badainzly
New Member
I have been lurking around the forum for awhile, and reading up on as much info as I can but I thought it was time to introduce myself. 
My name is Kate, I am currently located in Manhattan, KS and I'm a third year vet student at KSU. My plan is to be a general mixed practice veterinarian back home in Maine. I am not a total novice tortoise owner, and I did a lot of research before getting my first tortoise (Spartacus) back in 2006. However, I have realized since then that there were some things I was doing that weren't ideal. My first tortoise was a Russian that I got from Petco and was told was about a year old (obviously not true). He passed away this past January and after having his funny personality and quirks for 12 years I was pretty devastated.
Between being an animal person, the daughter of a veterinarian, and becoming a veterinarian myself I am pretty dedicated to taking excellent care of my pets and setting them up for success. I also have a Great Dane/St. Bernard cross, a Border Collie, two rescue cats, and a horse. After Spartacus passed and I decided that I was ready for another tortoise, I was determined to have a close to a perfect set up as possible because I want this tortoise to outlive me.
I started researching getting another tortoise and found this forum (I was also pretty excited that the recommendations here were pretty much the same as I learned in my Exotic Species class). I finally decided that I wanted to get a Leopard tortoise, and after establishing my set up (since I had to over haul everything I already had) I got my baby.
Ruth Bader Ginsberg (aka the Notortious RBG) joined the family on February 15th, and currently resides in a closed 40 gallon Sterilite container. She is about 3.5 inches long and weights 56g. She was started hot and humid. Her substrate is about 4-5 inches of cypress mulch and coco coir mixed together. She has a humid hide (which she doesn't actually seem to like), and I'm using plant pot saucers for food and water. The hot end of her enclosure ranges between 90-96, the cool end between 80-85, and her basking spot between 100-110. The humidity stays between 80-90% (depending on how much I'm opening the top to mess around). I have a UVB bulb (long style not coiled) that runs on a timer with the basking bulb, and a CHE set up with a thermostat for maintaining the ambient temperature. I use a couple remote probes, a digital gauge from the garden center in Home Depot for temp and humidity, and an infrared heat gun for monitoring temperatures and humidity. I'm feeding a mix of greens and Mazuri (the greens include wheat grass, some Romaine, mustard seed, turnip greens, cactus, endive, and more). I supplement calcium twice a week, and she has access to a cuttle bone. I soak her every night for 30 minutes in 90-95 degree water. So far, she has been active, bright, and eating like a horse.
My dad and I have already started making plans for a pretty elaborate outside (summer) and inside (winter) set up for when I move back to Maine after graduation and Miss Ruth is old enough to be outside most of the time (weather permitting).
Unfortunately my phone is on the fritz so I don't have a great way to post pictures right now (like most vet students I invest money into my animals before myself). But I do have a couple from before my phone decided to kick the bucket. The photo on the left is from when I had just gotten her and the photo on the right is from last week.
My name is Kate, I am currently located in Manhattan, KS and I'm a third year vet student at KSU. My plan is to be a general mixed practice veterinarian back home in Maine. I am not a total novice tortoise owner, and I did a lot of research before getting my first tortoise (Spartacus) back in 2006. However, I have realized since then that there were some things I was doing that weren't ideal. My first tortoise was a Russian that I got from Petco and was told was about a year old (obviously not true). He passed away this past January and after having his funny personality and quirks for 12 years I was pretty devastated. Between being an animal person, the daughter of a veterinarian, and becoming a veterinarian myself I am pretty dedicated to taking excellent care of my pets and setting them up for success. I also have a Great Dane/St. Bernard cross, a Border Collie, two rescue cats, and a horse. After Spartacus passed and I decided that I was ready for another tortoise, I was determined to have a close to a perfect set up as possible because I want this tortoise to outlive me.
I started researching getting another tortoise and found this forum (I was also pretty excited that the recommendations here were pretty much the same as I learned in my Exotic Species class). I finally decided that I wanted to get a Leopard tortoise, and after establishing my set up (since I had to over haul everything I already had) I got my baby.
Ruth Bader Ginsberg (aka the Notortious RBG) joined the family on February 15th, and currently resides in a closed 40 gallon Sterilite container. She is about 3.5 inches long and weights 56g. She was started hot and humid. Her substrate is about 4-5 inches of cypress mulch and coco coir mixed together. She has a humid hide (which she doesn't actually seem to like), and I'm using plant pot saucers for food and water. The hot end of her enclosure ranges between 90-96, the cool end between 80-85, and her basking spot between 100-110. The humidity stays between 80-90% (depending on how much I'm opening the top to mess around). I have a UVB bulb (long style not coiled) that runs on a timer with the basking bulb, and a CHE set up with a thermostat for maintaining the ambient temperature. I use a couple remote probes, a digital gauge from the garden center in Home Depot for temp and humidity, and an infrared heat gun for monitoring temperatures and humidity. I'm feeding a mix of greens and Mazuri (the greens include wheat grass, some Romaine, mustard seed, turnip greens, cactus, endive, and more). I supplement calcium twice a week, and she has access to a cuttle bone. I soak her every night for 30 minutes in 90-95 degree water. So far, she has been active, bright, and eating like a horse.
My dad and I have already started making plans for a pretty elaborate outside (summer) and inside (winter) set up for when I move back to Maine after graduation and Miss Ruth is old enough to be outside most of the time (weather permitting).
Unfortunately my phone is on the fritz so I don't have a great way to post pictures right now (like most vet students I invest money into my animals before myself). But I do have a couple from before my phone decided to kick the bucket. The photo on the left is from when I had just gotten her and the photo on the right is from last week.
