For the Babies...

[Yvonne G]

I have tort tables built up on a wall in the Manouria shed and in the leopard shed. They are about 4' long and a little less than 2' wide. There is a tube-type UVB fluorescent bulb hanging above and also a black light. The tube is only on 7a to 7a but the black light is always on.

Babies on hand this winter:
3 desert tortoises (up for adoption)
2 Texas tortoise
1 YF
4 box turtles
2 Manouria
10 leopards (hope to be gone to San Diego week-end after this coming
1 rescued leopard I've decided to keep because of his 'problems'

The desert and Texas babies come in the house for the winter, in Christmas Tree Storage Bins. The rescued leopard will go in the leopard shed in the tort table, and that leaves three species of forest-type babies. Here's where we get to a do-as-I-say-,-not-as-I-do situation. Because I hatched all these babies from eggs here at my home, and the parents are all healthy, I feel it is ok to keep the forest-type together for ease of taking care of them. Ordinarily I don't mix species. All my turtles and tortoises (except the water turtles) live in separate yards. I even have the different subspecies of box turtle separated.

An example of the tort tables:



Because the nights are now too cool to leave the babies outside, and because I'm too lazy to do the "ins and outs" of Autumn (take them out in the a.m. and in at night), I've started setting up the tort tables to receive the babies. I started with the forest-type:



They're not too happy. Tortoises really hate it when you move them around. I won't even see the box turtles for at least two weeks. The Manouria are little pigs, though, and they don't miss a chance at eating. They are the least stressed during a move.

 

[Millerlite]

Looks like a great idea. Using the space , will save energy too over all. Will be easier on you too. If I had a big heated shed I can walk into I would do the same. Good idea for People. It's still fairly warm down here.

Kyle

 

[Yvonne G]

Looks like a great idea. Using the space , will save energy too over all. Will be easier on you too. If I had a big heated shed I can walk into I would do the same. Good idea for People. It's still fairly warm down here.

Kyle

This particular shed is divided with the Manouria on one side and the RF on the other side, so with all those pig blankets and an overhead 250 watt red brooder light, the ambient temp in the shed overnight is always upwards of 78F degrees.

 

[Anyfoot]

Have you mixed hatchlings before, if so don't you ever see signs of aggression.
Bet Will could manage another 2 manouria for you, what difference is another 2 going to make with his hatchling herd.
Also I noticed the substrate is very wet, I noticed this with Will's set up too. What are you using as substrate? I'm thinking I need to up my ground moisture levels for the forest hingebacks.

 

[Yvonne G]

Have you mixed hatchlings before, if so don't you ever see signs of aggression.
Bet Will could manage another 2 manouria for you, what difference is another 2 going to make with his hatchling herd.
Also I noticed the substrate is very wet, I noticed this with Will's set up too. What are you using as substrate? I'm thinking I need to up my ground moisture levels for the forest hingebacks.

I use small grade orchid bark. And I pour water over it until it's wet. I don't think you can do that with your RF tortoises, as they're so prone to shell rot. In the wild, Manouria spend quite a bit of time in the water, submerged in streams, etc. I'm keeping a close eye on the YF hatchling to make sure it doesn't get shell rot. If so, I'll have to set it up by itself. I have another tort table in the YF shed I can move it to, but I like to have more than one baby together. They seem to do better when very young, when there's more than one. I don't have a clue about hingebacks.

 

[Anyfoot]

I use small grade orchid bark. And I pour water over it until it's wet. I don't think you can do that with your RF tortoises, as they're so prone to shell rot. In the wild, Manouria spend quite a bit of time in the water, submerged in streams, etc. I'm keeping a close eye on the YF hatchling to make sure it doesn't get shell rot. If so, I'll have to set it up by itself. I have another tort table in the YF shed I can move it to, but I like to have more than one baby together. They seem to do better when very young, when there's more than one. I don't have a clue about hingebacks.

Thanks, I've only just started using orchid bark instead of Cyrus mulch, my adult hinges had a very wet side, but the cyprus mulch started moulding. Now I'm using orchid bark I'll go back to a very wet area and see if that moulds.