New owner looking for advice!

[DangerTiger]

Hey everyone,

This Wednesday I'll be picking up my first tortoise. She's a young Red Footed Tortoise from a local breeder, and I'm very excited! I'm looking for any advice and tips you may have for me as a new owner. She's going to be mostly indoors, but I have plenty of enclosed outdoor space for her to roam after work. For the time being, I have a 32gal tank with just a standard setup, but am looking for feeding dish recommendations. I'm in Northglenn, CO, and my biggest concerns are the humidity, and temps she needs. Any help is appreciated. Thank you!

 

[wellington]

Hello and Welcome Congrats. A closed or semi closed chamber works great for keeping humidity. With RF though, because they are more prone to shell rot, you need to keep the top layer of substrate dry. This can be fairly easily done by putting warm water into the corners of the enclosure so it goes to,the bottom and soaks upward from there. Another place to read good info is one of our members sites, it's the http://www.tortoiselibrary.com. Others will be able to give more info too. Good luck.

 

[pfara]

Congrats on your new addition! Definitely check out the link that wellington posted. For food dishes, slate tiles or terra cotta plant saucers placed either right side up or upside down work well to keep the beak filed down.

Post pics of the little guy and feel free to keep asking questions when the need arises.

 

[tortdad]

Welcome to TFO. A flat slate rock works great as a feeding dish. The stone will help keep the beak trimmed. For a water dish most of us use a terra cotta plant saucer. They cost about $2 and they have low sides so it's easy for the tort to climb into and out of. The store bought water dishes are usually too deep and you risk the tort flipping over and drowning. Make sure to push the dishes down into the sub straight to make the top of the dish level with the ground. RF like plants (real and fake) they will help hold humidity too. Be sure to look at the RF section to see which plants are safe and which are not so you don't poison the little guy. Add variation to the diet.

What kind of sub straight are you using? What kind of lights do you have? Also, 32 gal is pretty small (even for a hatchling). By the time you add the furniture and plants he's got no room to roam around. Start looking at the enclosure section to get some ideas on how to make him something bigger. A larger rubber made bin is cheap and gives him more room that a 32gal viv.

Be sure to post pics of your set up so we can help more. Lots of pics when you get the tort too

 

[Abdulla6169]

Welcome to TFO!

 

[DangerTiger]

Hello and Welcome Congrats. A closed or semi closed chamber works great for keeping humidity. With RF though, because they are more prone to shell rot, you need to keep the top layer of substrate dry. This can be fairly easily done by putting warm water into the corners of the enclosure so it goes to,the bottom and soaks upward from there. Another place to read good info is one of our members sites, it's the http://www.tortoiselibrary.com. Others will be able to give more info too. Good luck.

Thank you! I have a mixture wood chips that they have at a local pet store for substrate. Is that sufficient?

 

[DangerTiger]

Welcome to TFO!

Thank you!

 

[Abdulla6169]

Thank you!

Your welcome

 

[DangerTiger]

Congrats on your new addition! Definitely check out the link that wellington posted. For food dishes, slate tiles or terra cotta plant saucers placed either right side up or upside down work well to keep the beak filed down.

Post pics of the little guy and feel free to keep asking questions when the need arises.

Will do. Thank you so much!

 

[DangerTiger]

Welcome to TFO. A flat slate rock works great as a feeding dish. The stone will help keep the beak trimmed. For a water dish most of us use a terra cotta plant saucer. They cost about $2 and they have low sides so it's easy for the tort to climb into and out of. The store bought water dishes are usually too deep and you risk the tort flipping over and drowning. Make sure to push the dishes down into the sub straight to make the top of the dish level with the ground. RF like plants (real and fake) they will help hold humidity too. Be sure to look at the RF section to see which plants are safe and which are not so you don't poison the little guy. Add variation to the diet.

What kind of sub straight are you using? What kind of lights do you have? Also, 32 gal is pretty small (even for a hatchling). By the time you add the furniture and plants he's got no room to roam around. Start looking at the enclosure section to get some ideas on how to make him something bigger. A larger rubber made bin is cheap and gives him more room that a 32gal viv.

Be sure to post pics of your set up so we can help more. Lots of pics when you get the tort too

This is great information. I really appreciate it. Where would you recommend I buy the slate rock and terra cotta saucer? Just from a local plant shop or hardware store?

I can't recall the brand of substrate, but it's the same wood chip mixture that he had from a pet store. I have the separate UVB and Halogen lighting for I believe heat and natural lighting? That's a huge concern for me as well, having just 32gal for him is tiny. A large bin is a great idea for now! I'm curious as to how I'll set everything up for him with a bin, so I'll have to do some research and rigging haha.

