hello, I’ve been on before with my leopard tortoises. But this time I come to you with questions and advice needed on CDTs. I recently moved from Georgia to California and joined the SD Turtle & Tortoise Society and am getting ready to foster some 10 mo old hatchlings. I have read the care sheet given for them and want to make sure I’m going to be giving a suitable housing for them. I have megaray 100 watt mercury vapor lamps & 13 watt 10.0 reptispa bulbs running during the day and zilla 100 watt black night lights for night time. My basking temps are 92-94 and coolest temp is 80. At night 76-80. The humidity right now is pushing 75%. That’s the only thing that worries me. These aren’t like my leo babies. They needed the high humidity. My substrate is coconut coir. Maybe I just need to dry it out a bit before I put them in? I had my Leo’s from 1.5 weeks till 2.5 years in an enclosed enclosure with the high humidity. I just don’t want to make a mistake being a different type of tortoise.
Fostering 4 CDT hatchlings
- Thread starter Borgijo
- Start date
You can treat them exactly like your leopard babies. . . I do.
The above info is not good. Mercury vapor bulbs run too hot and will make them pyramid. 13 watt cfl UV bulbs can damage their eyes and should not be used. Colored bulbs should not be used at night, and they shouldn't need night heat unless your house gets below 65 at night. 75% humidity is fine for them as long as they are getting warmed up each day. You won't need indoor UV if they can get some sunshine a couple of times each week. Most people keep DT babies WAYYYYYYYYY too dry and they die just like all the sulcata babies that are kept too dry. Soak them every day for a while. Most of the DT care sheets are all wrong, just like all the sulcata care sheets were wrong.
I care for DTs exactly the same as russians, but I feed some grass to DTs, while russian don't eat grass in most cases. Give these a read through:
https://tortoiseforum.org/threads/beginner-mistakes.45180/
https://tortoiseforum.org/threads/russian-tortoise-care-sheet.80698/
I rescue dozens of DTs. I love the species, and it saddens me terribly that so many of the babies die because of those stupid wrong care sheets. Hopefully yours will thrive!
