They do seem to vary a lot - some are quite attractive and others look horrendous all wrapped in plastic - their main concern seems to be keeping humidity in especially for smaller growing tortoises and even in areas where they have ideal weather they do not seem to put them out at all - I have to say a lot of them do seem to grow smooth shells but difficult to know if this is as a result of habitat or other factors. also not sure what the reasoning behind it is as surely in the wild they would never be subject to such high levels of humidity, but I suppose neither would they have basking lamps
There always seem to be very convincing pros and cons about different methods- table/viv/closed chamber that it can be difficult to know what to do for the best and then there are new ideas such as not using lamps but tubes/panel heaters - I guess this ids part of what makes keeping tortoises interesting but also confusing and slightly frustrating as a newbie to know what to do for the best - we will never really be able to give them the same conditions that they have in the wild so what to do for the best?!!
