Lighting - is it bright enough

katieandiggy

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Hi all,

I’ve had my Russian around 3-4 weeks now.
I have a basking lamp at one end and my UVB strip light on the ceiling of the vivarium. I decided that it was too far away from Tort so I have moved it and attached it to the back wall lower down, thing is my vivarium looks really dark now, it’s a dark wood colour anyway, along with dark orchid bark chips, and I’ve noticed that my tort has become less active and not eating as much and I’m wondering if it’s because of the lighting.
What light can I use to give just light without heat, and what colour range of light am I looking for? Can I use a LED light? I find the incandescent difficult to get in the U.K. as everything seems to be LED.

Thanks in advance
 

Salspi

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What height did you have it before you moved the UVB fixture to the back wall? I’d be very worried about damaging the torts eyes. The light needs to come from above in my opinion.
 

katieandiggy

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I thought the same actually but I had seen them attached to the back of tortoise tables so thought it would be ok.
I could actually suspend it from the roof of the vivarium with Cable Ties, I will change it tomorrow.
 

YERTLE_THE_TORTOISE

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In my opinion, you should not be using the orchid bark chips for it can cause impaction, prevents digging, and does not hold moisture well.
 

TechnoCheese

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In my opinion, you should not be using the orchid bark chips for it can cause impaction, prevents digging, and does not hold moisture well.

They definitely shouldn’t cause impactions, my tortoise burrows in them fine, and they hold moisture extremely well. Orchid bark, in my(and many other people’s) experience, is by far the best substrate to use for tortoises. It holds moisture and humidity beautifully, it isn’t very messy and doesn’t coat the tortoise or get into water bowls, and if eaten, are harmlessly digested.
Have you used fine grade orchid bark? And if so, with what animal?
 

YERTLE_THE_TORTOISE

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They definitely shouldn’t cause impactions, my tortoise burrows in them fine, and they hold moisture extremely well. Orchid bark, in my(and many other people’s) experience, is by far the best substrate to use for tortoises. It holds moisture and humidity beautifully, it isn’t very messy and doesn’t coat the tortoise or get into water bowls, and if eaten, are harmlessly digested.
Have you used fine grade orchid bark? And if so, with what animal?
When you said orchid bark chips I did not realize you were referring to fine grade orchid bark. I use fine grade orchid bark my self and it is wonderful, sorry for the confusion.
 

YERTLE_THE_TORTOISE

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This is the stuff I thought @katiendiggy was referring to.
arcadia-orchid-mix.jpg
 
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