Swill-bram
New Member
Bramble is almost a year old so I wanted to make a post celebrating and also thought I'd give a run down on all my husbandry with him, since I'm new to posting on here and he's also my first tortoise. Just want to share and see if anyone has any thoughts or advice, if maybe I've missed any issues, or just hear if yall think he's grand and seems to be developing okay!
Brams is an eastern hermann's that hatched early July. His last measuring he came in at 3.5 inches (8.89 centimeters) and 143 grams. I am worried this might be on the bigger side? I've seen a big range of sizes people reported for their hatchlings but most year olds it seems are smaller? I'm aware easterns are bigger than westerns though, and he'll also likely be bigger if he's actually a she, but I have seen some people say growing too fast is unhealthy so maybe I need to adjust something so he grows slower?
Diet-wise, I've seen the recommendation that he gets a portion about the size of his shell once a day, which he usually doesn't eat all of. Foraging isn't possible as his main food source here so he gets mostly store-bought greens. I do a red and green leaf spring mix along with another supplementary food from a list that I rotate through (I try to balance what his favourites are with what's actually healthy but the list includes things like cactus, bok choy, collard greens, romaine, and foraged weeds like dandelion or clover when I can actually get them) I do my best to focus on dark leafy greens since I've read that's the best for them, though he makes it a little difficult by being fairly picky.
He also gets calcium powder periodically and about once a week gets soaked mazuri pellets with a little zoo med mixed in sometimes for variety, and when I clean out his table I give him some dried meadow flower mix to graze on.
For his table, the starter I got to be his hatchling nursery is a partially open partially closed chamber wood tortoise terrarium, about 38x24 (96.53x60.86 in centimeters) with about a foot of the length being the covered area where he sleeps and the humidity is the highest (I work to keep it in the mid-80s at least) and the rest being the open area where he basks and eats and rampages.
The open area humidity is more around 60 but ranges, there are some shaded areas and the basking lamp is positioned at one end to give a temp gradient throughout. Right under the lamp it's between 90-95 f (32- 35 c), the rest is between that and the room's ambient temp which is kept at about 70-72 f (21-22 c) during the day and around 65 f (18 c) at night. He's also got a uvb strip, and his stuff is kept on a day/night timer from 8 am to 9 pm. He's of course got a fresh water bowl, and also gets regular soaks (at least an hour in warm water, I used to do daily but started dialing back since he's gotten closer to the year mark)
The substrate I use is a bottom layer of reptisoil with about a four to one ratio of sand mixed in (I know people worry about impaction with sand, but I read it helps a lot with substrate texture and water retention, and his food and water are positioned on smaller rocks to cut down on tracking in substrate and accidentally ingesting it) and a top layer mixed with cypress mulch to also help keep in moisture.
There's also moss and hay, mostly where he sleeps, I keep a close eye to make sure he doesn't eat any of it, it's purely there for helping the humidity and for enrichment, he does enjoy sleeping under the hay sometimes instead of in his hide. And he's also got a clean up crew; spring tails and isopods I've grown a pretty good population of.
This has gotten so long and I can't remember if I was going to say anything else so I'll leave it here! Would welcome any advice or opinions on if he looks like he's developing okay, I'm always SO paranoid about if his shell looks healthy. Or if you don't have any commentary you can also just enjoy the adorable pictures, I also threw in his baby pics just because.
Will out!
Brams is an eastern hermann's that hatched early July. His last measuring he came in at 3.5 inches (8.89 centimeters) and 143 grams. I am worried this might be on the bigger side? I've seen a big range of sizes people reported for their hatchlings but most year olds it seems are smaller? I'm aware easterns are bigger than westerns though, and he'll also likely be bigger if he's actually a she, but I have seen some people say growing too fast is unhealthy so maybe I need to adjust something so he grows slower?
Diet-wise, I've seen the recommendation that he gets a portion about the size of his shell once a day, which he usually doesn't eat all of. Foraging isn't possible as his main food source here so he gets mostly store-bought greens. I do a red and green leaf spring mix along with another supplementary food from a list that I rotate through (I try to balance what his favourites are with what's actually healthy but the list includes things like cactus, bok choy, collard greens, romaine, and foraged weeds like dandelion or clover when I can actually get them) I do my best to focus on dark leafy greens since I've read that's the best for them, though he makes it a little difficult by being fairly picky.
He also gets calcium powder periodically and about once a week gets soaked mazuri pellets with a little zoo med mixed in sometimes for variety, and when I clean out his table I give him some dried meadow flower mix to graze on.
For his table, the starter I got to be his hatchling nursery is a partially open partially closed chamber wood tortoise terrarium, about 38x24 (96.53x60.86 in centimeters) with about a foot of the length being the covered area where he sleeps and the humidity is the highest (I work to keep it in the mid-80s at least) and the rest being the open area where he basks and eats and rampages.
The open area humidity is more around 60 but ranges, there are some shaded areas and the basking lamp is positioned at one end to give a temp gradient throughout. Right under the lamp it's between 90-95 f (32- 35 c), the rest is between that and the room's ambient temp which is kept at about 70-72 f (21-22 c) during the day and around 65 f (18 c) at night. He's also got a uvb strip, and his stuff is kept on a day/night timer from 8 am to 9 pm. He's of course got a fresh water bowl, and also gets regular soaks (at least an hour in warm water, I used to do daily but started dialing back since he's gotten closer to the year mark)
The substrate I use is a bottom layer of reptisoil with about a four to one ratio of sand mixed in (I know people worry about impaction with sand, but I read it helps a lot with substrate texture and water retention, and his food and water are positioned on smaller rocks to cut down on tracking in substrate and accidentally ingesting it) and a top layer mixed with cypress mulch to also help keep in moisture.
There's also moss and hay, mostly where he sleeps, I keep a close eye to make sure he doesn't eat any of it, it's purely there for helping the humidity and for enrichment, he does enjoy sleeping under the hay sometimes instead of in his hide. And he's also got a clean up crew; spring tails and isopods I've grown a pretty good population of.
This has gotten so long and I can't remember if I was going to say anything else so I'll leave it here! Would welcome any advice or opinions on if he looks like he's developing okay, I'm always SO paranoid about if his shell looks healthy. Or if you don't have any commentary you can also just enjoy the adorable pictures, I also threw in his baby pics just because.
Will out!
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