Cheapy Closed Chamber

[Yvonne G]

Evidently one of my rescued desert tortoises laid eggs that I didn't know about, because this a.m. I found this wandering around in the quarantine yard:



So I had to hurry up and glom together some sort of closed chamber for it:



It's pretty hard cutting holes in those plastic tub lids, so I apologize to all of those I told to do it. Must be an easier way!

I cut two holes in a lid, then lined the holes with kitchen foil. I attached the lights to a home made light stand and positioned the tub under the lights. One light is a 100 watt MVB that is on a timer to come on at noon and go off at 1p. The other is a regular 100 watt incandescent bulb. It's not on a timer, and I'll turn it off at noon and back on at 1p so the enclosure doesn't get too hot . There is no other heat source because my house is hot in this hot summer weather. If I see that the night time temp is getting too low, I'll add a 25 watt CHE for night.

Desert tortoise babies grow slowly, so he should be able to live in this container until he's big enough to be adopted.

 

[Maro2Bear]

Nice job....and “lucky” you having torts sprout like bean stalks.

 

[CarolM]

Evidently one of my rescued desert tortoises laid eggs that I didn't know about, because this a.m. I found this wandering around in the quarantine yard:

View attachment 248423

So I had to hurry up and glom together some sort of closed chamber for it:

View attachment 248424

It's pretty hard cutting holes in those plastic tub lids, so I apologize to all of those I told to do it. Must be an easier way!

I cut two holes in a lid, then lined the holes with kitchen foil. I attached the lights to a home made light stand and positioned the tub under the lights. One light is a 100 watt MVB that is on a timer to come on at noon and go off at 1p. The other is a regular 100 watt incandescent bulb. It's not on a timer, and I'll turn it off at noon and back on at 1p so the enclosure doesn't get too hot . There is no other heat source because my house is hot in this hot summer weather. If I see that the night time temp is getting too low, I'll add a 25 watt CHE for night.

Desert tortoise babies grow slowly, so he should be able to live in this container until he's big enough to be adopted.

Nice job Yvonne.

 

[wellington]

Good catch. The holes aren't easy. I use a utility knife and scissor combo. I hole drill bit, the kind that is used to make holes in doors for the handle works good but you have to put wood under it and clamp it all down.

 

[Carol S]

How exciting to find that precious little hatchling. I wonder if there are more?

 

[no one]

That is a nice suprise!

 

[Ella’s Gigi]

That’s a nice surprise for sure!

 

[Yvonne G]

Found another one this a.m. This one's a very pretty color. I wish I could keep them all. . . but you gotta' learn how to say "no" sometime!



The first one wasn't eating, so I'm glad I found another one. They seem to do better at first with competition for the food. This baby had remnants of the yolk sac - just a dried up-looking membrane hanging down, but there were three tiny maggots around the base of the membrane. I put him into the enclosure about an hour ago, and just now I saw him eating already.