daniellenc
Well-Known Member
@Tom i know you don’t keep red foots ( for shame lol) but I’ve soaked mine daily his first year and he’s 237 grams now and 3.5-4 inches. What do you suggest soaking should be for juveniles?
Humidity?
- Thread starter daniellenc
- Start date
Red foot tortoises don't do well in my dry climate here. I've seen many people try it and few succeed. This being the case, I don't like to give specific advice about them because I don't have first hand experience doing it multiple ways to compare and contrast which methods work best. I know daily soaks are good for every species when they are babies, but beyond that, you'll need more specific advice from someone who is better versed in what works for RFs over the long term.
Ask @Anyfoot he's helped me a lot
daniellenc
Well-Known Member
It’s only humid in Maryland 6 months of the year. The rest I accomplish with your closed chamber method and daily soaks. Wondering if skipping days would be bad but I think I’ll continue until he’s 2 and then skip here and there.
My opinion is they need humidity well above 90%. I’ve done every combo of soaking you can think of after the 3 month mark. All my babies were soaked daily for first 3 months. I’ve stopped daily soaking at 3 months upto 6 months old.
I think we have to get the soaking, humidity and concentrated heat in balance. The more basking you offer the more soaking is needed for example. I also think they need a lot more calcium than I originally thought.
I have plenty of yearlings I soak once a week that are perfect. I’ve upped humidity and calcium intake. I rain(mist) on them twice a day.
daniellenc
Well-Known Member
We’ll he loves to bask. In my AP cage he won’t have the option thankfully RHP instead of my current CHE’s but still I worry. He basks EVERY morning and after dinner before bed and my CHE is set to 84 with his hide being 80-82 degrees. His humidity in his cage is always at least 80 but not over 90 everyday. That may change when his cage finally comes.
Can I see your set up please?
daniellenc
Well-Known Member
Your tort is growing the same way as some of mine did when I unintentionally offered a basking spot which allowed them to dry out for hours on end. I soaked daily, sprayed them in the morning and in the evening, but still the prelonged periods through the day when they basked dried them out too much. In other words if you soak daily and spray it won’t overcome prelonged basking. If your tort is sat under that CHE at 90/94f basking it’s drying out. I don’t use lampshades because all it dies is concentrate the heat into one area. I’d be interested to know what humidity reading you’d get under that CHE. If you take off the shade the heat will spread out better. Better still make a no go zone under the CHE.
daniellenc
Well-Known Member
Humidity under the CHE I have not regularly looked at. But he is a basker lol and has slight pyramiding to show it for sure. In a Tupperware style cage I had no clue how to mount a CHE. in my AP cage I just sent RHP for heat to be installed. I’m still working out the details of lighting and hide placement but he liked his heat before and after meals and it’s definitely too dry in his basking area. I’m hoping his new cage will correct his basking passion but the two sensors I have show humidity in his hide over 80 but not 90 and by his food the same.
I have no desire to and no interest in keeping large tortoises indoors for 6 or 7 months of every year. That doesn't sound fun to me. Not for me and not for the tortoises. This being the case, I only work with species that do well outdoors here year round. I make outdoor heated boxes for them to retreat to when weather isn't ideal for their species, but they are all outside once they get past the baby stages. My climate is very hot and dry in summer, and can be cool and dry in winter. We regularly have winter spells with daytime highs in the 80s or 90s, but the humidity is always very low here. This being the case, RFs, YFs, Manouria, Aldabras, Hingebacks, and Indotestudo just don't do well here. Sulcatas, leopards, stars, galops, radiata, pancakes, Desert tortoises and all the Testudo species do very well outdoors here with the right set up.
If we offer a wet season diet(which most of us do in captivity) then we must offer a wet season too. So high humidity and plenty of water to imitate the wet season to accompany the wet season diet that we offer. These 2 things are in balanced.
If you offer a 6” area under a basking light you are offering a dry season area in that 6” area. If your tort basks for prelonged hours like you say he does then for a large portion of its day it is growing in a dry season climate with a wet season diet. When in reality during the dry season they would not grow as much because there would be no rich pickings of the wet season diet.
Wet season equals fast growth, dry season equals slow to no growth.
I think you need to cut out the basking area altogether, and yes it is their instinct to bask, fear of predators probably keeps them from prelonged basking in the wild. Maybe they don’t bask at all, maybe the ones that survive to adulthood were the lucky ones that managed to nick a 30 min basking session every morning without getting eaten. I don’t know the answer to that.
daniellenc
Well-Known Member
I agree and am sad it took me a year to realize. I thought his basking was fine with how humid I keep his cage I was wrong. New cage will not provide the option. Originally I was going to install CHE’s but ultimately wised up.
That pyramiding won’t be obvious when it gets bigger as long as you cut out the basking area, still plenty of growing to do, not just in size but also shape.
daniellenc
Well-Known Member
I hope not but how do basking species stay smooth? I keep it so humid I’m shocked I haven’t had fungus yet on him. Did inadvertently grow mushrooms lol. With the radiant heat panels I’m hoping it’s less desiccating but he likes to be extra warm before and after meals.
Some species are more susceptible to pyramiding than others. Many over here raise med species and they are perfect. Redfoots are one of the species that pyramids quite easily IMO. That said, I’ve got to know quite a few radiated breeders and not one of them uses a basking spot in the early sizes. Like up to 6” SCL.
