New Hatchling Aldabra owner

[LadyAldabra]

Hi everyone,

I’m officially an Aldabra owner! His name is Igor if it ends up being a female I’ll change it to Iggy. Here’s a pic of him in his indoor tortoise house. Can’t wait to see him GROW.

 

[wellington]

Congrats. That water dish looks to be to high sided for him. Also high humidity 80% to grow him smooth.

 

[LadyAldabra]

Congrats. That water dish looks to be to high sided for him. Also high humidity 80% to grow him smooth.

Thanks! From what I’ve seen he gets in the water dish comfortably. I think it’s the angle I took the picture that makes it look too high. I live in San Diego so it’s always pretty warm and humid here. I have set up automatic misters as well to keep the humidity up.

 

[Tom]

Congrats on the new baby.

Don't want to kill your buzz, but you really do need a closed chamber to maintain the correct growing conditions. Warm and humid. That open top is going to let all your heat and humidity out. Its like trying to heat your house with no roof on it.

Also, that enclosure is already much too small. As a student of the giants, one of the main problems I see is people keeping them in small enclosures. This causes digestive and orthopedic problems over time.

A terra cotta saucer sunken into the substrate for food and water will be much safer, and make your tortoise feel more comfortable. Its a much better way to go.

Last thing: San Diego is nowhere near humid enough for this species. They do best when its 80-90% or higher. You are going to have to work hard in the yard when this little one gets bigger. Damp earth, heavy planting, shade cloth, sprinklers and misters will all help. This relates back to the earlier comment about the closed chambers. The more time this baby spends outside in our dry climate, the more it will pyramid. Short excursions to the great outdoors a few times a week are great, but the majority of the time should be spent indoors in a large humid closed chamber until the baby outgrows it. At that point, you get to build a large humid night box, ad your baby will have to live outside full time.

This may not be what you want to hear, but I see problems on the horizon for you, and having gone through all of this myself many times, I want to help you minimize the problems.

 

[Jacqui]

Hi and welcome!! *waves* First tortoise ever?

 

[LadyAldabra]

Congrats on the new baby.

Don't want to kill your buzz, but you really do need a closed chamber to maintain the correct growing conditions. Warm and humid. That open top is going to let all your heat and humidity out. Its like trying to heat your house with no roof on it.

Also, that enclosure is already much too small. As a student of the giants, one of the main problems I see is people keeping them in small enclosures. This causes digestive and orthopedic problems over time.

A terra cotta saucer sunken into the substrate for food and water will be much safer, and make your tortoise feel more comfortable. Its a much better way to go.

Last thing: San Diego is nowhere near humid enough for this species. They do best when its 80-90% or higher. You are going to have to work hard in the yard when this little one gets bigger. Damp earth, heavy planting, shade cloth, sprinklers and misters will all help. This relates back to the earlier comment about the closed chambers. The more time this baby spends outside in our dry climate, the more it will pyramid. Short excursions to the great outdoors a few times a week are great, but the majority of the time should be spent indoors in a large humid closed chamber until the baby outgrows it. At that point, you get to build a large humid night box, ad your baby will have to live outside full time.

This may not be what you want to hear, but I see problems on the horizon for you, and having gone through all of this myself many times, I want to help you minimize the problems.

Thanks for the feedback! I have added a shower curtain top with an extra mist nozzle to keep it humid and hot. This is a temporary enclosure as I’ll be moving in 4 months and will have a better outdoor with night enclosure set up for him. What do you recommend for food? I’m feeding a variety of vegetables including collard greens, micro greens, wheat grass, moist SL tortoise food, squash. Also growing grasses and micro greens in enclosure but he doesn’t seem to graze.

 

[dd33]

Along the lines of what Tom said. Try to keep the humidity high (over 80%) and the temperature 85 or a little higher at all times. When you build your outdoor enclosure make sure you will have the ability to keep the night box very humid. He will spend most of his time in there.

