Jen88
New Member
New tortoises...
- Thread starter Jen88
- Start date
Jen88
New Member
I think the second one is a mail Russian. But let's wait for some experts to tell you for sure.
I'm sorry to nitpick this, but DITCH THAT DISH. Those have been known to drown tortoises. Terra cotta saucers are cheap, grippy and way safer!
They can't live together, and in you one pic, it looks like they are. Tort species mixing is a big nono, just because of aggression, and different pathogens, immunities... no
Are they eating a whole head of lettuce? Did they get anything else? Weeds. Flowers?
That coir is too dry. Bump up the humidity to at least 70%, it'll do them some serious good. The pic with light is like 1'' wide for me, so I can;t it properly, but what sort of light is that? I'm only seeing one lamp, and unless that's an MVB, you some UVB pronto! Can they go outside?
I'm sorry, but these things in the pics seem really obvious to me!
They can't live together, and in you one pic, it looks like they are. Tort species mixing is a big nono, just because of aggression, and different pathogens, immunities... no
Are they eating a whole head of lettuce? Did they get anything else? Weeds. Flowers?
That coir is too dry. Bump up the humidity to at least 70%, it'll do them some serious good. The pic with light is like 1'' wide for me, so I can;t it properly, but what sort of light is that? I'm only seeing one lamp, and unless that's an MVB, you some UVB pronto! Can they go outside?
I'm sorry, but these things in the pics seem really obvious to me!
Jen88
New Member
I'm sorry to nitpick this, but DITCH THAT DISH. Those have been known to drown tortoises. Terra cotta saucers are cheap, grippy and way safer!
They can't live together, and in you one pic, it looks like they are. Tort species mixing is a big nono, just because of aggression, and different pathogens, immunities... no
Are they eating a whole head of lettuce? Did they get anything else? Weeds. Flowers?
That coir is too dry. Bump up the humidity to at least 70%, it'll do them some serious good. The pic with light is like 1'' wide for me, so I can;t it properly, but what sort of light is that? I'm only seeing one lamp, and unless that's an MVB, you some UVB pronto! Can they go outside?
I'm sorry, but these things in the pics seem really obvious to me!
Yes, right now they are living together. The second set of pictures were the ones the woman that used to have them posted. I just got them a few days ago and how they are is how I got them. They've been loving together for over 2 years. I will be separating them this weekend when I have time to make 2 more enclosures. Trying to figure out a stackable option. They eat a whole head of romaine hearts mixed with this pellet food the woman gave me that you soak and turns to mush. I don't think they like it very much though. She only had a heat lamp with no UVB, they now have both lamps. The humidity is between 70-80% and their basking area is at 90. I had no idea about the water dish, is it still a threat if they take up the entire thing? If so I will remove asap. I thought because it was barely larger than them it was fine. Today was nice and tomorrow should be warm too but we're in New England so the weather is very unpredictable and I wouldn't feel safe leaving them outside. We took them out for about an hour today and plan on doing so again tomorrow.
Any ideas on stackable tables? I need to separate the two Russians as well, correct?
Each of these tortoises needs to be in its own enclosure and each indoor enclosure should be around 4x8'. At least 3x6'... You could make a rack system where all three could live while minimizing the amount of floor space.
I can't tell if the one tortoise is a greek or hermanni. It has metabolic bone disease and needs proper diet, UV, and calcium supplementation to come back from that. The two russians likely have it too if they were receiving the same care, its just not as visible in them.
Here is a care sheet for russians. The care is the same for the other one too.
http://www.tortoiseforum.org/threads/russian-tortoise-care-sheet.80698/
This might help as well:
http://www.tortoiseforum.org/threads/beginner-mistakes.45180/
I can't tell if the one tortoise is a greek or hermanni. It has metabolic bone disease and needs proper diet, UV, and calcium supplementation to come back from that. The two russians likely have it too if they were receiving the same care, its just not as visible in them.
Here is a care sheet for russians. The care is the same for the other one too.
http://www.tortoiseforum.org/threads/russian-tortoise-care-sheet.80698/
This might help as well:
http://www.tortoiseforum.org/threads/beginner-mistakes.45180/
torts are not social animals they need there own territory. if they remain in the same small enclosure with each other, they could injure one another. also said by Tom each tort needs at least a 4ft by 8ft cage.
Here's a couple ideas for stacking, the triangles are mercury vapor bulbs I hope you can understand my scribbles, basically it's just a way to try to get them all in a smaller space, you could put them directly on top of each other but you have to leave enough space for the lights heat.
I hope you can understand my scribbles, basically it's just a way to try to get them all in a smaller space, you could put them directly on top of each other but you have to leave enough space for the lights heat.
Jen88
New Member
I think we're going to try putting them on top of each other. I just want to make sure I can reach inside, I'm only 5'3" lol!
Similar threads
