One of Each

Archelon

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Hello all-

I'm new to TFO. I'm a long time avid exotic pet enthusiast but I've been out of the reptile world for some time. I used to keep red tailed boas, iguanas, box turtles and others- although for about the past 10 years I've been raising two humans and two dogs.
Last spring while I was out fishing with my 7 year old daughter and 10 year old son, we caught a tiny painted turtle hatchling. The kids had fun watching it walk and swim and gave me a very hard time about releasing it – they wanted to take it home! Ever since then, they have been begging me to let them get a turtle. Fast forward to just before Christmas and I started doing research. Finally decided upon a red footed tortoise hatchling, but could not order just one with the two kids. We have a starter enclosure on order, but plan on building a more suitable habitat, likely divided to give us the ability to keep them separate if need be. I am still researching substrate, heat/light sources, diet and supplements.
We have veggies, romaine, cuttlebone and fruit. I have them in a 20 gallon fish tank for now, on cypress mulch and a bit of sphagnum moss in a little cardboard "cave". I have heat lights from previous pets and picked up some new heat and UVB bulbs to start. The tank was used for a snake so it already had an under tank heater. Temp in the enclosure is 80, with the basking area running about 92 on a low flat piece of slate that is embedded in the substrate.
This is all temporary, I'm trying to do the best I can until I get their permanent digs constructed.

I am sure I will have plenty of questions for the forum moving forward. I introduced myself last night and was amazed at what a knowledgeable, avid and polite group you have here.

To get started, here are some pics of the torts- still trying to figure out their sex...my wife thinks that the yellow foot is a male and the red footed is a female but I suspect that they might both be female.

They are SOOOO ADORABLE!!!

We are surprised at how outgoing and adventurous they are, especially the yellow.
 

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Archelon

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We picked up one of these on sale for use temporarily until we can get a more suitable and attractive habitat built:cool:

image.jpg
 

Levi the Leopard

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They are so cute when they are little... No wait, they are also cute when they get big :)

You won't know the gender for a few years. They need size and maturity before they show the gender characteristics.

I don't keep your species so I can't comment on their housing/care but in my experience with keeping leopards, I don't like the pair dynamics. Single or 3+ is the way I liked to keep them. Many others see the same problems with pairs.

Glad you are here! See ya around :cool:
 

Tom

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I would also suggest that species not be mixed and tortoises not be kept in pairs.
 

leigti

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We picked up one of these on sale for use temporarily until we can get a more suitable and attractive habitat built:cool:

View attachment 161575
That box will work for a little bit. I had one for a while. Take out the divider. Line the bottom with a shower curtain or a tarp. In fact you could line the entire thing with that so the wood doesn't rot. You can cover the screen with plexiglass and just leave room for the lights to shine through. The Plexiglas will help keep the heat in this well. I even replace the top wood piece with a One by 2 foot piece of plexiglass so more light could go in there and I can see the tortoise. It will do for little while.
 

Archelon

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That box will work for a little bit. I had one for a while. Take out the divider. Line the bottom with a shower curtain or a tarp. In fact you could line the entire thing with that so the wood doesn't rot. You can cover the screen with plexiglass and just leave room for the lights to shine through. The Plexiglas will help keep the heat in this well. I even replace the top wood piece with a One by 2 foot piece of plexiglass so more light could go in there and I can see the tortoise. It will do for little while.

Yeah, after reading about moistening the substrate and firmly deciding to ignore the advice of the Turtle Supply people, we added a low terra cotta water dish buried level with the substrate. I will line the box with plastic and waterproof the new digs as well. I'll get working on that sooner rather than later.

Thanks
 

Redstrike

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I would also suggest that species not be mixed and tortoises not be kept in pairs.

+1 on this.

Great looking tortoises, welcome!

I build closed chambers to retain heat and humidity.
 

Archelon

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How high is this enclosure? Hi and welcome BTW.

