We have just brought a horsfield tortoise for my farther in law as he as always wanted one. The tortoise is 5 months old and and was brought of an owner who had 2 others same age. But like others I've read about, when i went to the pet store to try and get some advice they sold me a vivarium for bearded dragons! only once i had set it up and researched on the internet i realised its not the best home for him. but as i modified it slightly already i can't return it  so at the meantime we will have to make do.

Luckily though the vivarium is large so he has plenty of room for the meantime. i also brought a UV lamp (10.0) and a basking lamp and bracket which i mounted to the side of the vivarium pointing down. the basking lamp is connected to a thermostat with the sensor on the ground underneath and set to 30 degrees. 

for the meantime i have kept the tortoise here in my utility room, as my farther in law is planning on keeping it in the shed when he runs power to it.

As the tortoise shouldn't be kept in a vivarium, i have modified the top to have half mesh on the right and the wood on the left (above basking lamp) so the left side is hot and the right side is cooler and well ventilated.

My questions are for when we move him into the shed: 

We will be putting the UV light on a timer to allow 12 hours light and then off at night, but does the basking lamp stay on all night or go on a timer aswell? as its bright and would give out a lot of light and may disturb his sleep (he does have a log to hide under) . I know he will need some kind of heating so i was thinking having another ceramic bulb holder with a ceramic heating lamp which doesn't give off light and setting that to a temp of about 20 degrees with the sensor in the middle of the vivarium,so that at night it doesn't go too cold. would this be substantial or do you think we need another tubular heater in the shed as well? also, should we place the ceramic heating lamp in the middle of the vivarium or on the left by the basking lamp? 

Also, the owner lay the tortoise on Readi Grass, as he said its a good substrate and they can also eat it too, but my research suggests top soil mixed with sand, which is what i will be replacing the readi-grass with soon, but my question is, is it ok to put him some read-grass in aswell scattered around? as he seems to like burying underneath it. and when we buy the top soil I'm guessing it will be in quite a damp bag, do we leave it out in a bucket for it to dry up first or will it be ok to go straight in?

Its the second day we have with him but i haven't seen him drink any water yet. we put him in the shallow water bowl yesterday as advised by the internet but he didn't drink any, we tried him again today and still didn't drink any. i know we can't watch him 24 hours a day but we are worried he's not drinking any water!

Sorry for the long post but we are new to all this and the advice on here seems really helpful! We really want to make sure we are looking after him correctly!

Thanks

Steve

Sheds are not an ideal place to keep torts. At 5 months of age the house would be a better so that it can be easily observed. 

No heat or light at night, it is a hardy species.

Re. heat /lighting, the TPG advise using a Megaray UVB bulb (heat & light). A 100W bulb is suspended at about 30cm above the tort. level to create a 'hot spot'. 

Re. soil - it needs to be as deep & firm as possible, so that it can dig into it.

Presumably it will drink when it is thirsty. Place it in tepid water in (say) a 15 x 15mm container once a day only, & observe.

Horsfield's are not a good choice of species, because they burrow & tunnel.

Also damp conditions need avoiding. This complicates building an outdoor enclosure. Even so summer is here & it needs to spend most days out, being small it's not difficult to make a small enclosure.

Click on 'The Tortoise .." box & download a Caresheet, also explore the site generally.

I hope the above helps,

Tom