tips for lighting and heating of her tortoise table

[Butimis]

I have recently acquired a marginated tortoise and am wondering does anyone have tips for lighting and heating of her tortoise table?

[Nina]

Hi Butimis,

Welcome to The Tortoise Table, and congratulations on getting your Marginated tortoise -- they are a lovely species.

Light levels and temperature are crucial for tortoises, so getting it right at the beginning is important. First of all here is a link to a care sheet for Marginateds: https://www.tortoise-protection-group.o ... 014New.pdf and it has a section on lighting and heating. You will want either a UVB fluorescent tube with a reflector clipped onto it (to protect your eyes and to direct more of the rays down into table) plus an ordinary basking bulb to produce heat and light, or a combined heat/light/uvb mercury vapour bulb that produces all three in one.

The temperature directly below the bulb and measured at the height of the tortoise's shell (not measured by a thermometer that is stuck onto a nearby wall) should be 29C or 30C, and the cool end of the table should be around 20C. In most modern houses there is no need for any heat to be provided during the night, unless the temperature falls below about 13C or 14C.

Here is the section on our website about indoor enclosures, and it has a lot of information about heating and lighting, so have a read of this and do come back with any questions you might have. https://www.thetortoisetable.org.uk/tor ... r-housing/

If you can tell us what set-up you have now (and photos are a great help), we can perhaps suggest some tweaks for improvement if necessary -- and if you want to send us photos of your tortoise, we would love to see him (we never tire of looking at photos of tortoises!).
Nina