For food try hibiscus leaves if you can get them. Plant as many bushes as you have room for and ask all of your friends to give you the trimmings from their (non-treated) plants. Also spineless cactus pads are a favorite and are easy to store. I am not sure what SL food is. I wouldn't feed any pellet other than Mazuri LS. You can probably give him as much moist LS as he can eat twice a week or so. As soon as it is addicted to the LS pellets start finely chopping up orchard grass hay pieces and mixing it with the pellets. It may take a couple of years before they eat hay alone but it really makes feeding them easy. Also try mulberry leaves, grape leaves, assorted weeds.

 

[Tom]

Thanks for the feedback! I have added a shower curtain top with an extra mist nozzle to keep it humid and hot. This is a temporary enclosure as I’ll be moving in 4 months and will have a better outdoor with night enclosure set up for him. What do you recommend for food? I’m feeding a variety of vegetables including collard greens, micro greens, wheat grass, moist SL tortoise food, squash. Also growing grasses and micro greens in enclosure but he doesn’t seem to graze.

@dd33 said the same thing I would have said...

From the grocery store, if you must use grocery store foods, favor endive and escarole. Cilantro, arugula, dandelion greens, and all the ones you are already offering make up some good variety. When possible, I prefer to use weeds, leaves, grasses, opuntia pads, and eventually grass hay when they get large enough. I like to soak horse hay pellets and mix that in with the grocery store greens for added fiber. I also mix in a variety of dried leaves from Will @Kapidolo Farms , and Herbal Hay from torotisesupply.com. A little sprinkle of calcium is a good idea too for a growing giant.

Here in CA hibiscus should do well for you down there in SD. Also look into Lavatera, blue hibiscus, rose of Sharon, gazanias, nasturtiums, and so many more. Plant a variety of different grape vines too and let them go to town. Mine don't care for the leaves of the Concord grapes, but they love all the other types of grape vine leaves, and the vines do great in our climate. Plant them some where in full hot sun. Another Socal staple can be mulberry leaves. Mulberry trees are everywhere here. I'll bet some of your neighbors have them and would love it if you offered to regularly prune their tree for them. Mulberry trees grow like weeds and its a lot of work to maintain them, so the tree owner's are happy to see us coming, and its great tortoise food. You can simply lop off a branch and throw it in your enclosure. Then throw away the branch after the tortoise has eaten all the leaves.

A note about raising giants: Make the enclosure HUGE. If there are no hills or inclines, make some. They need to walk a lot. Keeping them in small enclosures will likely lead to orthopedic problems as they gain size. GO BIG!

 

[LadyAldabra]

Thanks for the feedback! I have added a shower curtain top with an extra mist nozzle to keep it humid and hot. This is a temporary enclosure as I’ll be moving in 4 months and will have a better outdoor with night enclosure set up for him. What do you recommend for food? I’m feeding a variety of vegetables including collard greens, micro greens, wheat grass, moist SL tortoise food, squash. Also growing grasses and micro greens in enclosure but he doesn’t seem to graze.

O

Along the lines of what Tom said. Try to keep the humidity high (over 80%) and the temperature 85 or a little higher at all times. When you build your outdoor enclosure make sure you will have the ability to keep the night box very humid. He will spend most of his time in there.

For food try hibiscus leaves if you can get them. Plant as many bushes as you have room for and ask all of your friends to give you the trimmings from their (non-treated) plants. Also spineless cactus pads are a favorite and are easy to store. I am not sure what SL food is. I wouldn't feed any pellet other than Mazuri LS. You can probably give him as much moist LS as he can eat twice a week or so. As soon as it is addicted to the LS pellets start finely chopping up orchard grass hay pieces and mixing it with the pellets. It may take a couple of years before they eat hay alone but it really makes feeding them easy. Also try mulberry leaves, grape leaves, assorted weeds.

