I have a 1 year old hermanns tortoise. His enclosure is outside right now because the temp here in california is pretty high. I feed him a diet of mazuri tortoise pellets soaked in warm water, grass, flower for fiber, cucumber, and calcium on top once in a while. PLEASE GIVE ME ANY TIPS. :)
Few things of note, you look to be using some kind of top soil? Unless composted yourself, there’s no way of knowing what kind of plants have gone into it, could be something toxic, safe option are coco coir, orchid fir bark or forest floor/cypress mulch.
A baby as young as yours needs to be housed in a closed chamber set up, they can’t live outdoors full time even in good weather, just a few hours a day to meet their uv needs. With an open top, it’s impossible to keep the humidity it needs to be for a young growing tortoise.
Herman’s aren’t a grass eating species so I wouldn’t bother feeding that, a pinch of calcium can be added 2-3 times a week.
I’d get yourself an incandescent floodlight for basking, with regular ambient lighting on a 12hour timer.
A CHE(ceramic heat emitter) for back up/night heat, ran on a thermostat 24/7, the thermostat will turn it on/off as and when needed.
You can have them outside in their secure enclosure for a few hours to get some natural uv, just make sure it’s not getting too hot in the enclosure.
Then I’d cover this enclosure with some sort of greenhouse topper.
I think you’ll find this this I made useful to go through, I cover correct indoor lighting&heating, correct levels, appropriately maintaining humidity, lots of visual examples for everything and a good diet link
Hello there! In this thread, I’m going to include some information on an effective way to tackle a starter set up/a way you can build a bigger size once your baby is an adult. I know it looks a lot to go over, I like to make sure all bases are covered, I’m happy to break down any information...
Hello everyone! I’d been a long time lurker on this site long before joining just under a year ago now, over that time I’ve seen these husbandry issues come up time and time again, sometimes with dire consequences☹️ I thought this thread might serve as a good visual guide for these common...
tortoiseforum.org
Hope this helps! To ask further questions you can always make your own thread
Few things of note, you look to be using some kind of top soil? Unless composted yourself, there’s no way of knowing what kind of plants have gone into it, could be something toxic, safe option are coco coir, orchid fir bark or forest floor/cypress mulch.
A baby as young as yours needs to be housed in a closed chamber set up, they can’t live outdoors full time even in good weather, just a few hours a day to meet their uv needs. With an open top, it’s impossible to keep the humidity it needs to be for a young growing tortoise.
Herman’s aren’t a grass eating species so I wouldn’t bother feeding that, a pinch of calcium can be added 2-3 times a week.
I’d get yourself an incandescent floodlight for basking, with regular ambient lighting on a 12hour timer.
A CHE(ceramic heat emitter) for back up/night heat, ran on a thermostat 24/7, the thermostat will turn it on/off as and when needed.
You can have them outside in their secure enclosure for a few hours to get some natural uv, just make sure it’s not getting too hot in the enclosure.
Then I’d cover this enclosure with some sort of greenhouse topper.
I think you’ll find this this I made useful to go through, I cover correct indoor lighting&heating, correct levels, appropriately maintaining humidity, lots of visual examples for everything and a good diet link
Hello there! In this thread, I’m going to include some information on an effective way to tackle a starter set up/a way you can build a bigger size once your baby is an adult. I know it looks a lot to go over, I like to make sure all bases are covered, I’m happy to break down any information...
Hello everyone! I’d been a long time lurker on this site long before joining just under a year ago now, over that time I’ve seen these husbandry issues come up time and time again, sometimes with dire consequences☹️ I thought this thread might serve as a good visual guide for these common...
tortoiseforum.org
Hope this helps! To ask further questions you can always make your own thread
Thank you for the tips I mixed reptisoil with sand for the substrate so I assume that would be non-toxic right? I also added coco chips recently. Are there any enclosure examples you could show me? I’m not very good at finding fully enclosed enclosures.
Few things of note, you look to be using some kind of top soil? Unless composted yourself, there’s no way of knowing what kind of plants have gone into it, could be something toxic, safe option are coco coir, orchid fir bark or forest floor/cypress mulch.
A baby as young as yours needs to be housed in a closed chamber set up, they can’t live outdoors full time even in good weather, just a few hours a day to meet their uv needs. With an open top, it’s impossible to keep the humidity it needs to be for a young growing tortoise.
Herman’s aren’t a grass eating species so I wouldn’t bother feeding that, a pinch of calcium can be added 2-3 times a week.
I’d get yourself an incandescent floodlight for basking, with regular ambient lighting on a 12hour timer.
A CHE(ceramic heat emitter) for back up/night heat, ran on a thermostat 24/7, the thermostat will turn it on/off as and when needed.
You can have them outside in their secure enclosure for a few hours to get some natural uv, just make sure it’s not getting too hot in the enclosure.
Then I’d cover this enclosure with some sort of greenhouse topper.
I think you’ll find this this I made useful to go through, I cover correct indoor lighting&heating, correct levels, appropriately maintaining humidity, lots of visual examples for everything and a good diet link
Hello there! In this thread, I’m going to include some information on an effective way to tackle a starter set up/a way you can build a bigger size once your baby is an adult. I know it looks a lot to go over, I like to make sure all bases are covered, I’m happy to break down any information...
Hello everyone! I’d been a long time lurker on this site long before joining just under a year ago now, over that time I’ve seen these husbandry issues come up time and time again, sometimes with dire consequences☹️ I thought this thread might serve as a good visual guide for these common...
tortoiseforum.org
Hope this helps! To ask further questions you can always make your own thread
Thank you for the tips I mixed reptisoil with sand for the substrate so I assume that would be non-toxic right? I also added coco chips recently. Are there any enclosure examples you could show me? I’m not very good at finding fully enclosed enclosures.
Yeah I’d replace it because sand can actually become an impaction issue over time, that and it can be a skin and eye irritant. If you click on the first thread I linked, there’s lots of examples near the end
I cover this in the thread too, essentially you want to aim for your lower layers of substrate being damp to maintain humidity for longer, which works really well in a closed set up. To do this, simply pour some lukewarm water into the corners of the substrate.
As your enclosure has a wooden base, to protect it from moulding, I’d get some liner that can go up and over the sides, you can then use what ever topper you go with to pin it in place so to speak
Yeah I’d replace it because sand can actually become an impaction issue over time, that and it can be a skin and eye irritant. If you click on the first thread I linked, there’s lots of examples near the end
I cover this in the thread too, essentially you want to aim for your lower layers of substrate being damp to maintain humidity for longer, which works really well in a closed set up. To do this, simply pour some lukewarm water into the corners of the substrate.
As your enclosure has a wooden base, to protect it from moulding, I’d get some liner that can go up and over the sides, you can then use what ever topper you go with to pin it in place so to speak
No problem at all! You can always feel free to make your own thread and include the items you find so people can double check them for you(sometimes the bulb labels can be confusing depending on brand) all the best
