Hi all...having been a Forum member for a couple of weeks now, and having been lurking here a lot over that time...figure it's high time to surface and make an introduction.
I live in Oregon, and I've had a fair amount of experience with aquatic turtles up till now, but I'm relatively new to tortoises. We recently acquired our first tortoise, Henry, a sub-adult Red Footed male who needed a new home.
I built a 16'x16' outdoor enclosure for him underneath three good-sized conifer trees, and equipped it with a shelter and a small shallow bathing "pond" (actually just a plastic cement mixing trough, sunk into the ground and filled halfway up with large pebbles). I also just completed a tort table for Henry as his cold-weather residence. The shelter in his outdoor enclosure is heated, but I'm just a little worried that when winter rolls around, he'll need warmer quarters, at least for part of the time.
And of course I don't need to explain to anyone here how addicting tortoise ownership is; we've been completely captivated by Henry's personality and charm since day one. One thing leads to another as it usually does, and we've decided to add to the family. We are looking to acquire a female Red Footed or two, so we're on the lookout.
Henry has an appointment with the vet in a week; since we know little about his life before we got him, we want to make sure he is healthy. We are fortunate to have a veterinary clinic near us that specializes in reptiles. He exhibits what appears to be mild to moderate pyramiding...not too terribly pronounced, but enough so that we want to arrest it and correct whatever conditions caused it to begin with. I suspect that he has spent the last year, or longer, living in relatively cramped quarters on a protein-heavy diet, with limited opportunity to exercise, and inadequate light.
More as it develops. This is a great forum, and I'm looking forward to being a part of it...
Don
I live in Oregon, and I've had a fair amount of experience with aquatic turtles up till now, but I'm relatively new to tortoises. We recently acquired our first tortoise, Henry, a sub-adult Red Footed male who needed a new home.
I built a 16'x16' outdoor enclosure for him underneath three good-sized conifer trees, and equipped it with a shelter and a small shallow bathing "pond" (actually just a plastic cement mixing trough, sunk into the ground and filled halfway up with large pebbles). I also just completed a tort table for Henry as his cold-weather residence. The shelter in his outdoor enclosure is heated, but I'm just a little worried that when winter rolls around, he'll need warmer quarters, at least for part of the time.
And of course I don't need to explain to anyone here how addicting tortoise ownership is; we've been completely captivated by Henry's personality and charm since day one. One thing leads to another as it usually does, and we've decided to add to the family. We are looking to acquire a female Red Footed or two, so we're on the lookout.
Henry has an appointment with the vet in a week; since we know little about his life before we got him, we want to make sure he is healthy. We are fortunate to have a veterinary clinic near us that specializes in reptiles. He exhibits what appears to be mild to moderate pyramiding...not too terribly pronounced, but enough so that we want to arrest it and correct whatever conditions caused it to begin with. I suspect that he has spent the last year, or longer, living in relatively cramped quarters on a protein-heavy diet, with limited opportunity to exercise, and inadequate light.
More as it develops. This is a great forum, and I'm looking forward to being a part of it...
Don