It's 12". I have the lights hung on a solid stand 18" over the top of it.
When I switch to a ceramic heat emitter, I will bring it closer.

It's temporary anyway. I have a corner of our finished basement staked out to build a habitat, which will be 4' by 6&1/2', with walls on 3 sides. We have zoned boiler heat using hydronic circulation, running 3 separate heat exchange pumps. The basement has 3 zones on one pump, so it would be very easy for me to add another thermostat and pump, so I could thermoregulate one end of the basement separately and keep them toasty without killing the gas bill. The spot I have staked out has three baseboard registers on all three sides of an inside corner (more of a rectangular alcove). All I would need to do is line the floor with plexiglass set up to be non-skid, with low silicone sealed walls, then put some type of grating on the sides with heat registers to allow heat to pass and keep the torts from getting too close. Prefab white wire shelving comes to mind, painted dark green with plants to blend it in. If I can convince my wife to allow me free reign to create a tropical terrarium like 4 foot by 6 foot habitat, I think I can fabricate something cool.
I absolutely love this part of any hobby- thinking up a plan in my head, sketching a prototype, pondering and acquiring the raw materials, then fabricating it into a living, natural habitat which resembles the animal's natural habitat. I just love it and have done it with many species, the only difference being many of my projects were pre-Internet or at least predate the advent of forums where folks share ideas on a specific topic.
On the hobby site where I moderate, we are very fond of "build threads" where members sketch a plan, name thier goal, then post step by step pics from start to finish. I may do something like that here, soliciting the experts advice for important environmental control components installation.

Should be fun!
 

Yvonne G

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You're right. Half the fun of keeping a tortoise is setting up his habitat. (Plants, 'furniture', etc.)
 

Anyfoot

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It's 12". I have the lights hung on a solid stand 18" over the top of it.
When I switch to a ceramic heat emitter, I will bring it closer.

It's temporary anyway. I have a corner of our finished basement staked out to build a habitat, which will be 4' by 6&1/2', with walls on 3 sides. We have zoned boiler heat using hydronic circulation, running 3 separate heat exchange pumps. The basement has 3 zones on one pump, so it would be very easy for me to add another thermostat and pump, so I could thermoregulate one end of the basement separately and keep them toasty without killing the gas bill. The spot I have staked out has three baseboard registers on all three sides of an inside corner (more of a rectangular alcove). All I would need to do is line the floor with plexiglass set up to be non-skid, with low silicone sealed walls, then put some type of grating on the sides with heat registers to allow heat to pass and keep the torts from getting too close. Prefab white wire shelving comes to mind, painted dark green with plants to blend it in. If I can convince my wife to allow me free reign to create a tropical terrarium like 4 foot by 6 foot habitat, I think I can fabricate something cool.
I absolutely love this part of any hobby- thinking up a plan in my head, sketching a prototype, pondering and acquiring the raw materials, then fabricating it into a living, natural habitat which resembles the animal's natural habitat. I just love it and have done it with many species, the only difference being many of my projects were pre-Internet or at least predate the advent of forums where folks share ideas on a specific topic.
On the hobby site where I moderate, we are very fond of "build threads" where members sketch a plan, name thier goal, then post step by step pics from start to finish. I may do something like that here, soliciting the experts advice for important environmental control components installation.

Should be fun!
Sounds good, can't wait to see what you come up with.
Maybe a basic sketch for us on here to have a quick gander over, 35000 brains is better than 1. ;)
 

Archelon

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Sounds good, can't wait to see what you come up with.
Maybe a basic sketch for us on here to have a quick gander over, 35000 brains is better than 1. ;)
Will do... Still working on the wife. I think suggesting the kids rooms is next, if I give her an alternative she truly doesn't like my other idea won't seem so bad...
 

Yvonne G

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I would like to caution you about lack of humidity.

