New tortoise enclosure

Jonesy7178

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Attached is my new cherry head enclosure I built this weekend it has 2 uvb lights on the ends and to heat lamps in the middle one is ceramic and one is infrared. Do any of you have any I dead how I can get the enclosure warmer it seems like the ceramic bulb barely heats anything. The middle stays around 85-90 but the side only get to about 70
 

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KarenSoCal

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When you say a ceramic bulb, do you mean a CHE? They look like this.
Screenshot_20210224-020129_Amazon.jpg

If so, you may need 2 of them, one on each side.

The infrared bulb should be removed. They make everything red, and tortoises eat red things. If the tort eats his substrate, impaction is a risk. You also don't want it on at night because tortoises follow the same day/night cycle that we do, so need dark at night.

Redfoot torts don't bask, and don't like bright light. They come from the tropical forests in South America, living on the edge of the forest, and under the tree canopy. They get filtered light through the canopy. As a result, they do not need large amounts of UVB light, either.

I think you probably only need 1 of those UVB tube lights. What I would do is replace the bulb in one of them with a fluorescent tube like a grow light, or a daylight bulb. That would give you ambient light during the day.

The 2 domes should both have CHE's in them. One should go about a third of the way from the end of the enclosure, and the 2nd goes 2/3rds of the way. That gives you heat over the entire enclosure. They should both be on one thermostat set to the minimum nighttime temp that is recommended for redfoot. Since there is no basking bulb, to get a gradient in temp, use CHE's of different wattages. You'll have to experiment to get it just right.

You are losing your heat because there is no cover where the heat lamps are. The heat rises right out the uncovered space. The lights and CHE's all need to be mounted under the cover.

Another issue is humidity. That is also going out along with the heat, and redfoot need very high humidity.

If you could add another several inches to the height of the enclosure walls, that would give you space to mount everything. The other option is to use a portable greenhouse over the entire enclosure. You would remove the top that you have there now. The lights, etc would hang from the bar on the greenhouse, and along with wattage, would be raised or lowered to fine tune the temps. They look like this. They come in different sizes, so you would need to find the best size for your enclosure. Just search "portable greenhouse" on Amazon.

20200524_162330.jpg

Somebody else may have other suggestions. I'll tag 2 redfoot owners.

@ZEROPILOT
@Toddrickfl1
 

ZEROPILOT

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When you say a ceramic bulb, do you mean a CHE? They look like this.
View attachment 319662

If so, you may need 2 of them, one on each side.

The infrared bulb should be removed. They make everything red, and tortoises eat red things. If the tort eats his substrate, impaction is a risk. You also don't want it on at night because tortoises follow the same day/night cycle that we do, so need dark at night.

Redfoot torts don't bask, and don't like bright light. They come from the tropical forests in South America, living on the edge of the forest, and under the tree canopy. They get filtered light through the canopy. As a result, they do not need large amounts of UVB light, either.

I think you probably only need 1 of those UVB tube lights. What I would do is replace the bulb in one of them with a fluorescent tube like a grow light, or a daylight bulb. That would give you ambient light during the day.

The 2 domes should both have CHE's in them. One should go about a third of the way from the end of the enclosure, and the 2nd goes 2/3rds of the way. That gives you heat over the entire enclosure. They should both be on one thermostat set to the minimum nighttime temp that is recommended for redfoot. Since there is no basking bulb, to get a gradient in temp, use CHE's of different wattages. You'll have to experiment to get it just right.

You are losing your heat because there is no cover where the heat lamps are. The heat rises right out the uncovered space. The lights and CHE's all need to be mounted under the cover.

Another issue is humidity. That is also going out along with the heat, and redfoot need very high humidity.

If you could add another several inches to the height of the enclosure walls, that would give you space to mount everything. The other option is to use a portable greenhouse over the entire enclosure. You would remove the top that you have there now. The lights, etc would hang from the bar on the greenhouse, and along with wattage, would be raised or lowered to fine tune the temps. They look like this. They come in different sizes, so you would need to find the best size for your enclosure. Just search "portable greenhouse" on Amazon.

View attachment 319663

Somebody else may have other suggestions. I'll tag 2 redfoot owners.

@ZEROPILOT
@Toddrickfl1
I agree with your information and since I do not keep any tortoises indoors, I'll also refer to @Toddrickfl1
 

Toddrickfl1

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Attached is my new cherry head enclosure I built this weekend it has 2 uvb lights on the ends and to heat lamps in the middle one is ceramic and one is infrared. Do any of you have any I dead how I can get the enclosure warmer it seems like the ceramic bulb barely heats anything. The middle stays around 85-90 but the side only get to about 70
I think your losing a lot of your heat where the domes are sitting and it's uncovered. Have you considered radiant heat panels instead of CHE's? If you attached another board down the middle of each of the top panels you could mount the radiant heat panel to that. I'd put one on both sides. Then you could fully close the top.
 

Jonesy7178

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Feb 21, 2021
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Aurora
I think your losing a lot of your heat where the domes are sitting and it's uncovered. Have you considered radiant heat panels instead of CHE's? If you attached another board down the middle of each of the top panels you could mount the radiant heat panel to that. I'd put one on both sides. Then you could fully close the top.
No I didn’t even know those existed thanks I’ll look in to it if anything I plan on making a cover to go over the dome light to help keep heat in the sides are only getting to around 75
 
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