Is it better to put the tortoise inside using UV light or outside enjoying sunshine

qiangzhu

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Mar 7, 2019
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151
Location (City and/or State)
Washington
Nowadays, the temperature is increased and there are more and more sunshine. I am thinking to use a tortoise playpen to make them outside to enjoy sunshine several hours every day? (maybe 1-2 hours after I am off work on weekdays and 4-5 hours on the weekend)

I tried today. I put a water bowl in the playpen. Put a wood board on top to make 1/3 area a shadow. The only problem is the humidity. I put a fog humidifier with a pipe to let it emit humidity fog into the pen but it looks not help since the pen is made by mesh wire and not a closed enclosure.

The tortoise looks very active under the sunshine. In my closed warm and high humidity indoor enclosure, it usually stay silently and sleep. But in the playpen outdoor, it continues to walk, walk walk and walk. 90% of the time, it is in sunshine part and only 10% of the time is in the shadow.

I'd like to ask:
1. To keep the tortoise 1-2 hours during the weekday and 4-5 hours during the weekend in the relative dry outside playpen is ok for it? The rest of the time, it is in an indoor closed warm and high humidity enclose. My indoor close humidity is usually 60%-80%. But for the outdoor pen, even with the humidifier, it is about 10%-30%

2. Is it normal for the tortoise to avoid the shadow and walk madly in the sunshine part? I am just want to know if it means it is happy or uncomfortable.

The size of the playpen is pretty large compared my radiated tortoise is only 7cm. I bought it from Amazon and it is supposed to use for dogs. I believe it is 105cm * 105cm
Best Regards
 

Toddrickfl1

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Jan 7, 2018
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7,103
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In my opinion nothing is better than natural sunlight. My tort seems to grow much more and be more content when he can go outdoors. If your Tortoise gets a few hours of sun a week a UVB bulb is not really necessary inside. Not sure about the humidity question I'll let someone more experienced chime in on that.
 

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