I had a clutch of YF eggs several years ago that hatched and I ended up with three babies. I kept them on moistened cypress mulch, in an open-topped tort table, under a MVB during the day and a black light at night. I soaked them daily.

One of our experienced RF tortoise keepers at that time, RedfootNERD, asked me how I was going to keep these babies in a humid enough environment, living where I do in Central California where humidity is either 0 or low single digits. I assured him I had it under control.

Well, I ended up with three stunted pineapples:

Yellowfoot tortoises 9-30-15 b.jpg Yellowfoot tortoises 9-30-15 c.jpg Yellowfoot tortoises 12-03-14 b.jpg

They hatched in November '06 and the two smaller ones only weigh 5lbs. At nine years, they should be pretty much full grown, and yet they are half the size of my adult YF tortoises.

Plus, I kept them all three together. As they grew, they bit off each others' tails. But since I'm not a hands on type of keeper, I wasn't aware they were fighting.

Moral to the story - they need a humid environment and they do better alone. And just providing a moist substrate isn't humid enough.
 

Archelon

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I would like to caution you about lack of humidity.

I had a clutch of YF eggs several years ago that hatched and I ended up with three babies. I kept them on moistened cypress mulch, in an open-topped tort table, under a MVB during the day and a black light at night. I soaked them daily.

One of our experienced RF tortoise keepers at that time, RedfootNERD, asked me how I was going to keep these babies in a humid enough environment, living where I do in Central California where humidity is either 0 or low single digits. I assured him I had it under control.

Well, I ended up with three stunted pineapples:

View attachment 161781 View attachment 161782 View attachment 161783

They hatched in November '06 and the two smaller ones only weigh 5lbs. At nine years, they should be pretty much full grown, and yet they are half the size of my adult YF tortoises.

Plus, I kept them all three together. As they grew, they bit off each others' tails. But since I'm not a hands on type of keeper, I wasn't aware they were fighting.

Moral to the story - they need a humid environment and they do better alone. And just providing a moist substrate isn't humid enough.

Good to know. I actually covered the top of their enclosure with plexiglass and I'm thinking about adding a mister. As it stands now, the glass is always covered with condensation and in the morning when the basking light comes on, the whole box fogs up. Humidity inside was around 30-40% before I covered it. Now it's 70-80% in the morning and evening, and drops to 60-70% in the middle of the day. I hope that's sufficient. The only thing I could do to improve on it would be to run a timer on a mister for the dry spells when the basking light is on. I could lower the basking light, but I finally have it where I want it running 90 at the warm end and 75-80 in the cave with a hot pad in one corner that they do use.

I've noticed that they bask for a few hours, then eat, bask a short time, then head into the cool end of the cave. At night, they go to the heated end of the cave.

This is all new to me so if anyone has comments or suggestions, please weigh in. I will be building a divided habitat when the time comes.
 

TerrapinStation

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Good to know. I actually covered the top of their enclosure with plexiglass and I'm thinking about adding a mister. As it stands now, the glass is always covered with condensation and in the morning when the basking light comes on, the whole box fogs up. Humidity inside was around 30-40% before I covered it. Now it's 70-80% in the morning and evening, and drops to 60-70% in the middle of the day. I hope that's sufficient. The only thing I could do to improve on it would be to run a timer on a mister for the dry spells when the basking light is on. I could lower the basking light, but I finally have it where I want it running 90 at the warm end and 75-80 in the cave with a hot pad in one corner that they do use.

I've noticed that they bask for a few hours, then eat, bask a short time, then head into the cool end of the cave. At night, they go to the heated end of the cave.

This is all new to me so if anyone has comments or suggestions, please weigh in. I will be building a divided habitat when the time comes.

Sounds like you got it on track. 80 degrees and 80 % humidity throughout is definitely optimal for our tropical friends, with a slight drop in nighttime temps.

Your enclosure idea sounds great.... especially the divider..... just send the wife and kids on a little weekend vacation and do the build when they are gone.....
 

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