs. To get the right temp the lamp is suspended directly downwards at the right height to provide at leats 32C and preferably a bit more.

Some people prefer a separate UVB striplight. These have to be replaced every six months. They still look good after that time, but they are in fatc worn out.

 

[alfiethetortoise]

Hello and welcome to the forum

I also have a hermans. I use a reptiglow UVB of 10 (a strip light) on the back of the enclosure for UVB. I also have a red 50w lamp in one corner of the enclosure with a basking temp of 95-100. Alfie just moves from under it when she is warm enough. As the lamp also heats the enclosure i have it on a timer (you can get one for a few pounds in a hardwear shop) so that it comes on intermittently at night. At the moment i also have a heat mat on the back wall to provide extra heat. Alfie is good at burrying herself in her hide at night, but i am overparanoid about her getting too cold. I use neurobal every 2-3 days, and have cuttlebone in the enclosure too. I bath every two to three days. I use 50/50 sand soil mix as substrate which i moisten every few days, and have aspen in the hide (snake bedding). Alfie also has a fake plant which she loves and some stones she likes to climb on!

Take a look at the care sheet Yvonne suggests.

 

[andy h]

hiya every one thanks for the usefull tips my knolege is geting better lol I brought a new bulb on line still waiting for it to come its a exo terra tight beem 100 watts but i realy do like the sound of the mercury vapor bulb i will buy one in a few weeks. And i also brought a nutrobal calcium supplement
thanks

 

[tortoisenerd]

Welcome to the group! I agree a MVB is your best bet. The T-Rex brand is the best in my opinion and 100 Watts is the wattage you'd want. You need a ceramic socket wide & deep hood fixture with a lamp stand to use these bulbs so the bulb face is parallel to the substrate and you can adjust the height as the room temperature changes. They have a useful likfe of 12 months unless you know someone with a meter to test the UVB output. These bulbs are more pricey but torts seem to thrive with them, they have output near that of natural sun, they last 12 months not 6 like a UVB tube, and you only use one fixture.

My opinion on Nutrobal is that you'd be better off with a pure calcium (no D3 and no vitamins) supplement because D3 can be toxic. With UVB, your tort makes D3 so also giving the tort additional D3 can build up as it is fat soluble not water soluble like calcium. I recommend you do the research on this and form your own opinion. I think the risk outweighs the benefit. Especially since it is very tough to know how much to give with a combined supplement, but with pure calcium you can't really give too much. With a good UVB bulb or sun, pure calcium, and a balanced diet, you shouldn't have any problems. You can get a pure calcium supplement at pet stores, but it is cheaper to get the human calcium carbonate powder at health food and vitamin stores.

Best wishes.

 

[stells]

Trex combined bulbs have been discontinued in the UK... there are though Megarays... solarglo's etc...

As for the Nutrobal it is recommended that you use a small pinch at every feeding for growing tortoises... it is extremely hard to overdose a growing tortoise... and here in the UK we don't get very much time to put the tortoises outside and when we do we have a low UV reading... Here most keepers still use vitamin suppliments with D3 myself included my adults only get it once per week... my growing tortoises at every feeding.... as well as using combined bulbs.... i have NEVER had a problem with any of my tortoises in doing this....I have had tortoises come to me where no suppliments have been used... they have not fared to well and one has grown with some horrid deformities...

You can also get food grade Limestone flour... its just pure calcium carbonate and can be found in Horse supply stores... in the Shelled warriors shop and also on ebay...

Remember folks... tortoise keeping is different all over the world...

 

[Yvonne G]

Remember folks... tortoise keeping is different all over the world...

And that's only ONE of the reasons that you are a valued member here on the forum, Kelly!