Hi. I am new on the forum and new to tortoises. We have two Hermann tortoises and have them in an open box. So when reading a post for newbies here you can see we have already messed up. I am now building a closed enclosure and preparing to separate them, but this post is about something else, more serious.
The store sold us a 125W Exo Terra Solar Glo bulb and we've had that hanging over the box about 30-40 cm above ground. We live in Norway and its cold here, and the lamp had to be that close to get a good basking temperature. It also seemed correct based on the info on the box. After reading the intro post, I bought a Solarmeter and measured the UV index. The meter shows a UV index of 30 at a distance of 34cm from the bulb. I needed to lift it to about 80 cm to get a better index of about 5. First question is if this really can be true, but I have moved the poor tortoises away from the light and will fix them a different solution.
If it is true, I thought maybe I should warn other newbies that might be in the same situation, and also thank those here who insist that one needs a solarmeter despite the cost.
One of the tortoises has been in the hide a lot, possibly realizing that the light was dangerous. They have also been walking around with closed or squinting eyes. They don't seem to have become blind, but I have no idea if they will have long term issues.
The store sold us a 125W Exo Terra Solar Glo bulb and we've had that hanging over the box about 30-40 cm above ground. We live in Norway and its cold here, and the lamp had to be that close to get a good basking temperature. It also seemed correct based on the info on the box. After reading the intro post, I bought a Solarmeter and measured the UV index. The meter shows a UV index of 30 at a distance of 34cm from the bulb. I needed to lift it to about 80 cm to get a better index of about 5. First question is if this really can be true, but I have moved the poor tortoises away from the light and will fix them a different solution.
If it is true, I thought maybe I should warn other newbies that might be in the same situation, and also thank those here who insist that one needs a solarmeter despite the cost.
One of the tortoises has been in the hide a lot, possibly realizing that the light was dangerous. They have also been walking around with closed or squinting eyes. They don't seem to have become blind, but I have no idea if they will have long term issues.