Baby leopard tortoise (3 mos.) enclosure

[herzhet]

Hi all,

We are new here and would like to introduce our home. Please let us know if there are things we can improve for healthy growth!

Below is Jet and Pepper’s home:

3x2 ft glass enclosure with 1x2 ft solid plastic removable top (right above their humid moss hide) and 2x2 ft screen top

Includes:
Substrate layers (3 in deep) in tray in 2x2 activity area
- bottom: reptisoil
- mid: reptibark
- top: coarse-grade coco husk

Subtrate layers in humid area (half of the area is moistened and half always dry)
- bottom: reptibark
- top: sphagnum moss

Lighting
- uvb strip (arcadia desert)
- 160 watt powersun
- 75 watt red mercury vapour at night

Temperatures
- cool: 80-85F
- basking: 115F
- night: 77-82F

Humidity outside hides
- hot side: 27-30%
- cool areas: 55-60%

3 humid hides
- 2 in activity area (80-82F with about 55-60% humidity)
- 1 in humid area: moss cave that I spray each day (78-80F with 99% humidity inside)

Water dish right below fogger tube
- water drips out of the tube with the fog so the water never dries out
- water dish is slightly covered by the lighting to help with humidity
- fogger is set betwen lowest and mid level and running all day

Rock slate
- basking + eating
- in middle of activity area

Decoration
- big and small rocks to hold heat
- 6 house plants
- front and side of glass is covered by black vinyl sticker to block torts view

Other:
- 3 heat mats (left side, back side and bottom) in the 1x2 humid area
- 5 hygrometers in different spots (haha)
- 2 fake hanging plants
- seashells for different ground textures
- cuttle bone

I may seem to have so much heating devices but I live in the coldest province of Canada and my babies love em.



Thanks for dropping by!

 

[Tom]

Hello and welcome. You've gotten al the usual wrong info and been sold the wrong stuff. I'll link the care sheet at the end, but here are some high points:
1. No foggers blowing directly into tort enclosures. Maintain humidity by using a closed chamber.
2. No moss. It will be eaten and it can cause impaction. It doesn't do anything. Plain repti-bark is the best substrate. Keep the lower levels damp by dumping water into it periodically as needed.
3. No heat mats for indoor tortoise enclosures. It goes against tortoise instincts to dig down into cooler earth when they get too hot. Burns and deaths are common with these.
4. Powersuns are unreliable and will also cause pyramiding. Not a good lighting choice.
5. No colored bulbs over tortoises. It causes several problems.
6. Store bought plants are grown with toxic systemic pesticides that can take a year to clear.
7. Plastic plants are likely to be nibbled on. Watch out for that.
8. You don't need to block the tortoises view. That is just old wrong myth info.
9. Your night temp needs to stay above 80, and basking temp should not exceed 100.

Your enclosure looks so beautiful and it is obvious you spent a ton of time making it so, but much of that is just not suitable for tortoises. Sorry to bring bad news, but I'm bringing it in an effort to prevent a terrible tragedy.

Unfortunately, most of the info you find online, or from books, vets and even breeders is all wrong. Its been wrong for decades, and it just keeps getting parroted. Here is that care sheet. Questions are welcome:

The Best Way To Raise A Sulcata, Leopard, Or Star Tortoise

I chose the title of this care sheet very carefully. Are there other ways to raise babies? Yes. Yes there are, but those ways are not as good. What follows is the BEST way, according to 30 years of research and experimentation with hundreds of babies of many species. Babies hatch during the...

tortoiseforum.org

 

[herzhet]

Hello and welcome. You've gotten al the usual wrong info and been sold the wrong stuff. I'll link the care sheet at the end, but here are some high points:
1. No foggers blowing directly into tort enclosures. Maintain humidity by using a closed chamber.
2. No moss. It will be eaten and it can cause impaction. It doesn't do anything. Plain repti-bark is the best substrate. Keep the lower levels damp by dumping water into it periodically as needed.
3. No heat mats for indoor tortoise enclosures. It goes against tortoise instincts to dig down into cooler earth when they get too hot. Burns and deaths are common with these.
4. Powersuns are unreliable and will also cause pyramiding. Not a good lighting choice.
5. No colored bulbs over tortoises. It causes several problems.
6. Store bought plants are grown with toxic systemic pesticides that can take a year to clear.
7. Plastic plants are likely to be nibbled on. Watch out for that.
8. You don't need to block the tortoises view. That is just old wrong myth info.
9. Your night temp needs to stay above 80, and basking temp should not exceed 100.

Your enclosure looks so beautiful and it is obvious you spent a ton of time making it so, but much of that is just not suitable for tortoises. Sorry to bring bad news, but I'm bringing it in an effort to prevent a terrible tragedy.

Unfortunately, most of the info you find online, or from books, vets and even breeders is all wrong. Its been wrong for decades, and it just keeps getting parroted. Here is that care sheet. Questions are welcome:

The Best Way To Raise A Sulcata, Leopard, Or Star Tortoise

I chose the title of this care sheet very carefully. Are there other ways to raise babies? Yes. Yes there are, but those ways are not as good. What follows is the BEST way, according to 30 years of research and experimentation with hundreds of babies of many species. Babies hatch during the...

tortoiseforum.org

Thank you for the info and the caresheet. Will certainly get to reading!! Really appreciate it!

 

[wellington]

Thank you for the info and the caresheet. Will certainly get to reading!! Really appreciate it!

Everything Tom said should be changed asap. Also, for now keeping those two together is fine, but in the near future it won't be. Tortoises should not be kept in pairs and they will need to be separated at some point. If you notice one growing faster then the other, its time. See one laying on the food and not letting the other eat, it's time. See one laying at the entrance to a hide, it's time. See one obviously bullying the other its time.

 

[Tom]

Everything Tom said should be changed asap. Also, for now keeping those two together is fine, but in the near future it won't be. Tortoises should not be kept in pairs and they will need to be separated at some point. If you notice one growing faster then the other, its time. See one laying on the food and not letting the other eat, it's time. See one laying at the entrance to a hide, it's time. See one obviously bullying the other its time.

Ahh! I missed the two names and only saw one tort in the pic. Good catch.