Sorry to get into this thread so late, but I just wanted to reinforce the advice given here with a bit of personal experience. Hydration is absolutely critical with tortoises in general, and I know this from having been a fool for years who didn't hydrate my animals properly. In the early 2000s when I was trying to raise a colony of leopard tortoises from hatchlings, I could never understand why all six of my babies died on me. I now understand that they perished as a result of the fact that I was putting them outdoors while watering them only two times per week. This was nowhere near enough to ensure that these delicate babies would survive. The common wisdom back in those days was that babies hatch into the same environment as adults and should therefore be treated the same, but this is simply untrue. I've seen many Texas tortoises on my various excursions into Choke Canyon and other wild areas south of San Antonio, but of the hundred or so Texas tortoises I've seen, I've only seen one juvenile (it wasn't even a hatchling; I'd figure the animal must've been at least two or three years old). This is because babies stay hidden. They're not subject to the harsh, rocky, sun baked landscape that their parents traverse every morning and evening. One must also contend with the fact that most don't survive to adulthood.
Anywho, I find that rads, more than the baby margies I'm most accustomed to raising, are absolutely enthusiastic about bath time. Perhaps this is a result of personality differences particular to each given species, but I find that rads especially enjoy bath time. They even maintain this Pavlovian response that I've not seen in other species where the void urine and feces when I bring them indoors in the evening. See, every morning, I put my baby rads outdoors, but before this, I give them a bath. When I bring them back indoors, they always get a bath, and in anticipation of this, more times than not, they start voiding urine and feces before they even hit the water. I've theorized that they have come to learn that when I put them in the container to go indoors for the night that I will give them a bath before putting them away, so they start going to the bathroom immediately. Perhaps this can be chalked up to a scare response, but honestly, I don't handle them for more than a second, and I've seen only the wildest of tortoises do this, and when they do, they're typically in my hand, not in a crate. I don't know if this can be stated with absolute certainty. But I've noticed that this doesn't occur so frequently with my other tortoises.
Regardless, their enjoyment of bath time is something that can't be denied. They stretch out their legs, raise up their heads, and periodically dip their mouths into the water. They can sit this way for up to thirty minutes before getting restless, though I'm not sure if that thirty minute time period is universal. Generally, two of my rads end up getting restless, and when they bump up against the others, it causes something of a bath time stampede. If I compare this with my margies, though, margie babies, especially young ones, become incredibly restless in the bath almost immediately, especially if they've been outdoors frolicking.
Whether they enjoy bathtime or not, though, is irrelevant, in my view. I make sure to soak all babies twice per day and allow them access to lightly moistened coco coir to ensure that they stay hydrated. A hydrated tortoise is generally a healthy tortoise.
T.G.
I wish people would finally understand this matter in my country. Trying to help them and instead they come with comments as " bathing them is too much stress, just give them a tray with water and they will do just fine" sigh. Thanks for sharing your experience by the way
