TheGingerbreadMan
New Member
This is Donatello. He/she’s been with us for two weeks now and is our first tortoise. I’m not sure exactly how old. Please let me know what we are doing wrong as I’m sure we’ve made some mistakes.
Donnie’s bedding is a mix of cypress mulch and reptibark. We added a few plants this week which he seems to like. I did search the succulents to make sure they were safe. We got a great deal on this tortoise table before understanding that it was less than ideal. I cut a piece of plexiglass to fit the opening which keeps the humidity at or around 80% with one or two sprays of water per day. Under the basking light is 100 degrees and the rest of the enclosure is 85-90 during the day. The night time bulb lets it drop to about 80. We are soaking one or two times a day (we soak twice on days off when we are home). My main question is about the depth of the substrate. It is about two inches now and he seems to like burrowing a bit. Should I double the depth so he can bury himself?
There were some clear problems where we got him from that we understand better after bringing him home. He was in a dry open enclosure and was eating only mixed salad greens hence the pyramiding. Not really knowing much about it I didn’t think it looked too bad but now that I see more perfectly smooth babies on this forum I wonder how bad it is. At first he would only eat the mixed greens from the store. He is now eating a mix of escarole, endive and dandelion greens with a soaked pellet or two and a little flukers’s tortoise treats mixed in. She mostly eats the greens and not much of the pellets or treats. We also just got some “herbal tortoise hay” from tortoise supply to sprinkle on top.
Please let us know any recommendations on what we could do to take better care of our baby.
Thanks a bunch
Andy
Donnie’s bedding is a mix of cypress mulch and reptibark. We added a few plants this week which he seems to like. I did search the succulents to make sure they were safe. We got a great deal on this tortoise table before understanding that it was less than ideal. I cut a piece of plexiglass to fit the opening which keeps the humidity at or around 80% with one or two sprays of water per day. Under the basking light is 100 degrees and the rest of the enclosure is 85-90 during the day. The night time bulb lets it drop to about 80. We are soaking one or two times a day (we soak twice on days off when we are home). My main question is about the depth of the substrate. It is about two inches now and he seems to like burrowing a bit. Should I double the depth so he can bury himself?
There were some clear problems where we got him from that we understand better after bringing him home. He was in a dry open enclosure and was eating only mixed salad greens hence the pyramiding. Not really knowing much about it I didn’t think it looked too bad but now that I see more perfectly smooth babies on this forum I wonder how bad it is. At first he would only eat the mixed greens from the store. He is now eating a mix of escarole, endive and dandelion greens with a soaked pellet or two and a little flukers’s tortoise treats mixed in. She mostly eats the greens and not much of the pellets or treats. We also just got some “herbal tortoise hay” from tortoise supply to sprinkle on top.
Please let us know any recommendations on what we could do to take better care of our baby.
Thanks a bunch
Andy