My tortoise has dark eyes Baby Leopard tortoise

[JDDV97]

Recently bought a leopard tortoise from a reptile show. He has dark eyes. He sleeps about 20 hours out of the day. I soak him 20 minutes a day and keep him outside 14 hours and inside 10 hours at night to avoid predation . I live in Texas for context . He eats grass , spring mix , succulent , He doesn’t eat mushed pellets. I try to put Repti calcium on 2x a week . His substrate full of flowers I found safe on the tortoise table . Organist top soil mix and repti bark . I let him roam backyard so he can get exercise over different elevation. Any advice?

 

[JDDV97]

He also looks like he has a lump in his throat if you look at the pictures. He also never eats the plants in his enclosure. They’re all plants. I found safe on table tortoise.

 

[Littleredfootbigredheart]

Hello and welcome to the forum!💚🐢

Your baby shouldn’t be living outside full time like this until they are measuring at least 10 inches, whilst they are so young, they need housing in a closed chamber set up for at least the first 3 years. They can roam a secure outdoor enclosure for no more than a few hours a day.

Store brought top soil’s shouldn’t be used as there’s no way of knowing exactly what plants have gone into it, could be something toxic.

Hopefully you’ll find this thread I made useful to read, it goes over the correct types of equipment(many folks get sold the wrong stuff), maintaining humidity, correct levels etc

Leopard/sulcata starter

Hello there! In this thread I’m going to include some information below on how I’d personally tackle an indoor starter set up for this guy until they’re bigger. Hopefully it helps give you some ideas! I know it looks a lot to go over, I like to make sure all bases are covered, I’m happy to...

tortoiseforum.org

This is another care sheet you might find helpful too!

The Best Way To Raise A Sulcata, Leopard, Or Star Tortoise

I chose the title of this care sheet very carefully. Are there other ways to raise babies? Yes. Yes there are, but those ways are not as good. What follows is the BEST way, according to 30 years of research and experimentation with hundreds of babies of many species. Babies hatch during the...

tortoiseforum.org

Lastly, hopefully you’ll find this one useful in helping you know what bulbs to avoid and stuff🙂

Common keeping errors

Hello everyone! I’d been a long time lurker on this site long before joining just under a year ago now, over that time I’ve seen these husbandry issues come up time and time again, sometimes with dire consequences☹️ I thought this thread might serve as a good visual guide for these common...

tortoiseforum.org

Hope this helps! Any further questions, please do ask! They’ll always be someone to help😊

 

[wellington]

You need to do a lot of read on this forum and get him housed properly. Outside all day is not good for a hatchling. One hour tops for now, more as he gets older/bigger.

 

[TammyJ]

Your little tortoise is beautiful.

 

[JDDV97]

Hello and welcome to the forum!💚🐢

Your baby shouldn’t be living outside full time like this until they are measuring at least 10 inches, whilst they are so young, they need housing in a closed chamber set up for at least the first 3 years. They can roam a secure outdoor enclosure for no more than a few hours a day.

Store brought top soil’s shouldn’t be used as there’s no way of knowing exactly what plants have gone into it, could be something toxic.

Hopefully you’ll find this thread I made useful to read, it goes over the correct types of equipment(many folks get sold the wrong stuff), maintaining humidity, correct levels etc

Leopard/sulcata starter

Hello there! In this thread I’m going to include some information below on how I’d personally tackle an indoor starter set up for this guy until they’re bigger. Hopefully it helps give you some ideas! I know it looks a lot to go over, I like to make sure all bases are covered, I’m happy to...

tortoiseforum.org

This is another care sheet you might find helpful too!

The Best Way To Raise A Sulcata, Leopard, Or Star Tortoise

I chose the title of this care sheet very carefully. Are there other ways to raise babies? Yes. Yes there are, but those ways are not as good. What follows is the BEST way, according to 30 years of research and experimentation with hundreds of babies of many species. Babies hatch during the...

tortoiseforum.org

Lastly, hopefully you’ll find this one useful in helping you know what bulbs to avoid and stuff🙂

Common keeping errors

Hello everyone! I’d been a long time lurker on this site long before joining just under a year ago now, over that time I’ve seen these husbandry issues come up time and time again, sometimes with dire consequences☹️ I thought this thread might serve as a good visual guide for these common...

tortoiseforum.org

Hope this helps! Any further questions, please do ask! They’ll always be someone to help😊

Hello and thank you. I’ve made a close chamber enclosure today.

 

[JDDV97]

You need to do a lot of read on this forum and get him housed properly. Outside all day is not good for a hatchling. One hour tops for now, more as he gets older/bigger.

Hello and thank you. I made a close chamber today. Any advice?

 

[JDDV97]

Your little tortoise is beautiful.

Thank u !

 

[wellington]

Hello and thank you. I made a close chamber today. Any advice?

