Hello from sunny California / Disneyland

[matheny00]

Well it is a pleasure to be accepted into such a great group of people that are willing to give your time up to help others in need. My wife and I have become happy owners of 2 small red-foots Ohnono and HeyHey Granddaughter named them. They seem very healthy and i guess active for a tortoise. here are my concerns I have read different things on UVB bulbs you need them, you don't need them the little guys go outside about 15 hours a week in their box and get tons of sun. we notice when the UVB bulb is off they are more active. Plus humidity and enclosures so confused right now we have about 3/4 inch of some bedding made for turtles forget the name but it is what I read is good/safe for them. Here are the issues I read they need a moss of some type under as a base to create humidity and to burrow. I have read the beginner basics I think it was called by Tom great info, some of the info like bedding and base is more of a don't use this and not what to do or how to do it.

So here we go...
1. Being they get 15+ hours a week outside do they need a uvb bulb inside?
2. Bedding what should we use and how do we create humidity we are currently at about 50% most days
3. My wife likes to feed these guys 2 - 3 times a day and they most of the time eat it. but I have read 1 time a day every other day if older than a year?
4. Heat lamps I went with ceramic heater have a thermostat control for day and night settings I read they like a hot spot 90+ daytime and 70 night time and others say keep their area always around 80 deg +
5. Decorations, plants, rocks ect..
6. My wife also takes out their bed/hide each morning.

I read you all like pics so here are the babies



Thank you for your time and it is a pleasure to be apart of this forum.
Craig

 

[Yvonne G]

Hi Craig, and welcome!

RF tortoises require a lot of humidity, but be careful to not have your substrate too wet because they are prone to shell rot. Have you read the info on RF tortoises at the Tortoise Library?

http://tortoiselibrary.com/

 

[matheny00]

Thanks did not know this existed thank you,

 

[RosemaryDW]

Welcome from a nearby member!

 

[matheny00]

Hi Rosemary and thanks for the input so far. But still lost..

OK I have done the reading and still have many many questions. As you can see in my first post we have a tort box with a food and water bowl (and the wrong type) replaced the water bowl with clay dish (do we need to seal the dish) they don't eat out of the other it is a shelf for food to hang over.

So my wife and I are kinda at odds right now because everything the reptile store told us to do and not to do is now in question.

We have the bedding that everyone calls out for but was not told about moss or humidity. I moved the water dish closer to the ceramic heat disc to keep it warm and hope for some humidity also. I also noticed that when I moved the bark that moisture stains were on the wood on the floor. Should we put vinyl flooring down first to protect it? What about moss I read yes no they can eat it and get impacted not to wet as they red foots get shell rot. What about decorating the area? My wife take out their hide each morning so they can move around, I have read that when they go into a corner face first and have no hide to go in they are scared.

We have decided to listen to your all opinions and glean what we can from there.
Also here is a food list we were given and from what I have read this is really off. Plus how often should we feed them currently 2 to 3 times a day. she likes to feed them

I just want to make sure I do what is right for these little ones and I am lost. Please help

Thank you

 

[Tim Carlisle]

I feed mine morning and night every day. The idea is to feed them just enough to where you have a little left over when they are done. Don't worry about over feeding. Torts know their limits. I won't comment on what to feed them though, as I am not an RF expert.

As Yvonne mentioned, you will need a high humidity enclosure for them, being careful the the substrate doesn't become swampy. The thicker the substrate layer, the easier it is to maintain the dampness.

 

[matheny00]

Thanks for this input anyone able to help with other things