Greetings from Maryland!

[Jenna G.]

Hello All,

My girlfriend and I recently purchased a baby Cherry Head Red Foot, his name is Tank. Things have been going well so far and I have gotten many helpful tips from reading through post on this forum. I currently have him in an open 40 Gallon tank with a CHE and a UVB light. I bought some reptile bark as a substrate, but just purchased some cypress much as a replacement. His tank usually stays around 80 degrees and the humidity is between 40-50% which is pretty low from what I am reading. I do not have a lid for the enclosure at the moment but I am working on getting one. So far I think I am off to a decent start, however I am still working on regulating the temps. So any advice or pointers would be appreciated.
Thanks!!!

 

[pfara]

Woo! Another person from Maryland with a redfoot! Welcome to the forum and it looks like you're off to a pretty good start. One of my suggestions is to get a crapload of long fibered sphagnum moss from home depot or lowes and just top your substrate with it. Soak in warm water and wring it out. It allows your tort to bury himself and it also helps with humidity. If you need any plants to put in your enclosure, I have tons. Congrats on your red! He's beautiful

 

[tortadise]

Welcome

 

[Teodora'sDAD]

Welcome!! cute lil guy you have there!

 

[Jenna G.]

Woo! Another person from Maryland with a redfoot! Welcome to the forum and it looks like you're off to a pretty good start. One of my suggestions is to get a crapload of long fibered sphagnum moss from home depot or lowes and just top your substrate with it. Soak in warm water and wring it out. It allows your tort to bury himself and it also helps with humidity. If you need any plants to put in your enclosure, I have tons. Congrats on your red! He's beautiful

Thanks for the tip, I will def pick some up this evening as I had already planned on stopping by Home Depot! I would love to get some plants for Tanks habitat, are they fairly easy to maintain?

 

[pfara]

Thanks for the tip, I will def pick some up this evening as I had already planned on stopping by Home Depot! I would love to get some plants for Tanks habitat, are they fairly easy to maintain?

As long as you keep up the husbandry on your RF enclosure, maintaining the right plants is pretty easy. I kinda have a bunch so every once in a while I dedicate a day to watering plants. You can check out my one thread called "my redfoot family". I have a list of safe plants to use that seem to work with my setup (I haven't killed them yet). I dunno where in maryland you are, but if you're close by, I have a bunch to spare or can always make more cuttings. They're grown organically and have never been exposed to pesticides or herbicides. I also have some other stuff like seeds, herbal hay etc. Lemme know if you need any help.

 

[Jenna G.]

Sounds great, I will check it out and I would love to add a few! I am located in Southern MD, the Charles County area...

 

[Yvonne G]

Hi, and welcome to the Forum!

I've got a couple of comments about your lighting/heating arrangement. First of all, they're both up too high. Get a thermometer or something to measure the temperature on the floor of the habitat, and take measurements all over the whole floor. It is quite ok for the temp to be the same all over the habitat. Other types of tortoise need a hot side and a not so hot side, but the RF tortoises are fine with it being about 80F all over the habitat.

Secondly, I can't really tell from the picture, but I'm guessing that you're using one of the curly shaped compact fluorescent bulbs for UVB. These are harmful on tortoise's eyes, causing a painful condition similar to snow-blindness. Get rid of that light immediately. Throw it away. If you buy a Mercury Vapor Bulb you will have heat and UVB all in the same bulb. Or you can go with your CHE plus a tube-type fluorescent UVB bulb. Since RF tortoises eat animal protein, they get some vitamin d3 from their diet, so it's not real important to have a heavy duty UVB light on them.

There is a lot of good reading about RF tortoises at the Tortoise Library

 

[tortdad]

Welcome. I used to live in md, mostly around Annapolis and Baltimore.


0.0.1 Redfoot (Spike)
0.0.1 Cherryhead Redfoot (Bruce Wayne)
1.0 Sulcata (Hal Jordan)

 

[Jenna G.]

Hi, and welcome to the Forum!

I've got a couple of comments about your lighting/heating arrangement. First of all, they're both up too high. Get a thermometer or something to measure the temperature on the floor of the habitat, and take measurements all over the whole floor. It is quite ok for the temp to be the same all over the habitat. Other types of tortoise need a hot side and a not so hot side, but the RF tortoises are fine with it being about 80F all over the habitat.

Secondly, I can't really tell from the picture, but I'm guessing that you're using one of the curly shaped compact fluorescent bulbs for UVB. These are harmful on tortoise's eyes, causing a painful condition similar to snow-blindness. Get rid of that light immediately. Throw it away. If you buy a Mercury Vapor Bulb you will have heat and UVB all in the same bulb. Or you can go with your CHE plus a tube-type fluorescent UVB bulb. Since RF tortoises eat animal protein, they get some vitamin d3 from their diet, so it's not real important to have a heavy duty UVB light on them.

There is a lot of good reading about RF tortoises at the Tortoise Library

Yvonne,

Thank you so much for the tips, this has all been a work in progress!

 

[Grandpa Turtle 144]

Hello and welcome to the TFO from AZ. Great looking tort !


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[ALDABRAMAN]

Welcome!

 

[Maro2Bear]

And I also welcome another Marylander to the Forum -- Go TERPS! One thing I noticed was the location and type of thermometer and hygrometer gauges. Way too high in your enclosure. Your tort is living down in / on the substrate, not way up there on the side of the glass. You probably need to relocate and get better ones if/ when you can.

 

[Len B]

Welcome, Are you near La Plata or Waldorf ? I have an adult male Redfoot that came from St,Marys County, down past Leonardtown towards Pt. Lookout.

 

[Jenna G.]

Welcome, Are you near La Plata or Waldorf ? I have an adult male Redfoot that came from St,Marys County, down past Leonardtown towards Pt. Lookout.

Hey yes abot 10 mins from both, I'm. In Hughesville!

 

[Jenna G.]

And I also welcome another Marylander to the Forum -- Go TERPS! One thing I noticed was the location and type of thermometer and hygrometer gauges. Way too high in your enclosure. Your tort is living down in / on the substrate, not way up there on the side of the glass. You probably need to relocate and get better ones if/ when you can.

Makes sense, I will relocate them! Thanks!

 

[Len B]

Hey yes abot 10 mins from both, I'm. In Hughesville!

I was in Hughesville Wed, I use 301 to 234 to Penns Hill to 6 (or Wheatly) to Oliver Shop to 231 to get from Colonial Beach to Huntingtown A few times a week.

 

[pam]

Welcome

 

[Jenna G.]

Hi guys,

I just want to start by saying thanks for the warm welcomes and great tips! Since I have been reading up on posts I have notices that my Red Foot appears to be pretty dry the last couple of days both on the top of his head and shell. There is just so much information out there, it's hard to tell if Tank is doing well and healthy. Here is a picture I took today that really shows the dryness I am referring to. I was hoping to get to get some opinions as to weather Tank look healthy or if I should be concerned. Thanks!

 

[tortdad]

He looks very dry. Get that humidity up to 90 or better. Soak him 30 mins in warm water everyday and If he like head rubs dip your finger in water while he soaks and rub the top of his head to help exfoliate the scales on top of his head.


0.0.1 Redfoot (Spike)
0.0.1 Cherryhead Redfoot (Bruce Wayne)
1.0 Sulcata (Hal Jordan)