New Cherry Head / Red Foot Hatchling—Enclosure

Stacymariescott2016

New Member
Joined
Apr 25, 2021
Messages
3
Location (City and/or State)
ATLANTA
We are about to be first-time tortoise owners / parents. We have purchased a CH/RF hatchling from Ryan at Southern Reptiles (he has been amazing, BTW).

He has given us some great info for starting out, but would love to get some feedback on our choices.
Here’s what we have ordered, so far:
  1. Zoo Med Wood Tortoise House
  2. Zoo Med Eco Earth Loose Coconut Fiber Substrate
  3. Galapagos Sphagnum Moss
  4. Zilla Substrate Liner (to prevent wood from rotting—under substrate)
  5. Fluker’s Sun Dome Reptile lamp (x2)
  6. Wuhostam Infrared Ceramic Black Heat lamp, 100W
  7. Fluker’s Sub Glow Coil bulbs, 20W
  8. Repti Zoo Terrarium Thermometer/Hygrometer
  9. Mazuri LS Tortoise Food
  10. Fluker’s Repta Vitamin Supplement
  11. Zoo Med Reptile Calcium
  12. Zoo Med Habba Hut
  13. Fluker’s Corner Bowl
  14. A few slate rocks/ledges
  15. Reptile water bowl, with bottle attachment
We would love feedback on anything we’ve missed or anything we could do differently to make this a very comfortable, thriving and easy set up for us and our new family member, who is expected to arrive on Thursday.

Thanks so much!
 

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KarenSoCal

Well-Known Member
Tortoise Club
5 Year Member
Platinum Tortoise Club
Joined
Jul 8, 2017
Messages
5,749
Location (City and/or State)
Low desert 50 mi SE of Palm Springs CA
Hello, and welcome to the forum!

Oh, man...this is hard, but I have to say it...I think you need to cancel a lot of your order. All of it is stuff a pet shop would sell you, and sadly, pet shops don't know how to care for a tortoise, especially a redfoot.

This is your list...I'm going to
✅
the items you should keep. (tap 'expand')
We are about to be first-time tortoise owners / parents. We have purchased a CH/RF hatchling from Ryan at Southern Reptiles (he has been amazing, BTW).

He has given us some great info for starting out, but would love to get some feedback on our choices.
Here’s what we have ordered, so far:
  1. Zoo Med Wood Tortoise House
  2. ✅Zoo Med Eco Earth Loose Coconut Fiber Substrate
  3. Galapagos Sphagnum Moss
  4. ✅Zilla Substrate Liner (to prevent wood from rotting—under substrate)
  5. ✅Fluker’s Sun Dome Reptile lamp (x2)
  6. ✅Wuhostam Infrared Ceramic Black Heat lamp, 100W
  7. Fluker’s Sub Glow Coil bulbs, 20W
  8. ✅Repti Zoo Terrarium Thermometer/Hygrometer
  9. ✅Mazuri LS Tortoise Food
  10. ✅Fluker’s Repta Vitamin Supplement
  11. ✅Zoo Med Reptile Calcium
  12. Zoo Med Habba Hut
  13. Fluker’s Corner Bowl
  14. ✅A few slate rocks/ledges
  15. Reptile water bowl, with bottle attachment

This is our care sheet for redfoot tortoises. They are a little different than most other torts in their care...diet, heating, lights are all different.

Read this care sheet carefully. Notice the lights and bowls that are recommended. For the UVB light, living in Atlanta you probably don't need one until winter comes. As long as you can give your baby access to some sunshine for an hour twice a week you don't need extra UVB.

After you've read this, come back to this same thread and ask any questions you may have. We're here to help you.

We can also give suggestions for a proper enclosure for your baby. The tortoise house will not work.

Read this post too...it tells you of options to get a closed chamber, necessary for redfoot babies, and actually for all babies.


 

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