The shower curtain has helped to really increase in humidity and heat. I’ll start adding more variety to his diet. My bad, I meant Mazuri LS pellets.

 

[LadyAldabra]

@dd33 said the same thing I would have said...

From the grocery store, if you must use grocery store foods, favor endive and escarole. Cilantro, arugula, dandelion greens, and all the ones you are already offering make up some good variety. When possible, I prefer to use weeds, leaves, grasses, opuntia pads, and eventually grass hay when they get large enough. I like to soak horse hay pellets and mix that in with the grocery store greens for added fiber. I also mix in a variety of dried leaves from Will @Kapidolo Farms , and Herbal Hay from torotisesupply.com. A little sprinkle of calcium is a good idea too for a growing giant.

Here in CA hibiscus should do well for you down there in SD. Also look into Lavatera, blue hibiscus, rose of Sharon, gazanias, nasturtiums, and so many more. Plant a variety of different grape vines too and let them go to town. Mine don't care for the leaves of the Concord grapes, but they love all the other types of grape vine leaves, and the vines do great in our climate. Plant them some where in full hot sun. Another Socal staple can be mulberry leaves. Mulberry trees are everywhere here. I'll bet some of your neighbors have them and would love it if you offered to regularly prune their tree for them. Mulberry trees grow like weeds and its a lot of work to maintain them, so the tree owner's are happy to see us coming, and its great tortoise food. You can simply lop off a branch and throw it in your enclosure. Then throw away the branch after the tortoise has eaten all the leaves.

A note about raising giants: Make the enclosure HUGE. If there are no hills or inclines, make some. They need to walk a lot. Keeping them in small enclosures will likely lead to orthopedic problems as they gain size. GO BIG!

I’ll definitely go big on the enclosure..I know these guys need a ton of space. I’ve heard of using finely ground egg shells for calcium supplements and sprinkling it on top of their food. Has anyone tried this?

 

[dd33]

I’ll definitely go big on the enclosure..I know these guys need a ton of space. I’ve heard of using finely ground egg shells for calcium supplements and sprinkling it on top of their food. Has anyone tried this?

You can do that. We keep a couple of cuttle bones in the enclosure so they can access calcium when they want it. We also put reptile calcium powder on top of their food once a week or so.

 

[HoosierTort]

Congrats on the new baby.

Don't want to kill your buzz, but you really do need a closed chamber to maintain the correct growing conditions. Warm and humid. That open top is going to let all your heat and humidity out. Its like trying to heat your house with no roof on it.

Also, that enclosure is already much too small. As a student of the giants, one of the main problems I see is people keeping them in small enclosures. This causes digestive and orthopedic problems over time.

A terra cotta saucer sunken into the substrate for food and water will be much safer, and make your tortoise feel more comfortable. Its a much better way to go.

Last thing: San Diego is nowhere near humid enough for this species. They do best when its 80-90% or higher. You are going to have to work hard in the yard when this little one gets bigger. Damp earth, heavy planting, shade cloth, sprinklers and misters will all help. This relates back to the earlier comment about the closed chambers. The more time this baby spends outside in our dry climate, the more it will pyramid. Short excursions to the great outdoors a few times a week are great, but the majority of the time should be spent indoors in a large humid closed chamber until the baby outgrows it. At that point, you get to build a large humid night box, ad your baby will have to live outside full time.

This may not be what you want to hear, but I see problems on the horizon for you, and having gone through all of this myself many times, I want to help you minimize the problems.

I’m glad I read this. I ended up being able to grab two Aldabra now and I’m trying to figure out how large of a setup to go with. I had planned on a clear sterelite tub but I’m going to just do a tuff stuff 110 with plastic covering the top for my closed chamber. They’ll be in my turtle room which I keep at 75-80 on temp and humidity. I will still have them in a closed chamber of their own, but rooms climate isn’t too bad as is so I’m not overly worried. It will likely come down to which shelf I need to use for the temps I want without using a basking lamp.