Hi there

My boyfriend and I bought a 2 year old Horsefield tortoise at the weekend from a lady who has said she has had him since born.

She supplied a vivarium with a strip light UVA light and a UVB light.  She advised us that this was the best thing for our Horsefield, but clearly we know this is not the case at all as it has a glass front and sure enough when he is in there he wants to get out! We have ordered already a tortoise table and are hoping this will arrive by the weekend as we know this is better for him.

In the interim, we are turning both lights off during the night - is this ok to do this? We are concerned about ventilation so in addition we are also getting him out of the vivarium and bathing him every other day at the moment and letting him out for a run around every day for a good half hour or so.

The only thing we are very concerned about is that we both work during the day and so whilst both lights are on we are concerned that he might get too hot.  The vivarium is approx 5ft by 2ft and has covered area for him to go in at night.  We were told that the UVB light should be on for 14 hours a day at a temperature of 32 degrees centigrade? This seems to long and too hot to me? 

He is quite happy especially when he is out of the vivarium and is eating and drinking ok but is there anything we should be doing which we are not especially with regards to the temperature until the table arrives?

Thanks for any advise!

Hi Kate and Welcome
You are quite right in being concerned about your little friend being in a viv. Well done for learning more about torts to know what they really need, and what you are doing at the moment is correct. The fact sheets on the left hand side under "Tortoise" are really good so have a read of them. In the meantime, what you need to achieve is a basking area, under the heat/uv lamp at 30=32c and a cool end at 22c, this is what is so hard to achieve in a viv. We are trying to replicate the wild for these tortoises, so think day, night and variations in temperatures. I have mine on for 7 hrs, and I try to time by when the sun would rise and set, others may do different, so take a bit of knowledge from each person. Please ask as many questions as you like.
Jane

Hi Jane

Thank you so much for your advise! We are getting timers sorted out as well and making sure we can do what we can to keep him happy until the tortoise table arrives! Which cannot happen quickly enough.