PhilLindsAku
Member
Hello everyone,
Two weeks ago my wife and I became surprise keepers of a two year old Eastern Hermann's tortoise we've named Aku. We had never had any intention of owning a tortoise but he was desperately in need of a good home as his previous keepers had lost interest in him and he was becoming neglected. We instantly fell in love with the little guy and, after reading alot of information from this site and others, we've been trying to get his setup right and we'd love to hear all your expert opinions on if we have interpreted the instructions correctly. Please forgive my long first post but we've all been through alot over the last two weeks!
When we had him he was living in a small open tortoise table with a thin layer of dry topsoil and an MVB, small dish of water a food tray. After having him here for a few days it was obvious it was waaaayyyyy too small for him as all he wanted to do was escape and was impossible to keep in humidity and heat, and probably the reason has appears to have started pyramiding.
So, we decided to go all in to try and rescue the little guy and give him an enclosure he deserved. We went to Ikea and bought a sliding glass door cabinet which I then modified to take his substrate as we felt a closed cabinet was the best way to go.
Little Aku, according to his certificate, was hatched in November 2019. I weighed him today and he is 144g and his carapace is approx 85mm long. Would you say this is OK for his age?
His enclosure is 1.5m x 1m, now fitted with a 75w flood basking bulb, 100w CHE, a Pro T5 Uvb light with forest bulb as its only mounted 12" from his substrate of moose coco coir (20%), orchid bark(20%) and top soil mix (60%). His light timers are set as:
Basking : 06:00 to 20:00
UV : 09:30 to 19:00
He has a humid hide on the warm side, and another hide on the cool side, along with a flower pot to hide in. His four temperatures/Humidity (at shell height) are:
Basking = 35°C
Warm side = 26°C
Cool Side = 22°C
Night = 18°C (from 20:00 to 06:30)
Humidity = 60-80%
All of these fluctuate by a degree or two but are controlled with thermostats, a CHE and regular daily mistings from a spray bottle.
He is fed on weeds from the garden (using tortoise-table lists) everyday along with a few pieces of komodo tortoise food that we put his calcium (twice weekly) , D3 (twice weekly) and multi vitamin powder (once weekly) on. When we first had him he passed quite alot of white pastey urates, but we soak him daily and now hasn't passed any for approx 1 week. He has only popped about four times that we've seen which we are a bit worried about.
He seems to wake up OK and eat, bask for a bit then sleep. My wife feeds him in the day and I soak him for 20mins when I get home from work, when he then eats a bit and burys himself in his soil for the night.
He doesn't seem particularly active (not sure what active is for a tortoise though!) but seems very alert when just had a soak, eating or investigating new stuff in his enclosure.
We would just love some feedback from you guys on what we have done and what we need to change. As I said we've totally fallen in love with the little guy and want to give him the best shot at a long, happy and healthy life.
Cheers
Phil and Lindsey
Two weeks ago my wife and I became surprise keepers of a two year old Eastern Hermann's tortoise we've named Aku. We had never had any intention of owning a tortoise but he was desperately in need of a good home as his previous keepers had lost interest in him and he was becoming neglected. We instantly fell in love with the little guy and, after reading alot of information from this site and others, we've been trying to get his setup right and we'd love to hear all your expert opinions on if we have interpreted the instructions correctly. Please forgive my long first post but we've all been through alot over the last two weeks!
When we had him he was living in a small open tortoise table with a thin layer of dry topsoil and an MVB, small dish of water a food tray. After having him here for a few days it was obvious it was waaaayyyyy too small for him as all he wanted to do was escape and was impossible to keep in humidity and heat, and probably the reason has appears to have started pyramiding.
So, we decided to go all in to try and rescue the little guy and give him an enclosure he deserved. We went to Ikea and bought a sliding glass door cabinet which I then modified to take his substrate as we felt a closed cabinet was the best way to go.
Little Aku, according to his certificate, was hatched in November 2019. I weighed him today and he is 144g and his carapace is approx 85mm long. Would you say this is OK for his age?
His enclosure is 1.5m x 1m, now fitted with a 75w flood basking bulb, 100w CHE, a Pro T5 Uvb light with forest bulb as its only mounted 12" from his substrate of moose coco coir (20%), orchid bark(20%) and top soil mix (60%). His light timers are set as:
Basking : 06:00 to 20:00
UV : 09:30 to 19:00
He has a humid hide on the warm side, and another hide on the cool side, along with a flower pot to hide in. His four temperatures/Humidity (at shell height) are:
Basking = 35°C
Warm side = 26°C
Cool Side = 22°C
Night = 18°C (from 20:00 to 06:30)
Humidity = 60-80%
All of these fluctuate by a degree or two but are controlled with thermostats, a CHE and regular daily mistings from a spray bottle.
He is fed on weeds from the garden (using tortoise-table lists) everyday along with a few pieces of komodo tortoise food that we put his calcium (twice weekly) , D3 (twice weekly) and multi vitamin powder (once weekly) on. When we first had him he passed quite alot of white pastey urates, but we soak him daily and now hasn't passed any for approx 1 week. He has only popped about four times that we've seen which we are a bit worried about.
He seems to wake up OK and eat, bask for a bit then sleep. My wife feeds him in the day and I soak him for 20mins when I get home from work, when he then eats a bit and burys himself in his soil for the night.
He doesn't seem particularly active (not sure what active is for a tortoise though!) but seems very alert when just had a soak, eating or investigating new stuff in his enclosure.
We would just love some feedback from you guys on what we have done and what we need to change. As I said we've totally fallen in love with the little guy and want to give him the best shot at a long, happy and healthy life.
Cheers
Phil and Lindsey
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