New Tortoise Owner

[pacoparrot]

I went to my first reptile expo yesterday and ended up bringing home a male redfoot tortoise about the size of a football. I have him set up temporarily in a very large opaque storage container with wet ecoearth as bedding until I can build him a nice tortoise table. The warm season is over where I live so I will be building him a summer outdoor enclosure next year. He ate some spring mix and a grape when I first brought him home yesterday. I'm hoping he eats more tomorrow. What temperature should his backing spot be? Ambient temp of setup? Do I need to dust his food with calcium and reptile vitamins and how often if often? How about some pictures of tortoise tables so I can get ideas for building one?

 

[katieandiggy]

I’m not massively familiar with redfoots but from what I have learned over the last few months, I think it should be 80-85 all over the enclosure, some people don’t give their Redfoots a basking spot and some do, if you do I would aim for about 95. The key for Redfoots is humidity and you won’t achieve the required humidity in an open top table, you may need to build a closed chamber. I think you need a minimum of 80% humidity if not more.

 

[rmn813]

Redfoots are forest tortoises which means that they live in environments with lots of plant coverage. They really don't do any basking. Focus on your ambient temp being 80-85. As katie said, humidity is a big factor with Redfoots. You will want to achieve 80% humidity.

 

[rmn813]

Instead of calcium dusting, I would suggest using cuttle bone. This way, the tortoise can chew on the bone whenever he wants and it's good for keeping his beam trimmed.