Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Can someone give me a brief breakdown of what lights are necessary for russian, red foots, or leopard tortoises?

I go to some pet shops and they have sulcatas under flourescent aquarium lights? I understand they need a bulb for uva/uvb, a basking light, and a night light for heat.

How many clamp lights and bulbs am I looking at here? Or do all these bulbs serve the same purpose? Doing some research Thanks!

Hey there,

Frankly, I would steer clear of pet shop info unless they specialize in what you want. I would look on the web. My local reptile shop had a 5 pound leopard tort in a 20 gallon tank! crazy! I had to buy just to save the things life!

Anyway, I have had leopard torts for 7 years and I am no expert but I am happy to share what I do. I have an L shaped enclosure where each leg of the L is 7' Since torts tend to walk the perimiter my thought is that an L provides the most perimeter and allows you to reach all areas. I have (1) 4' florescent fixture in each leg, two ceramic heat lamps for heating at night when the lights are off and one or two uvb/heat lights. Torts bask under heat so if the heat source does not also provide uvb then you are wasting a bunch of that light, but at the same time I use the florescent because they are much cheaper and reliable. and when they are active and walking around during the day they are still under a uvb source. I have NEVER found a uvb/heat lamp that lasts as long as they promise although I love them while they last.

When they were small I had a smaller enclosure and just had a uvb/heat lamp and a ceramic heater. seemed to work fine. Just last year I finally invested in UVB meter to know if my bulbs were still working.

Good luck,

Ben
1.1 Leopards