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Question
QUESTION: I have a red footed tortoise i have her in a glass cage on one end of the cage i have a heat light its a 150 watts. The cage temp is about 85 in the day i keep the light on for 12 hours. the other end of the cage is a sun light i keep that on for 12 hours i have his water dish at the sun end of the cage i just have fake plants so she can hide in there in the heat side of the cage. On the bottom of the cage i have plantation soil i keep it really moist i mist it all the time. at night i have no lights on and it is to cold about 63 can i get another night light to use so that wont happen or could you please tell me what to do. she is about a year old

ANSWER: How are you measuring the temperature?  You need to check temps at the substrate level, not air temps.  If you're using a 150 watt bulb, your temperatures should be much higher than 85.  150 watts is generally too much unless the enclosure is very large.  You want about a 90 degree basking temp with cooler temperatures in the high 70s.  You can use a heat emitter at night to keep the temperature up around 70 degrees.  You don't want a light on day and night.  I would also add some sphagnum moss (orchid moss) to the substrate to add humidity.  Ideally you don't want a tortoise in a tank, but if it's large enough (50 gallons or larger) for a good temperature gradient and air flow it can work for a small tortoise.  An adult redfoot is much too big for any tank.  At some point you will need to build a tortoise table for your tortoise, and then a 150 watt bulb will probably work.  In a larger enclosure, you can have a house for nighttime heated with a heat emitter so you don't have to warm the entire enclosure.

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QUESTION: I am measuring the temp with a temp gage that hangs down in the cage i have it hanging on the heat side. Do i need to stick it in the soil my cage is 10 feet long 5 feet wide and 11 feet high and i have two doors that open on it  What is a heat emitter i live in alberta canada i get my pet supplies from pet smart do you know if they would have a heat emitter.

Answer
You need to lay the thermometer on the substrate surface below the basking lamp to measure the temperature correctly.  Most likely it is much hotter than 85, and may be too hot, so do check it.  Your enclosure is a good size, but make sure there is decent air circulation.  You should be able to get a heat emitter at Petsmart or online.  Since your enclosure is big I would consider building a night box/house for your tortoise and just heating that.  Heat emitters get very hot, but you can use them to heat a tortoise house if you set them up correctly so they don't touch anything.  You might need to use a thermostat to maintain the right night temperature--if you do use a tortoise house, you won't need more than a 75-100 watt emitter.  

Here's a link to what a heat emitter looks like:  http://www.carolinapetsupply.com/catalog/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=

Here's how you can hook up a heat emitter in a tortoise house (this is in a deck box, but you could do the same thing in something else--just make sure the heat emitter is well above the tortoise!):  http://russiantortoise.org/deck_box.htm

Hope this helped.  You don't need it too warm at night, but around 68-70 is good for an adult.  For hatchlings under a year old, 70-75 degrees.