Enclosure Kinixys nogueyi

ulkal

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I am slowly assembling an enclosure for two kinixys nogueyi babies I hope to pick up within this month. The kit for the 120x60x60 enclosure was delivered on Thursday, but now I am waiting for the marine epoxyd (I think thats the English term) to make it waterproof.
As soon, as there is some progress, I will post pics, hoping also for any critic/suggestions.

Therefore, the first question :rolleyes:

For UVB, I would take an T5 54 W Arcadia tube and an additional daylight bulb for heat/basking. Or should I better go with a tube for that, too?
Nighttime heat will come from a CHE. I still have to decide on the wattage of bulb and CHE, depending on the space between substrate and bulb. Would anyone be willing to show me the layout of their enclosure?

Thanks everybody.
 

ulkal

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Will do. I wanted to get the 6%. The Daylight tube would have an additional 2%, but I wanted to provide a basking spot.
Do you use sphagnum moss in your enclosure?
 

juli11

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I think for your nougeiys you needn't so much uv. They are forest tortoise there aren't so much light. I take halogen spot for 6€. They are really warm and have 1-3% uv. A friend of me who breeds nougeiy and other kinixys take the same lamps and everything go well.
 

FLINTUS

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Yes, in my enclosure but it is for erosa, nogueyi occupy moist savannah more so rather than rainforests. Mainly I now use leaflitter as it keeps better. As I said, Mick.Ire on here is the best person to ask re. this.
 

juli11

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Yes. The problem is if the nougeiys are wc you don't from where they come. (Forest, savanna). You have to try both option for holding if you buy cb. I think a normal uv lamp is ok for the beginning you can't do anything wrong with it. Maybe you can ask the seller how he holds his animals.
 

Jacqui

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This is what I used for mine when they were young and also for single ones in isolation. The pictures shown are from an isolation enclosure for an adult. If youngsters were going in there, I would add more plants and make all of them real. They do need a UVB/basking light, but not a real high powered one. I keep my home warm enough to not need extra heat and actually they tend to like temos more in the 70's then hot like most tortoises. I try to offer two hides, one on each temp side. I use dried leaves when I can get them, otherwise the long strand spagnum moss. One hide is filled with leaves, the other one more open. I try to have a leaf pile in each enclosure and try to get some roly poly bugs and small worms in there too. I love the half log hides, especially since hingebacks love to climb. However, with young babies, they may not be able to do this safely, so you may wish to use something with straight sides that they can't climb on. Depending on how small they are you may need very shallow food and water dishes. They like soaking, but not as much as the forest types (Homes and Erosa). Please excuse the food dish in these pictures, it's a very well used old one. :D

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Jacqui

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When mine were really little and I wanted to be sure everybody was eating and doing well before placing them in a larger enclosure, this is what I normally did. This would have been enclosure nunmber two for them, as first I had much more shallow dishes and such. Notice the hide is straight sided so they would not climb it, but they were still given other things including a sloped substrate to climb. In these pictures I was out of leaf litter, so had to locate the spagnum which took a few days so most of these do not show that either.

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ulkal

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Thanks a lot you guys. Thanks for the pics Jacqui.
I try to get some leaves from the backyard :D
So I go with the UVB tube/ Basking light, instead of daylight tube.
How moist do you keep the substrate? Are Hinges prone
to stuff like shell rot?
I thought, if I put a little hole in a plastic bowl, fill it with water and let it drain in the substrate. Like this i might keep the top layer dry (I remember seeing this on another thread here,cant find it though)
Thanks!!!!
 

FLINTUS

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I thought nogueyi are similar to red foots in their humidity/shell rot thing. Need a dryish top-I've seen some really nasty pics of shell rots on these guys. For my red foots, I have now found leaf litter to be the best to achieve this.
 

Jacqui

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FLINTUS said:
I thought nogueyi are similar to red foots in their humidity/shell rot thing. Need a dryish top-I've seen some really nasty pics of shell rots on these guys. For my red foots, I have now found leaf litter to be the best to achieve this.

Pretty much, yes. You want to keep the substrate damp enough it doesn't become dry dust, but not wet. One reason I also like different spots with different types of substrates and thus different wetness levels. I like the two hides for this reason too. I dampen my substrates and then let them dry out a bit, while with the Homes/erosa it's kept more constant damp (but still with dryer times/spots) Does that make sense? Having rocks, logs, hides ect where they can get off the substrate is a help too I believe.

I would be afraid the hole in the bowl might make it too damp. But then again I have never tried it.
 

ulkal

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Thanks, Jacqui, it makes sense. I was wondering that even before I seriously considered getting a hinge. Glad someone could confirm and I really want to do everything to prevent shell rot and make it less likely. I will try to get some leaf litter, thanks for the tip.
Other than that, my substrate of choice was coco coir with sphagnum moss in the hides and maybe some patches of sphagnum throughout the enclosure. It has some anti-bacterial properties, am I right?
 

cdmay

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Jacqui said:
When mine were really little and I wanted to be sure everybody was eating and doing well before placing them in a larger enclosure, this is what I normally did. This would have been enclosure nunmber two for them, as first I had much more shallow dishes and such. Notice the hide is straight sided so they would not climb it, but they were still given other things including a sloped substrate to climb. In these pictures I was out of leaf litter, so had to locate the spagnum which took a few days so most of these do not show that either.

067-1.jpg


032-1-1.jpg


004-2-1.jpg

Great terrarium!
 

Jacqui

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:D Thanks Carl! I have always been a huge fan of raising my young in glass tanks, even when it became something most people would frown upon. I have quite a collection of 40 gal breeder tanks because of it. :D
 

Mick.Ire

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Couldn't agree more with Jacqui and Flintus, and congratulations on your soon to come arrivals. Like Jacqui I too think younger tortoises do better in viv's or tanks. Her setups are perfect examples of how it should be done. Plenty of stimulation with hides and plants as they are very active little torts. I too use moss and leaf litter when available which they love. It was Jacqui tipped me off to it and haven't looked back since. :)
Just a caution, some Nogueyi babies can be quite aggressive to each other. I have had to separate our babies into two groups of two, the stronger ones together with the slightly more docile ones together. This was after we were seeing the bigger ones nipping at the smaller ones limbs and on one occasion inflicting a nice wound. All healed up and all living happily together now. This is not always the case though and we incubated for males so perhaps that had something to do with it but just keep an eye on them initially and watch for missing claws etc.
Look forward to seeing pics.
 

ulkal

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Thank you Mick. The two I am getting are from the same clutch and get along well apparently, but I will closely monitor. They were incubated for females.
The sealing takes some time, because the side to be sealed has to be flat on the ground...then wait and dry...turn.
You all were superhelpful I have a better idea now. As soon as my terrarium is more than a wood box with glass windows I will post pics.
This might be a bit premature, but those two will be my torts :D

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Jacqui

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Those are great looking little guys! I am looking forward to seeing what you come up with.
 

ulkal

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AW: Enclosure Kinixys nogueyi

They were raised on wild herbs, mushrooms,worms and occasional fruit, and also had daily soaks. Do you soak your Kinixys hatchlings and until when?
I am really happy the breeder put them on hold for me until I can pick them up. It will be prob another month, I first need winter tires for my car. And the enclosure,of course. But that makes it all for real :D
 

Sulcata_Sandy

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FLINTUS said:
I thought nogueyi are similar to red foots in their humidity/shell rot thing. Need a dryish top-I've seen some really nasty pics of shell rots on these guys. For my red foots, I have now found leaf litter to be the best to achieve this.

Leaf litter? What is that?
 
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