Facebook Leopard Tortoise Group

[Neal]

By the way, I can tell you where to find some good sources for the New Zealand S.M. if you are interested!!!

That would be great!

 

[DesertGrandma]

I would also be interested in knowing about the sphagnum moss, where to get it, etc. Your torts are gorgeous. What did you mean by "mini river"? I use the same Chistmas Tree box that you use (liking it very much), and much the same setup except for a few exceptions. Thanks for the great explanation above.

 

[IkeLightner]

Hey Neal and Joy, and anyone else who uses a lot of sphagnum moss!!! I purchased a HUGE 16 pound bale from this company OFE International. I was VERY happy with what I received, and as I stated before, I have tried LOTS of different sources for this stuff and many different varieties. This is by far and away the best Ive come across. It is imported from New Zealand, and most commonly used by orchid growers here. They are pretty exact and peculiar about their flowers, I figured if i was good enogh for their delicate orchids, it was good enough for my Brazilian Rainbow Boas. Then, once we got the leopards, I have been using it in their humid hides ever since. It is a bit pricy at $68/bale but this sized bale has already lasted my over 6 months and I use it for my collection of BRBs, my leopard tortoises, and in some of my house plants I am growing. I still have probably half of the bale remaining too! I expect this to last me an entire year! I am going to post a link to the website I purchased mine from, and also the item description, because I'm not sure the link is going to take you directly to the exact bag of moss. Hope I haven't violated any forum rules......

http://www.ofe-intl.com/

Item No: NZS 1050
Name: PREMIUM ORCHID SPHAGNUM MOSS
Description: Long Fibers, 5 Kilo Bag Imported Sphagnum Moss from Chile. Top quality fibers widely used by commercial growers for Phalaenopsis Orchids. Clean Fibers absorb 10 times their weight in water. Use long fibers by itself to grow Phalaenopsis. Make sure to add Styrofoam Packaging

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I forgot to mention, when I used to purchase my sphagnum moss locally I spent MUCH MORE than $60 on it, and the quality was very bad, and actually got worse. This past summer there were lots of floods in the midwest and up North, and apparently that wiped out much of the sphagnum moss growing areas up around Wisconsin, Minnesota, South/North Dakota and those areas. This is what forced me to look elsewhere for this stuff, and I'm glad I did!!!

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Hey Joy,

Sorry, in my haste to answer the sphagnum moss questions, I forgot to answer the beginning of your response!!!

Thanks a lot for your compliments on Homer and Marge!!! It is great to be hearing good feedback from everyone here!!! Sorry if I confused you by referring to my making a "mini river" for them. Does this explain what I meant:

I have found that they love to drink running, fresh water. I will sometimes put them on a plastic plate, or just the top of their humid hide box, and begin misting them and slowly pouring lukewarm (70-80 degrees) water on them. If they are thirsty, they will oftentimes start stretching out their necks and lapping up the water as it runs past them. I actually do have pictures of this. I’ll post soup me once I can. Homer and Marge will usually spend minutes upon minutes (seems like a Long time, and lots of water) drinking water when I do this for them!!!

That's cool to hear you are also using the VE-175 tubs. I decided to use them because I have a bunch of spares laying around from when I used to house my BRBs in custom racks I made for these massive tubs!!!

 

[DesertGrandma]

Thanks Ike for your description of your river. I understand what you mean. I am going to look at the link you attached and see if they seller smaller amounts of the sphagnum moss. This amount would be way too much for me, it would take years for me to use it up, and then I would have to store it. Hopefully they will sell smaller packages. Thanks again.

 

[IkeLightner]

oh yeah! I forgot to mention that, they definitely carry smaller quanitities as well!!! I definitely recommend trying it out!

 

[IkeLightner]

PLEASE COME JOIN US ON FACEBOOK!!!!! WE HAVE BEEN PRETTY ACTIVE AND HAVE JUST UNDER 30 MEMBERS RIGHT NOW!!! HOPE TO SEE YOU ALL THERE!!!

Just type "leopard tortoise" into your search bar on facebook, or click the link in my signature!!!!

PS the cute picture of the little girl and the BIG leopard tort is not mine, not sure where I found it, but I had to save it a while back when I saw it!!!!