Need Advice for Baby Sulcata House

[ripper7777777]

Alright I have been reading and reading and reading.

But now I'd like to get straight advice to make sure little Peanut is being well taken care of.

Peanut seems to be doing fine, she has peed on us twice and poo'd yesterday and urates in her soaking the day before. But being my first tortoise and a baby I get nervous and concerned. She's pretty lazy in her terrarium, sleeps most of the time, but when she's out for a walk she's really active and all over the place.



This is my current setup.

40 Gallon Tank - 17" high x 18" deep and 36" long

Eco Earth Bricks x 3

Small House made from Coroplast

Terracotta water dish

18" Fluorescent light - Just a standard bulb for now.

100 watt Infrared Light


I live in Houston Texas and with the current weather change trend we barely have a winter, January maybe February, December it's on and off, one day jackets next shorts.

So peanut gets outside every day, I work from the house and play Mr. Mom to our 3 kids.

I have setup an old plastic kiddie pool so Peanut can walk around safely.


Back to her cage


I have ordered a Reptisun 10.0 18" for her. Right now the Eco Earth is wet and cold to the touch, but it is average 80 degrees in there. 75 on the far side and near a 100 on the basking rock. But the Humidity is high, but in Houston Humidity is always high. In her basking area it's about 60% and on the Coco substrate it's about 90%.

She has no interest in the Hiding box, she sleeps on the basking rock.

I'm planning on ordering a CHE

I don't care for the red glow, we bought it because we couldn't find anything else local.


So I'd like setup advice and suggestions, what am I doing wrong if anything.


Thanks in advance.

Lance and Peanut

 

[Timmytort]

Your good! Don't need to change anything.

 

[coreyc]

you said your substrate is cold to the touch what are you using to measure your temp's?

 

[ripper7777777]

you said your substrate is cold to the touch what are you using to measure your temp's?

I just have one of the cheap combo units, I don't have a temp gun.

 

[coreyc]

you said your substrate is cold to the touch what are you using to measure your temp's?

I just have one of the cheap combo units, I don't have a temp gun.

If you can I would get a temp gun you can get one for around $30 then you can have and accurate temp reading cold & wet will lead to problems

 

[ripper7777777]

Alright I'll see about ordering one when I order the CHE. The air temps are 75 plus on the cool side, but the Coco is wet thus it's not very warm, the enclosure is very warm air temp wise. But she has always slept on her basking rock. I was using Cyprus Mulch blend from lowes and was worried she didn't like it and switched to the Coco, but she still sleeps in that one corner. Last night I placed her in her hiding house and put it in that corner and she stayed, so now I'm not sure if she just really likes that corner, I even moved the heat source a bit and she still stayed in that corner.

I'm thinking that the Coco may be to wet and just taking a while to dry out the top layer is starting to dry but under about a half inch it is still wet. I squeezed off the excess water so it felt damp, but gravity has pulled all the water to the bottom layer, but it stays real humid in there now.

Should I try and ring out the substrate some more so that it warms up a bit, I have some sphagnum moss I can use to help with humidity.

you said your substrate is cold to the touch what are you using to measure your temp's?

I just have one of the cheap combo units, I don't have a temp gun.

If you can I would get a temp gun you can get one for around $30 then you can have and accurate temp reading cold & wet will lead to problems

 

[ripper7777777]

Alright, while peanut was out in the sun I took the coco out and laid it out in the sun and than mixed in some dry top soil. I ended up with a damp substrate that isn't wet enough to hold it's shape when squeezed and no water can be squeezed out.

I reassembled the enclosure and she has been active every since, she still seems to want to sleep in her corner, but at least now she will leave her basking rock and go for walks around her home.

 

[jackrat]

If you keep having temperature issues with the substrate,you might try heat cord. It works like a charm. This is the kind I use.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0006JLPGI/?tag=exoticpetnetw-20

 

[jbean7916]

One thing to remember is cool to the touch to you, might not actually be that cool. Your core temp is much higher and that will determine what feels cool and what feels hot. The only way to know for sure is the temp gun

 

[ripper7777777]

Yea, I'd say the substrate is cool to the touch now, before it felt cold. This morning she was sleeping on the substrate right outside her half log.

I will say it's messy stuff, she is tracking it everywhere, I was thinking about adding some cypress mulch to help keep the coco from spreading so much, but for now I will just keep cleaning it up. I'm just glad to see her so active, eating and pooping and even once she went for a soak.

 

[Tom]

You've done your homework, but here's a few fine tuning tips.

75 is pretty borderline on the low end. I like 80 24/7 much better with all that humidity.

If you pack the substrate down with your hand it will be less messy. There is also no harm in a layer of cypress mulch on top.

I don't like colored bulbs for daytime. Since your tort gets so much natural sunshine year round you can just use a regular incandescent flood bulb from any hardware store. I like to use lower wattage ones to save electricity. I adjust the height of my fixtures to get the temps just right.

 

[ripper7777777]

You've done your homework, but here's a few fine tuning tips.

75 is pretty borderline on the low end. I like 80 24/7 much better with all that humidity.

If you pack the substrate down with your hand it will be less messy. There is also no harm in a layer of cypress mulch on top.

I don't like colored bulbs for daytime. Since your tort gets so much natural sunshine year round you can just use a regular incandescent flood bulb from any hardware store. I like to use lower wattage ones to save electricity. I adjust the height of my fixtures to get the temps just right.

Thanks, I've read and reread your posts a few times, good info very helpful, I'm sure I need to read them again, I usually have my 2 year old boy in my lap when at my PC so reading can be hard to say the least.

Truthfully I hate the red light, when I was kid so many years ago I had a large iguana and the red light lit up my bedroom, I hated it and I suspect he did to, but I need the heat for night time temps at the moment, I will be ordering a ceramic heating element, I had hoped to find one locally but no where seems to have them. I found them on Amazon along with a temp gun.

Peanut seems to sleep on the warmer side, it stays 80 over there at night.

Well just about time for peanut to head out and enjoy some nice weather, the drought here has been aweful but no shortage of sunny days.


Again Thanks for the tips and info from everyone and thanks for your great posts Tom, I know it takes time to put the info down, so know it is highly appreciated, especially since the exotic store I bought her from is still saying dry, dry, dry, store bought diet, shell polish and coil bulbs, I know all to well that shops in any hobby can be full of outdated and just plain wrong info even if the shop owners mean well, it's best to get educated.


and now the wife is looking at some baby Hermanns from Hermanni.orbs, appears I will end up building a tortoise table before long.