Uv light????advice please

[rainbowbrite]

Hi my mum bought a pair of tortosies, from a pet shop that came with a complete set up(3' viv etc) in this set up was a UV package containing a UV 0.5 strip bulb, Can someone tell me if this bulb is ok, if not what power does the uv have to be, they are late 08 hermann tortosies.

[fatfecker]

You would be better off building them a decent outside enclosure, there are many awesome examples stickied at the top of this forum, artificial UV will never compare with the sun and I only use UV bulbs to artificially extend the summer into autumn and to start the summer early when I bring them out of hibernation, from May to September the best place for a hermanni is outside.

Also vivs tend to be a bad idea for hermanni as they do not allow sufficient temperature variations, tortoises are reptiles and need to thermo-regulate themselves by moving from cold to warm and back again when they get too hot or cold. Vivs also tend to encourage high humidity which can encourage bacterial growth and can cause RNS, a potential life threatening illness.

If you must keep them indoors I would recommend a tortoise table and a combined heat/UV bulb to give them a sunspot.

Did the UB bulb packaging have any information on it or a brand? There are lots of different UV bulbs on the market and each have different UV outputs

[rainbowbrite]

thats totally interesting!!when my mum decided to get some, she wanted to keep them outside, but was told by quite a few places that under NO circumstances should they go outside!! only for an hour aday in the summer!! so mum decided to get a viv etc, so let me get this right, even thou they are still tiny they can go outside in a enclousure, night and day?sorry not to clued up as these aint mine, but my mum is not to good with pc's so trying to help her out.advivce needed

[dreamer]

Pets at home told me that i couldnt let them out until they were 5 and they had to be kept in a viv, luckily for me i'd already had a look on this site and on shelled warriors so knew this wasnt the case. Theres some really helpful people on here but as far as i understand, put them outside in the day unless its completely pouring with rain. Give them some hides - maybe a heat source (?). The uv in the sun is really important for their growth and cant be reproduced by the lights, they just arent as good.

Also a tort table is best as has already been mentioned, because they dont do well in high humidity.

New to this myself but hope that helps.

[fatfecker]

Sure thing, my little ones go out within a week of hatching, make sure birds/rats/dogs/anything else can't get at them and that they can't escape and make them a nice interesting outdoor enclosure.

I would still bath them daily until you are sure that they know where the water is (you must provide them with water at all times) and weigh them and measure them weekly to make sure they are gaining weight. You should also dust their food with a calcium supplement to ensure they have enough to grow a nice healthy shell.

[Shelley66]

Mine are outside too, even the tinies

I would say though, make sure they have a nice sturdy house with a basking light in it so that they can warm themselves up in our horrible weather. The basking light only needs to be a normal household 40w or 60w spot light