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SpookandNat · 22-12-2010, 08:40 PM

Hi all. Me and my girlfriend had been planning on getting a tortoise for ages, and today we finally got one. He is a British bred 1 year old Hermann and he is so cute! Anyway, we had a few issues on housing.

We bought I'm from a new pet store that has opened up in our town called Wrigglies. Our main concern with the shop was that everything there was kept in a vivarium. However, after seeing the certificated and having the knowlege that they hand been there or long, we decided to buy the cute one that made a mess on my girlfriends hand.

Now, we had looked up a lot of care sheets and information, but there seems o be 2 distinct types of tortoise owners who are continually contradicting the other party's arguments.

The guy sold us some good bedding, and obviously we have the tortoise table which is a good size, and all of the food bowls and scenery etc.

Our main concern is the lighting and energy costs. The guy sold us an 100 watt IR bulb and told us that was the one we wanted (also one of the more expensive ones in the shop.) He then went on to tell is that would need to be on 24/7, then went on to sell us a 12% UVB and said to have that on for 10 hours aday (15 watt)

We just wanted to know a few things.

A) is this a good way of heat uv and such?
B) if not how should it be done better?
C) with a bulb of that strength how close should it be to the table? We bought a clip lamp thing with the bulb, but I'd say there is about a size 13 shoe space length wise between the lamp and the table.
D) with the 100 watt bulb and the 15 watt UVB how much electricity are we looking at price wise (roughly)?
E) with all the snow around here at the moment, finding weeds is out of the question. I already know that icebergs are bad, and that too much protein can make them out grow their shells ( believe it or not they had a rescue tortoise there and showed us. He explained that under normal circumstances the tortoise would be put down, but that one was just so active and happy despite his rugged appearance, that they didn't feel it would be fair on him.) he told us about tomatoes and such being an occasional treat, and we bought supplements for the good veg like carrot and such. Any food suggestions to make a tortoise happy til the weeds come back?

thank you to everyone in advanced, and I apologise to everyone in advanced for any spelling mistakes and things that don't make sense throughout this post, but im writing this on my iPhone and I am not very good with it yet.

22-12-2010, 08:40 PM	#1
SpookandNat Junior Member Egg Join Date: Dec 2010 Posts: 6	New tortoise owners housing worries! Hi all. Me and my girlfriend had been planning on getting a tortoise for ages, and today we finally got one. He is a British bred 1 year old Hermann and he is so cute! Anyway, we had a few issues on housing. We bought I'm from a new pet store that has opened up in our town called Wrigglies. Our main concern with the shop was that everything there was kept in a vivarium. However, after seeing the certificated and having the knowlege that they hand been there or long, we decided to buy the cute one that made a mess on my girlfriends hand. Now, we had looked up a lot of care sheets and information, but there seems o be 2 distinct types of tortoise owners who are continually contradicting the other party's arguments. The guy sold us some good bedding, and obviously we have the tortoise table which is a good size, and all of the food bowls and scenery etc. Our main concern is the lighting and energy costs. The guy sold us an 100 watt IR bulb and told us that was the one we wanted (also one of the more expensive ones in the shop.) He then went on to tell is that would need to be on 24/7, then went on to sell us a 12% UVB and said to have that on for 10 hours aday (15 watt) We just wanted to know a few things. A) is this a good way of heat uv and such? B) if not how should it be done better? C) with a bulb of that strength how close should it be to the table? We bought a clip lamp thing with the bulb, but I'd say there is about a size 13 shoe space length wise between the lamp and the table. D) with the 100 watt bulb and the 15 watt UVB how much electricity are we looking at price wise (roughly)? E) with all the snow around here at the moment, finding weeds is out of the question. I already know that icebergs are bad, and that too much protein can make them out grow their shells ( believe it or not they had a rescue tortoise there and showed us. He explained that under normal circumstances the tortoise would be put down, but that one was just so active and happy despite his rugged appearance, that they didn't feel it would be fair on him.) he told us about tomatoes and such being an occasional treat, and we bought supplements for the good veg like carrot and such. Any food suggestions to make a tortoise happy til the weeds come back? thank you to everyone in advanced, and I apologise to everyone in advanced for any spelling mistakes and things that don't make sense throughout this post, but im writing this on my iPhone and I am not very good with it yet.