 

[tortdad]

Any Home Depot type store will have the saucers you need. Which UVB bulb did you get? If it's the coil type bulb take it back, They will damaged your torts eyes.

 

[tortdad]

The biggest mistake new RF owners make is with sub straight and temps/humidity.

Mulch is fine for older RF and in areas of your baby RF container. Babies get dehydrated very quickly. If I were you I would use top soil and long strand sphagnum moss.

You can buy a bag for like $3 from any Home Depot or garden center. Same thing for top soil, it's $3 a bag. Just make sure it's just plain top soil, nothing with fertilizer in it like potting soil. Put a few inches of tops soil down the add a layer of the moss. In some places use the mulch instead of the moss. You want to keep the soil moist to help hold humidity. The moss needs to be slightly moist in half the container and dry in the rest. rF are also prone to shell rot so you have to give them a dry are to hang out in when they want to. Just remember to keep the ground damp like a forest floor, not soaked like a swamp.

You will need to soak him once a day for 20-30 mins too. Get something they can walk around in a bit (9x13 glass baking dish works great) and put warm water in it. Only high enough to cover the tort to where the bottom shell and top shell meet so you don't drown it.

You've got to get the temps right because wet and cold will make your little guy sick and creat mold in your enclosure. Get a spray bottle so you can mist him and his enclosure 2-3 times a day. If you don't have a lid to hold humidity your going to fight it the entire time.



Here's mine hanging out in his water dish. If you can't find a flat rock for him to eat off of you can use a tile from the flooring section or another pot saucer.

 

[tortdad]

Also. You can forget most of what the pet store told you. Most of the time they don't know squat about torts and give you old outdated info.

 

[DangerTiger]

Also. You can forget most of what the pet store told you. Most of the time they don't know squat about torts and give you old outdated info.

Ok haha well crap. That's where I got most information and recommendations. I'm thinking of just getting a large plastic bin from target instead of using the 32gal aquarium. Would you be able to post a picture of your tortoise housing? I'd like to get a feel for proper size of a bin

 

[tortdad]

Bigger is better. Them more room they have to roam the better the digest food. You will never hear any of us say "that's too big" only too small. Have you looked through the enclosure section? You can get lost I. There with all of the ideas. Ones that work well have tops in the. Long and low like the kind you slip under a bed. Some people cut the sides open and glue 2 or 3 bins together.

 

[DangerTiger]

Ok, great. I'll check it out. Thank you so much for your help!

 

[tortdad]

Mine is an old baby changing table that I converted to a 100% enclosed tortoise table. It has a loft and two hides. This table is still kind of small so I plan on enlarging the bottom in a few weeks. Then this fall or winter building him a big one.

 

[DangerTiger]

Wow, that's awesome! What cycle do you run for your lights?

 

[tortdad]

12 hours a day for the basking light and UVB. My light is a PowerSun mercury bulb from ZooMed. It does both basking and UVB. I have mine on from 7-7. The fixture on the right is a CHE (ceramic heat emitter) it does not put out any light, only heat. I have this on a thermostat so it kicks on and off as needed.

Other items you will need is a digital or analog thermometer and hydrometer to monitor temps and humidity levels. RF like it at a constant 80-90% humidity. You will also need an infrared temperature gun to spot check temps. Roybi makes one you can get at Home Depot for like $30. Keep your basking area between 90-95 degrees.

Some people like to keep there enclosures at verifying temperatures, like 85 in the warm area an mid to upper 70s in the cool side. You've got to have a fairly large set up for that. Most species of torts need this variation but RF's do just fine if you keep the entire enclosure at 84 or 85 degrees. Some red foots like to bask and others don't but it's best to offer a basking spot for them to decide. I have to offer a basking area because my bulb doubles as the UVB bulb. You have to keep them warm for them to digest food properly. Don't let the night time temps drop below 78 degrees. Once your tort gets to be a few years old he can handle night time temps of 70 but babies need to be warmer to not get a respiratory infection.
The feeding schedule is also important. Most people agree that a 3 day schedule works best. Day one greens/veggies/weeds. Same for day 2. Day 3 is fruit. Then repeat. Dust the food with calcium powder 2 or 3 times a week. After he's 6 months old you can add protein to his diet. Once or twice a month soak 'weight management' cat food until soft then give it to him. You can also use chicken, shrimp, boiled eggs. There's lots of things you can use so just read everything you can in the Redfoot section. Variation with the greens is best. You don't enjoy eating the same thin everyday and neither does your tort. There is some tortoise food you can buy online that's good for them too. I'll see if I can find the link to the member here who sells it. Check out www.tortoisesupply.com Tyler is pretty knowledgeable and has all kinds of cool stuff

 

[DangerTiger]

Thank you so much, again, Tortdad! You've been extremely helpful