Recent content by JeffR

I intended just to provide a hide for my leopards as they already had a “Tom-Style” night box because it was black it got too hot so I made the ugly hide below. I had a kane mat and simply put it under and every night I went to tuck them in and they were all in the half pipe. See pick. The...

Paired with temp controller and a Stanfield mat and the torts are super happy

Local artist Burmese star

Cool Tortoise sculpture at Hellbrunn palace trick fountains. Hard to tell direction of water flow

Try dimming the lights and play some Luther Vandross ;-)

One trick is when bathing I hold them almost vertical and have warm water running across their plastron and tail and that will get them to flash, that can help sex them at a relatively early age. The boys are not too bashful

This semi-pondless water feature has been up for a few weeks and does not seem to be a problem . With an autofill feature and stronger pump and a larger reservoir made with plastic pallets. It is only an about 6 inches deep at deepest and has a buried barrel filter on top. The pen has 9...

Cefalosporims and penicillins all work on the bacteria’s cell wall. Mycoplasma does not have a cell wall. Fortaz is a beast of an antibiotic and covers most bacteria just not mycoplasma.

100% access is the tricky part Was thinking of framing it with 2x4’s screwed through the metal from inside out and incorporating Tom’s foam board style onto that (wedging foam board between 2x4’s) and then you can put some foam board on the bottom and wrap it with whatever eg. shingles...

I have Leopards, MEPs, Sri Lankans and Rads as well but do not keep any of them together. The only other “losses” ever were 2 Sri Lankans babies about a year ago which I think was from hatchling failure as they never grew at all. The 11 Burmese Stars have otherwise been super hardy.

You are not really making them swim just a deep soak, “the tortoise treadmill” style. If they are consistently tipping to one side one lung may be involved if they seem less buoyant it suggest both lungs could be involved. Combined with other things like not eating or panting respirations...

Trying to figure out how to make a night box out by insulating an IBC tote. The “Tom box” is outstanding but relatively expensive to build (having built three now) You can get a tote for about $35 and if you could create a front access big enough so the old guys can get in and out easily it...