psmith
New Member
Hi everyone, we are expecting a baby leopard tortoise in the next day or two and after perusing this site I thought it would be a good idea to join. I'm new to tortoises so all advice and help is appreciated!
Here is some background info- I've kept turtles in the past but not long term. They were all local caught and released after a few weeks. My father got me started as a little kid, he set up what we called the turtle farm, which was a large chicken wire enclosure with a baby pool sunk in the middle. Whenever we found box turtles they went in for a few weeks then were released on our property (several acres with a pond). There were plenty of others like yellow bellies, mud turtles, some spotted turtles but the boxes were always my favorite and we could always find them around the property. This carried on until my early twenties.
So now I'm in my mid forties, living on the southern coast of South Carolina on a couple of semi rural acres of my own with my longtime girlfriend and 5 year granddaughter, who has her own love of box turtles now. They show up here frequently, plenty of woods and swampy areas around, good habitat. There's a large old drainage ditch on the back of the property that holds water and has a population of mud turtles living in it. Nasty tempered little things but she loves them too. Other than that we have a couple of mini goats, 2 peacocks, a dozen chickens and my dog. My girlfriends 15 year old lab passed away a month ago, and she's decided she wants a tortoise. I'm all for it, the granddaughter will love it, so we placed an order due to be here this week. Right now we're setting up a 50g Rubbermaid for the little fella until we build a larger semi permanent enclosure. We gather from reading here the main keys to this are high humidity and temperature, space to move, natural sunlight several hours per week, a good varied diet and daily warm water soakings. We'll be using the expandable reptile substrate bricks for awhile, giving him a hide, a basking rock with a small flood bulb and a terra cotta plant dish for water. We have a ton of different houseplants so a couple of those will go in, and we're looking to grow some micro greens in there as well so he can graze on live stuff. We're all super excited at this point. The granddaughter always wants to keep the box turtles, so having something similar like this that she can keep forever will be a dream for her!
Here is some background info- I've kept turtles in the past but not long term. They were all local caught and released after a few weeks. My father got me started as a little kid, he set up what we called the turtle farm, which was a large chicken wire enclosure with a baby pool sunk in the middle. Whenever we found box turtles they went in for a few weeks then were released on our property (several acres with a pond). There were plenty of others like yellow bellies, mud turtles, some spotted turtles but the boxes were always my favorite and we could always find them around the property. This carried on until my early twenties.
So now I'm in my mid forties, living on the southern coast of South Carolina on a couple of semi rural acres of my own with my longtime girlfriend and 5 year granddaughter, who has her own love of box turtles now. They show up here frequently, plenty of woods and swampy areas around, good habitat. There's a large old drainage ditch on the back of the property that holds water and has a population of mud turtles living in it. Nasty tempered little things but she loves them too. Other than that we have a couple of mini goats, 2 peacocks, a dozen chickens and my dog. My girlfriends 15 year old lab passed away a month ago, and she's decided she wants a tortoise. I'm all for it, the granddaughter will love it, so we placed an order due to be here this week. Right now we're setting up a 50g Rubbermaid for the little fella until we build a larger semi permanent enclosure. We gather from reading here the main keys to this are high humidity and temperature, space to move, natural sunlight several hours per week, a good varied diet and daily warm water soakings. We'll be using the expandable reptile substrate bricks for awhile, giving him a hide, a basking rock with a small flood bulb and a terra cotta plant dish for water. We have a ton of different houseplants so a couple of those will go in, and we're looking to grow some micro greens in there as well so he can graze on live stuff. We're all super excited at this point. The granddaughter always wants to keep the box turtles, so having something similar like this that she can keep forever will be a dream for her!
