A Plethora of Questions

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Lunartwist

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Hi there! As I said in my Introduction post, I have a lot of questions that have gone unanswered for some time. So...here you are! Some should be short to answer, others not so much. I'll start with the short ones first.

1. What are the bugs in my torts tanks?!

So I got some sphagnum moss ridiculously cheap at Home Depot. Now I know well enough that bedding from there needs to be sterilized in one way or another. So I popped the bricks into the freezer for 3 days, then set them up in their tanks.

Now there's all these tiny, jumping, insects everywhere?! My friend suggested they are mites, so I went online to correctly identify and see if they are and...they don't look anything like mites. Now I'm confused?! o__o

2. How do you grind up things into powders?

I know some people out their make their own supplements (like TNT). They include things like powdered herbs and flowers, and even hays. Some people grind up dried egg shell and powder them up into readily absorbed calcium supplements. I'm curious, how do people do that? Our family goes through eggs pretty fast, and I also have tons of timothy hay...turning them into powders and maybe combining them with other things like bee pollen would be cool.

3. Why is my tortoise always wheezy?

So this is a big troubleshooting issue that I still continue to have. Viola, my Redfoot, always seems to be a little wheezy. Here's a little background on her:

I bought her nearly 3 years ago in the summer at a Petco I used to work at. Now, I know a lot of people have stigmas about pet stores in general, but I have to say, ours was pretty decent. Everyone that worked there genuinely cared about the animals, and we had healthy reptiles, hand-tamed birds that we often played with our let out of their cages for a while to ride on our shoulders, we cleaned cages once to twice weekly and spot cleaned in between, and we often let our adoptable cats hang out in our break rooms instead of being in cages all day. All-in-all, it had its issues, but it was a good place.

I was looking to get my first tortoise. But I was looking for that "special" one. A few weeks later, we got a transfer of some reptiles from a sister store. One of those was a unhealthy looking Redfoot. She had mild shell rot, and a bubbly nose. Feeling bad for her (and also not really wanting her to infect the others) I took her home that day.

From then until now she's always had some respiratory issues. She's gone through repeated trials of Baytril, and although they significantly decreased her symptoms to almost none, I never feel like it truly goes away. She doesn't have any bubbly nose anymore, or any eye discharge, but sometimes she will give a great sneeze, or, when she's breathing harder, she'll often have a whistling noise going along with it.

I heard that tortoises can have a sort of non-curable URI? Is that really true? I don't really want my girl to always be infected with an illness. I wish there was something I could do. :( Recently I took her to the vet, and checking her over, didn't see any issues...so I'm not sure where to go from there.

Here's some info about her enclosure: She's in a 55gal Rubbermaid storage container. There is a towel covering slightly less than half of the container, helping keep humidity in. On the hot side is her water dish (a ceramic potting...dish..thing that goes under the pots...not sure what they call those) and her bulb, which is a 100-watt Powersun that I keep on for 12 hours. Her bedding is 100% sphagnum moss, and for decor, she has rocks to climb on and trees to hide behind. Its pretty quaint. I'm struggled with various beddings and their pros and cons, and settled on this one. I'm hoping it works out. I keep the moss moist and the water dish full, and mist once or twice a day.

No matter how high her humidity is, she still wheezes. I'm not sure what to make of it. And so far no one has a conclusive answer. :(

Any feedback would be appreciated.
 

Jacqui

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1. Look and see if they look like Springtails.

2. A heavy duty blender works well in my experience.

3. Other things to check out would be just general stress or even an allergy to the current bedding.
 
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Maggie Cummings

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1. I agree they're Springtails.
2. I don't grind anything and
3. She *might* have an upper respiratory infection.
 

ascott

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Maggie and Jacqui gave great replies....I would ask for the topic of whistling...what are your humidity levels...sometimes when your RF is kept in a dry enclosure they whistle...(not like lip puckering either :D)
 

Lunartwist

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Hey guys, thank you for the quick response!

Yes they are Springtails. :) So they're detrivores and not harmful to the tortoise right? I don't have to go crazy with mite spray and D-earth. :p

A blender? What sort of blender? I'm confused because typically for a blender's style, you have to add water.

I've changed her bedding four times (earth, reptile bark, cypress much, and now moss) and it doesn't seem to affect the sneezing. Not sure how she could be stressed, because I don't actually handle her often. Maybe its the humidity? I'll up her mistings per day and see if it helps.

On the topic of humidity, how do Redfoot owners keep it in so well? Obviously a Rubbermaid container isn't going to keep it in very well. I have a towel covering a considerable portion to help but... I was thinking a enclosed wooden/plexi glass vivarium might work better, but then there's the glass issue...Is there a more Redfoot-compatible enclosure? She's outgrowing her storage container, so I figure by next summer she'll need something bigger anyway, so early ideas would be nice! :)
 

ascott

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S glass tank is not a bad thing for this tortoise species....Terryo has some FRICKEN AWESOME glass tank enclosures she has for winter months....if you go to the search line and loom up redfoot tortoise enclosures you will find some pics of hers....I am on my DROID right now and am a complete cave woman when it comes to attaching a link with it...lol....maybe someone else here would be awesome to do the link attach???....I have one RF in a glass tank and one in a 55 gallon rubbermaid...I cover the top 3/4 on each and that helps alot...however the glass tank does much better....:D
 

wellington

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To grind things. You can also use a new coffee bean grinder. They are not real big, might have to grind in batches but they work great. Just make sure you have not used it for anything else. Not sure why, on the last statement. That is what the chefs always say. One grinder for coffee and another for herbs. Don't know why you just can't clean it good.
Also a food processor works good. They even have cheap little ones that basically just chop.
 

Lunartwist

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Oh, I was just under the impression that glass was bad for a tortoise because tortoises have a hard time figuring out that glass is a barrier, and will often bonk themselves against it. That and the tall/narrow combo isn't very good...But I will check out that topic! Thanks for the suggestion! :)

I'll have to go looking for a nice, cheap, blender then. Thanks!
 

Jacqui

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Lunartwist said:
Oh, I was just under the impression that glass was bad for a tortoise because tortoises have a hard time figuring out that glass is a barrier, and will often bonk themselves against it. That and the tall/narrow combo isn't very good...But I will check out that topic! Thanks for the suggestion! :)

I'll have to go looking for a nice, cheap, blender then. Thanks!

Some tortoises do have a problem and with those simply placing a strip around the base of something solid so they can't see out will work. However, personally mine have not had an issue with it and I have been using glass tanks for years and years. :D

It's better actually if you have something like a 40 gallon breeder. More actual space for the tortoise, less height which is not needed. (thus not tall and narrow :cool: )
 
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