Yes, get rid of the ramp water bowl, it's a drowning hazard. Also the coil bulb can cause eye problems, ditch that too.
You need a straight tube fluorescent for uvb, a High Output one.
A incandescent FLOOD bulb for basking that reaches 95-100
And ceramic heat emitter for night heat and any added day heat.
Replace the gauge with digital and give him a hide.
Line the holes in the lid with aluminum foil/tin foil so the heat from the ceramic heat emitter and the flood bulb don't melt it.
Getting a pop up green house like I will picture may be easier, better, and the right size will last until he can live outside.

 

[wellington]

Hello and welcome to the forum!💚🐢

Your baby shouldn’t be living outside full time like this until they are measuring at least 10 inches, whilst they are so young, they need housing in a closed chamber set up for at least the first 3 years. They can roam a secure outdoor enclosure for no more than a few hours a day.

Store brought top soil’s shouldn’t be used as there’s no way of knowing exactly what plants have gone into it, could be something toxic.

Hopefully you’ll find this thread I made useful to read, it goes over the correct types of equipment(many folks get sold the wrong stuff), maintaining humidity, correct levels etc

Leopard/sulcata starter

Hello there! In this thread I’m going to include some information below on how I’d personally tackle an indoor starter set up for this guy until they’re bigger. Hopefully it helps give you some ideas! I know it looks a lot to go over, I like to make sure all bases are covered, I’m happy to...

tortoiseforum.org

This is another care sheet you might find helpful too!

The Best Way To Raise A Sulcata, Leopard, Or Star Tortoise

I chose the title of this care sheet very carefully. Are there other ways to raise babies? Yes. Yes there are, but those ways are not as good. What follows is the BEST way, according to 30 years of research and experimentation with hundreds of babies of many species. Babies hatch during the...

tortoiseforum.org

Lastly, hopefully you’ll find this one useful in helping you know what bulbs to avoid and stuff🙂

Common keeping errors

Hello everyone! I’d been a long time lurker on this site long before joining just under a year ago now, over that time I’ve seen these husbandry issues come up time and time again, sometimes with dire consequences☹️ I thought this thread might serve as a good visual guide for these common...

tortoiseforum.org

Hope this helps! Any further questions, please do ask! They’ll always be someone to help😊

And read thru these threads linked here a couple times.

 

[Ink]

There is a post where someone put tin foil around the lights hole so the lights won't burn the plastic. The coil light is bad for a tortoise's eyes. Cute leopard. @wellington can you find the post with the holes in a tub? Please just follow the above directions.

 

[wellington]

There is a post where someone put tin foil around the lights hole so the lights won't burn the plastic. The coil light is bad for a tortoise's eyes. Cute leopard. @wellington can you find the post with the holes in a tub? Please just follow the above directions.

I doubt it, I barely can find anything on this forum lol.
I'll try, otherwise @jaizei might be able to.

 

[wellington]

There is a post where someone put tin foil around the lights hole so the lights won't burn the plastic. The coil light is bad for a tortoise's eyes. Cute leopard. @wellington can you find the post with the holes in a tub? Please just follow the above directions.

Found an old one with a good pic of how the tin foil placed
Thread 'I need help, cheap closed chamber build' https://www.tortoiseforum.org/threads/i-need-help-cheap-closed-chamber-build.89435/

 

[Littleredfootbigredheart]

Glad to see you’re working on a closed chamber, good job?🥰 hopefully the suggestions already posted above will help, and it’s definitely good to go back over the linked threads to get familiar with all the info🙂

 

[JDDV97]

Yes, get rid of the ramp water bowl, it's a drowning hazard. Also the coil bulb can cause eye problems, ditch that too.
You need a straight tube fluorescent for uvb, a High Output one.
A incandescent FLOOD bulb for basking that reaches 95-100
And ceramic heat emitter for night heat and any added day heat.
Replace the gauge with digital and give him a hide.
Line the holes in the lid with aluminum foil/tin foil so the heat from the ceramic heat emitter and the flood bulb don't melt it.
Getting a pop up green house like I will picture may be easier, better, and the right size will last until he can live outside.
View attachment 378386

For the pop up green house , i’m gonna have the enclosure inside my house, so do you think I should make a custom base to hold the substrate and just placed the pop-up greenhouse on top of it?

 

[wellington]

For the pop up green house , i’m gonna have the enclosure inside my house, so do you think I should make a custom base to hold the substrate and just placed the pop-up greenhouse on top of it?

You can. I just used a tarp on the floor. Put greenhouse over it and if needed, tape the tarp onto the outside of the greenhouse. You can also do a search for a covered raised garden table and you should get tables, with floor, that has a greenhouse cover that fits it.

 

[wellington]

Just some examples. I did a quick Google. Just need to search a bit further to find a good size. The first pic I used before,it doesn't have a floor. Second one has a floor, third one no floor. Search garden beds, raised garden beds and pop up portable greenhouses

 

[Megatron's Mom]

For the pop up green house , i’m gonna have the enclosure inside my house, so do you think I should make a custom base to hold the substrate and just placed the pop-up greenhouse on top of it?

I have a raised garden and green house. I built a table for mine and made use of underneath for a dog crate. If you have dogs it would be a good idea to have it up off the floor.