I am an experienced Sulcata keeper. And because I am experienced and a know it all, I really haven't paid much attention to the new and different lighting and heating recommendations . But I have a tortoise who needs her care to be spot on.
Re: Mary Knobbins
She was found walking the streets of downtown Portland Oregon. That's about 100 miles from where I live. The person who found the tortoise lives here in Corvallis, so he brought her here and turned her over to the wildlife rescue who called me and there ya go. I have had Mary for about 3 years. That's her on the far right.
You see how badly pyramided she is from the git go. I always used black light bulbs for heat but ya can't find them anymore, so I have slowly been switching over to CHE's. BUT, I've gotten mostly black 100 watt cheap lookin things that don't put out 1/4 of the heat put out by my old CHE's. So I am sorta having a problem . Bob drug his sprinkler into his shed and it ran almost full blast for a couple of hours. LOL But that incident caused me to put in a claim for damage to the floor, so we put in new insulation (the sheet styrofoam stuff) and new floor et all. Fast forward to now. I was in the tort shed putting the tortoises to bed and making sure all the timers are on correctly, and I was on my knees reaching over to find my tort and realized it was very cold there. The door recently made for Mary leaks cold sumthin terrible.
My question is 2 fold I guess, my tortoises will only get outside sporadically for the next 7 months, right now I am using 75 watt flood bulbs for basking heat, 100 watt CHE's for each tortoise, sleeping box with a Kane pig blanket/rheostat, ambient heat is an oil filled radiator heater and the ambient heat is almost 90 unless you put your hand on the floor. So I added stall mats, still cold on the floor, ??? I didn't like the tube lights I had put up, but with the bulbs recommended nowadaze, I have a 4 ft fixture with 2 bulbs reading Reptisun 5.0 with a couple of months actual use, but they have been in the closet for a whole lotta years.
I'm looking for advice on the UVB tube thingy, I can't do a thing about the cold floor I guess, and 2. UBV lights for the winter. Can I use those old bulbs? Oh Mary needs a RHP or a pig blanket, where do I find those and what should I look out for including used bulbs?
Thanks for reading all this....
Re: Mary Knobbins
She was found walking the streets of downtown Portland Oregon. That's about 100 miles from where I live. The person who found the tortoise lives here in Corvallis, so he brought her here and turned her over to the wildlife rescue who called me and there ya go. I have had Mary for about 3 years. That's her on the far right.
You see how badly pyramided she is from the git go. I always used black light bulbs for heat but ya can't find them anymore, so I have slowly been switching over to CHE's. BUT, I've gotten mostly black 100 watt cheap lookin things that don't put out 1/4 of the heat put out by my old CHE's. So I am sorta having a problem . Bob drug his sprinkler into his shed and it ran almost full blast for a couple of hours. LOL But that incident caused me to put in a claim for damage to the floor, so we put in new insulation (the sheet styrofoam stuff) and new floor et all. Fast forward to now. I was in the tort shed putting the tortoises to bed and making sure all the timers are on correctly, and I was on my knees reaching over to find my tort and realized it was very cold there. The door recently made for Mary leaks cold sumthin terrible.
My question is 2 fold I guess, my tortoises will only get outside sporadically for the next 7 months, right now I am using 75 watt flood bulbs for basking heat, 100 watt CHE's for each tortoise, sleeping box with a Kane pig blanket/rheostat, ambient heat is an oil filled radiator heater and the ambient heat is almost 90 unless you put your hand on the floor. So I added stall mats, still cold on the floor, ??? I didn't like the tube lights I had put up, but with the bulbs recommended nowadaze, I have a 4 ft fixture with 2 bulbs reading Reptisun 5.0 with a couple of months actual use, but they have been in the closet for a whole lotta years.
I'm looking for advice on the UVB tube thingy, I can't do a thing about the cold floor I guess, and 2. UBV lights for the winter. Can I use those old bulbs? Oh Mary needs a RHP or a pig blanket, where do I find those and what should I look out for including used bulbs?
Thanks for reading all this....