First time owner

[Dexter111]

Welcome Gil, after you get settled in you should go to the Enclosures sub forum and see if anything there interests you. There are some real good ideas for enclosures there and it may help you to decide how you want your little gal/guy's environment to be. This place was a godsend to me and my sons tort. We knew absolutely nothing about care for torts.

Thanks, I will look into this.

 

[Dexter111]

My room mate and I have held Dexter twice (once two nights ago and tonight). He has peed and pooped in our hands constantly when we hold him. Is this common among young tortoises?

 

[dmarcus]

It is nervousness, my new hatchling has peed in my wife's and my hands a couple times while handling him. I'm sure once you spend more time with Dexter and handle him more he will get use to it.

 

[Madkins007]

Hi and welcome!

 

[LindaF]

Cute baby! I would suggest not to rest the lamp on the wood. Those heat lamps do get real hot! You might look at covering the top to help hold in humidity. Babies need humidity.
Welcome to the forum!

 

[dabayliss]

This is just a fear reflex. All of ours did it when we first had them. The first two we have now had 8 months; one just spent an hour climbing all over people (and the couch) - no accidents at all.

Some people take the line the tortoises are wild and should not be touched; we handle/play with ours all the time. They appear to love it - at the very least they are -extremely- well adapted ....

My room mate and I have held Dexter twice (once two nights ago and tonight). He has peed and pooped in our hands constantly when we hold him. Is this common among young tortoises?