I have neglected this thread for a while so I figured I should share how Marco is doing.
When the night temp started falling to 50-60F in the autumn I had to dig him out every single evening from whatever bush he was hiding to put him in his box. Every night he chose a different hide because the last one was compromised. It was dark, muddy, really not fun. Thankfully when winter arrived he understood that its cold outside so he only comes out to eat, sunbathe, and then back inside. He now spends 20 hours per day in his box. He is still very skittish and has replaced the bushes with the box, his new sanctuary.
The ink bird temp controller is very good, it has not failed once and very rarely goes offline. The only issue I have is there's a bug in the application it doesn't save the heating hysteresis temperature I input but I can live with it, it is set on 3C I wanted to do it 1C to keep the temp fluctuation even lower but it's still acceptable. I know I can do it manually but I've been lazy on that. I got a second one to add as a redundancy just in case the first one malfunctions I don't want to boil the tort.
I have not given him baths all winter, I was worried he might catch a cold. In a shallow container outdoors the water temp suddenly drops after only 2-3 minutes so I didn't feel like risking it. Now spring is around the corner and baths will resume. The greek torts woke up and started mating last week, my tulips are poking through the ground, winter has finally passed!
I have not weighed him recently because he outgrew the kitchen scale I was using, I am planning to get another scale and weigh him at some point. He is obviously growing though, still can't imagine he will outgrow my dog in a few years but he definitely at least doubled in size and gained a lot of weight as well. I have recently undergone a spine surgery and the doctor told me I should not lift more than 5kg for the rest of my life. Sadly, I am into gardening and giant torts, at this point I can safely say I hate my body. On the other hand, I have a 4-month-old son now, and hopefully, he will be helping me with the tort when I am old and weak. Maybe one day, his son will be helping him to take care of the tort too
I've been spoiling him with artichokes, he can't have enough of them. It's his new obsession. I boil them to get them softer and easier to digest but not too much so they don't lose many nutrients.
Winter season food also includes mallow, hibiscus, opuntia cactus. I hope the variety is enough, in the summer the diet will be more diverse.
I stopped feeding him legumes after finding out it's not good but I was not giving him more than once or twice a month so I'm not worried about him developing any issues from that. I haven't put calcium powder on his food after losing the bottle, I was hoping I find it instead of buying more, I know it's not good and I need to get some asap. If you know how much and how often I should add to his food please let me know. I feel like I was overdoing it in the past.
I planted grass in his enclosure but he never eats any. He doesn't eat collard greens either which grows abundantly in the yard. So spoiled.
I finally put a proper camera in his box that sends me notifications whenever he leaves and returns to his box so now I can better monitor his routine and make sure everything is normal.
This is his parking spot (temp sensor hanging above him). He is ALWAYS chilling in this corner next to the oil heater. Very convenient because I can just open the second door and check if he is home without lifting the heavy lid.
Well, that's all for now I suppose. I will post again with plastron length measurements and weight when I get a scale. I actually lost my previous records and was able to retrieve them from this thread. Documenting his life here helps me keep track of everything and maybe one day will serve as a reference for a future Aldabra owner.
Hope your torts are happy and well too!
When the night temp started falling to 50-60F in the autumn I had to dig him out every single evening from whatever bush he was hiding to put him in his box. Every night he chose a different hide because the last one was compromised. It was dark, muddy, really not fun. Thankfully when winter arrived he understood that its cold outside so he only comes out to eat, sunbathe, and then back inside. He now spends 20 hours per day in his box. He is still very skittish and has replaced the bushes with the box, his new sanctuary.
The ink bird temp controller is very good, it has not failed once and very rarely goes offline. The only issue I have is there's a bug in the application it doesn't save the heating hysteresis temperature I input but I can live with it, it is set on 3C I wanted to do it 1C to keep the temp fluctuation even lower but it's still acceptable. I know I can do it manually but I've been lazy on that. I got a second one to add as a redundancy just in case the first one malfunctions I don't want to boil the tort.
I have not given him baths all winter, I was worried he might catch a cold. In a shallow container outdoors the water temp suddenly drops after only 2-3 minutes so I didn't feel like risking it. Now spring is around the corner and baths will resume. The greek torts woke up and started mating last week, my tulips are poking through the ground, winter has finally passed!
I have not weighed him recently because he outgrew the kitchen scale I was using, I am planning to get another scale and weigh him at some point. He is obviously growing though, still can't imagine he will outgrow my dog in a few years but he definitely at least doubled in size and gained a lot of weight as well. I have recently undergone a spine surgery and the doctor told me I should not lift more than 5kg for the rest of my life. Sadly, I am into gardening and giant torts, at this point I can safely say I hate my body. On the other hand, I have a 4-month-old son now, and hopefully, he will be helping me with the tort when I am old and weak. Maybe one day, his son will be helping him to take care of the tort too
I've been spoiling him with artichokes, he can't have enough of them. It's his new obsession. I boil them to get them softer and easier to digest but not too much so they don't lose many nutrients.
Winter season food also includes mallow, hibiscus, opuntia cactus. I hope the variety is enough, in the summer the diet will be more diverse.
I stopped feeding him legumes after finding out it's not good but I was not giving him more than once or twice a month so I'm not worried about him developing any issues from that. I haven't put calcium powder on his food after losing the bottle, I was hoping I find it instead of buying more, I know it's not good and I need to get some asap. If you know how much and how often I should add to his food please let me know. I feel like I was overdoing it in the past.
I planted grass in his enclosure but he never eats any. He doesn't eat collard greens either which grows abundantly in the yard. So spoiled.
I finally put a proper camera in his box that sends me notifications whenever he leaves and returns to his box so now I can better monitor his routine and make sure everything is normal.
This is his parking spot (temp sensor hanging above him). He is ALWAYS chilling in this corner next to the oil heater. Very convenient because I can just open the second door and check if he is home without lifting the heavy lid.
Well, that's all for now I suppose. I will post again with plastron length measurements and weight when I get a scale. I actually lost my previous records and was able to retrieve them from this thread. Documenting his life here helps me keep track of everything and maybe one day will serve as a reference for a future Aldabra owner.
Hope your torts are happy and well too!