Hingeback Care Help

[Ksmith]

Hello, everyone.

I received a Hingeback Tortoise last year as a birthday present. I had no prior experience with tortoises. Unfortunately, nobody involved knew that they were such a difficult species to take care of until everything was said and done. But now the little guy is mine and I'm doing the best I can. The past month I had a scare where he ate some wood chips, but they passed and hopefully things are looking up. The reason I'm posting is because the pet store we bought him from sold us a wired gerbil cage to use for him, and it does a terrible job of holding humidity. I'm hoping you all can help me get him the right living space.

His name is Zeke (actually, I think it's a girl, but I didn't know that when naming!) and I've had him for a year. He likes to eat strawberries, zucchini, and mushrooms. I've fed him worms but he refused them, and I'm trying to get more calcium in his diet. I've taken him to the vet quite a bit where I learned he has been dehydrated for a while. I have a humidifier that I run often to keep him wet but I don't think he likes it, since he always climbs on top of his log when it's on.

I have some pictures of him and his cage as-is. Does he look terribly unhealthy? He has the beginnings of shell rot but the vet gave me some stuff for that and I've been applying it daily, so no need to worry there. Also, what type of Hingeback is he? I want to say he is a Home's but I can't be sure. Finally, what would you suggest I do for a cage? For now, indoors is the only option. I just want to give the little guy the best life possible. Any and all advice is appreciated.

 

[Kapidolo Farms]

Zeke (I couldn't sort out the sex from your pictures) is a Home's Hingeback. They are a "wet" species of hingeback meaning they live in areas of high rainfall, and also tend to riparian areas, (standing water or slow moving water). They tend to be what are like American box turtles (Terrapene carolina) in much of their care. They tend to not like real bright light. Temps below 65F are not so good as a cool end of the day/night cycle or habitat. 70F should be considered the low.

So to use what you have and make it more acceptable you might consider a water bowl that fits tortoise logic, that is a water dish below the level of the soil, not up a little ramp. Seems like not so big a deal, but it's a logical place to go for water, yeah, down the slope. A larger, maybe as much as half the enclosure water dish is good. I use kitty litter pans or sweater boxes where I have cut one side down that they can enter and exit from.

If you use a sweater box, you can leave the lid on and cut a hole in the side and this makes a low light high humidity retreat. They will defecate in their water almost every day, that's just how it is.

For overall humidity you might wrap heavy plastic around the whole cage to keep it warmer and more humid. You can use aluminum foil near or around the lamps. If you get a chance for a large aquarium, that works well for this species of hingeback. As a matter of fact one of the more accomplished breeders of this species keeps them in aquariums. But all that glass is a breakage liability, so a large plastic tub is good too.

You can expand the diet to include garden snails, the protein for this species is appropriate and the shell is calcium carbonate. Clear snail gut for about a week before feeding out by keeping them on greens.

There are many good care advice sheets for this species which is very different than Savannah type hingebacks. My few comments are to address your specific questions.

 

[Rue]

Could you use a shallow stock tank? They come in plastic or metal...around 75 g.

 

[hingeback]

Welcome to the forum. What is Zeke's length? As Will says, they are humid species. I keep mine outdoors but I am still working on getting more plants. Get a water dish big enough for Zeke to fit in, change water regularly, keep it clean.

 

[Jacqui]

Could you use a shallow stock tank? They come in plastic or metal...around 75 g.

I use them with my hingebacks.