first post, new to red-foot tortoise ownership

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klobe9

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I just bought a red-footed cherry headed tortoise from petco 3 days ago and I have some concerns about his health and the habitat I have set up for her. First and the biggest problem I seem to have is keeping her habitat humid to the levels the caresheet reccomends. I am using a 40 gallon critter breeder with a mesh net cover, half of it covered with a wet towel over the water bowl and the other half has the uva/uvb bulbs and heat lamp for the basking area. my humidity guage is placed center middle of the glass on the back wall and is never above 75% while dipping down towards 30% while I am asleep or at work and the substrate I use dries out very fast.
Another concern was the heat, many different heats for the enclosure were given ranging from not below 60 to 95 for the basking area, but how do I know if she is in a comfortable place? The temperature guage is placed directly below my heat lamp and never goes above 95.
Some questions about her behavior I would also like to know about. Some times she will go to the back of her log shelter and burrow into the substrate and lay there for hours until I physicaly pull her out of the log and place her in the basking area (assuming shes far too cold). Is this a problem?
She usualy when out of her shell will look around and her neck will throb constantly like a frog ribbiting and I couldn't find any information about this on any resource, whats going on here?
My last question I can think of right now is how do i know if the water I give her is actualy good for her. My friend who said he raised some turtles says to let a bowl of water sit out over night and the chlorine will evaporate and that water will be safe to use but I haven't been able to find anything on this either.

any advice, tips, or general help will be much appricated. thank you for taking the time to read
 

egyptiandan

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Welcome to the forum :)

We would need to know what your using for a substrate, to know whats going on with it not keeping the humidity.
The next thing is that Redfoots don't bask. Their habitat in the wild just warms up during the day. They also spend most of their time in the forest when they are small, so hide from any bright lights. The best thing to use to raise the temperatures during the day is a ceramic heat emitter, placed in the middle of the enclosure.
The puffing of the throat is normal for a Redfoot. They will do it a bit more when they are slightly stressed.
Here is a great website with a great care sheet on raising Redfoots. http://www.redfoots.com/redfoot.htm
If you have any more questions after reading, by all means ask. :D

Danny
 
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Maggie Cummings

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I just wanted to say welcome to the forum before I signed off for the duration of my race, it's at Bristol this weekend...:D
 

Yvonne G

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Welcome to the forum, KLOBE9. Glad you found us!

Yvonne
 

BigBiscuit

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Hello and welcome,

Although I am not a Red-Foot owner, I know there are some Red-Foot professionals on here that would love to help.


Evan
 

Candy

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How old is your Redfoot. We have a Cherryhead and he is about 3 or 4 years old and is 6 inches long and 3 1/2 inches wide. That's how I found out on this site how old he really was because the petstore that I bought him at told us that he was about a year old. Anyway I have him in moss and he loves it. He hides for pretty much the whole day. Right now he came out to eat (he's so funny). I spoil him with food. I also have a 40 gallon tank and I have the heat emitter on actually one side of the tank because my heat emitter is 150 watts and I have a wet towel on the other side. His humidity level usually stays around 50 to 60% I have a hard time too keeping it up but the wet towel seems to help a lot. I've heard them say on this site that the reason the humidity doesn't stay in a 40 gallon tank is because there's no release for the heat which I could see. Anyway good luck with yours and have a great time here there's a lot of information here that can help you out. Candy:)
 

klobe9

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thanks for the warm reception everyone

so since my post I have gone to petco and purchased a digital thermometer and placed it in her hide to monitor her temp while shes in there (I was concerned it was much too cold which i was right, sitting at about 65F) and a second humidity meter placed in front of her hide which gives a much different reading than the one in center. I also purchased a stick on heater pad and placed it directly behind her hide in the hopes it will raise the temperature to a comfortable level while she sleeps and hides. Also after reading the care sheets provided at redfoots.com I replaced my heat lamp and uvb with a 100 watt ceramic heat emmiter but I am concerned about how much heat it will actualy put into the tank, right now is about 2 1/2 inches above the screen and 1 1/2 feet above the substrate. I've had it plugged in going on an hour now and there has been no thermometer changes as well as when i put my hand in there seems to be little actual heat except on the base of the lamp itself.


Candy she is about 2 1/2-3 inches long.
 

klobe9

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double post but I thought a picture of the habitat would be helpful
moto_0359.jpg
 
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egyptiandan

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If you have the ceramic heat emitter in a clamp lamp with a metal dome, your going to have to have the lamp in the middle of the enclosure and your going to have to lower it to get the temperature your looking for. :D

Danny
 
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