Hello fellow tortoise keepers!
Our name is Veerle and Maxim and we live in Belgium. We have 4 Astrochelys radiata at the moment all small.
We have been reading a lot on this forum since there is little as none information about this species in Europe and mostly Dutch fora. We changed some things like temperature and humidity and saw some good emprovements.
We also see that "American" rads grow faster than here. I have a lot to tell and probably also ask about this wonderful species but for now i will keep it to one specific question.
We have them per two in closed terrariums cause of the Belgium weather. I know you guys don't like that, in one terrarium with hatchlings we don't have any problems for now, they eat, drink, sun, etc.
In the other terra however our "big one" is not sunning anymore, he does eat 5 minutes before the lamp goes off but that's it. Sit's in his corner for way too long. We have been to the vet clinic and they had a little bit of worms in the feces so they got a medicine for that. The vet thought it may be because it's too hot in their enclosure but im not so sure about that. Now i wonder what is going on cause he (or she) was a very active animal before this.
Is it because of the temperature or more because of the other tortoise? He did have the biggest poo (19grams) i've seen couple of days ago, i didn't see his poo for almost two weeks, so gave him mango and 2 daily baths so that worked i guess.
Information about the set up:
*Substrate: is sand mixed with top soil.
*Lamp: is Reptech 80 watt warmth combined with UVB + 2 other regular lamps just for light
Temperature: is 30°C (86°F) directly under the lamp, coldest corner is about 22°C (71°F)
Humidity: is 70% at day and around 90% at night
They mostly eat weeds, grasses, optunia, vegetables (not tomato or crap), succulents, sometimes fruits and they also have sepia. I have also ordered mazuri and will be feeding that soon.
The tortoise with a problem is almost 14 cm (5.5 inch) and 590grams (1.3 pounds) not sure if the measurements are right since i used a website to switch from cm and grams.
Note: the other tortoise inside the same enclosure is very calm and doesn't seem to annoy him or something like that.
Our name is Veerle and Maxim and we live in Belgium. We have 4 Astrochelys radiata at the moment all small.
We have been reading a lot on this forum since there is little as none information about this species in Europe and mostly Dutch fora. We changed some things like temperature and humidity and saw some good emprovements.
We also see that "American" rads grow faster than here. I have a lot to tell and probably also ask about this wonderful species but for now i will keep it to one specific question.
We have them per two in closed terrariums cause of the Belgium weather. I know you guys don't like that, in one terrarium with hatchlings we don't have any problems for now, they eat, drink, sun, etc.
In the other terra however our "big one" is not sunning anymore, he does eat 5 minutes before the lamp goes off but that's it. Sit's in his corner for way too long. We have been to the vet clinic and they had a little bit of worms in the feces so they got a medicine for that. The vet thought it may be because it's too hot in their enclosure but im not so sure about that. Now i wonder what is going on cause he (or she) was a very active animal before this.
Is it because of the temperature or more because of the other tortoise? He did have the biggest poo (19grams) i've seen couple of days ago, i didn't see his poo for almost two weeks, so gave him mango and 2 daily baths so that worked i guess.
Information about the set up:
*Substrate: is sand mixed with top soil.
*Lamp: is Reptech 80 watt warmth combined with UVB + 2 other regular lamps just for light
Temperature: is 30°C (86°F) directly under the lamp, coldest corner is about 22°C (71°F)
Humidity: is 70% at day and around 90% at night
They mostly eat weeds, grasses, optunia, vegetables (not tomato or crap), succulents, sometimes fruits and they also have sepia. I have also ordered mazuri and will be feeding that soon.
The tortoise with a problem is almost 14 cm (5.5 inch) and 590grams (1.3 pounds) not sure if the measurements are right since i used a website to switch from cm and grams.
Note: the other tortoise inside the same enclosure is very calm and doesn't seem to annoy him or something like that.