Light Schedule

Yossarian

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Quick question, have 7 year old Greek female. What is an appropriate artificial day length for her? I’ve been running 14 hours for a while from 0800 - 2200, but she is always in her hide before 2200. Now that it’s getting lighter in the mornings though I notice she is usually waiting for he lamp to come on when I get up at 0700. My concern is that if I move her schedule up to 0700 then 1900 seems too early to shut her lamp off given that it is still light outside. I just don’t want to create a situation where she is awake and doesn’t have the option to warm herself in the evenings. Appreciate any advice on the matter.
 

JoesMum

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I had a Greek for 47 years. Early start, early finish seems to be best. Joe was very rarely active much after 4pm, but was often an early riser in the summer months.

You are mimicking the sun ... so basking at the extreme ends of the day isn’t essential. It might be light outside late in the evening, but it’s not warm enough for basking.

If you feel the temperature drops too much overnight then use a Ceramic Heat Emitter with a thermostat.
 

jsheffield

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I run my redfoot's lighting from 6am to 7pm everyday ... I haven't tackled seasonal variations in the timing because it seems like it would vastly complicate my automated setup.

Jamie
 

Yossarian

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I had a Greek for 47 years. Early start, early finish seems to be best. Joe was very rarely active much after 4pm, but was often an early riser in the summer months.

You are mimicking the sun ... so basking at the extreme ends of the day isn’t essential. It might be light outside late in the evening, but it’s not warm enough for basking.

If you feel the temperature drops too much overnight then use a Ceramic Heat Emitter with a thermostat.
Thanks for this reply, sounds like sensible advice and certainly seems to mirror the behavior I see so I won’t feel so bad about shutting her light off earlier.
 

Tom

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I prefer to mimic the daylight duration outside for temperate species. This is also one of the ways I prepare them for hibernation.
 

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