Pyramiding

[wellington]

Well you've now found a method I have not tried… I don't know the answer.

In theory, if its insulated and not leaking the warm humid air out, and you need to switch to smaller bulbs so you don't over heat it, it should do the same thing, but why? Why spend all the time, effort and money trying to turn a VW bus into a high performance sports car that it will never be, instead of just buying or designing and building the right car to begin with? Much cheaper and easier and better.

Because most people raising one hatchling don't want or won't spend the money on an enclosure that doesn't last long. Also because they already spent money on an enclosure and if the insulation works, would be a lot cheaper. Remember, it's not a big expense for those raising lots of hatchlings and then being able to sell those hatchlings. For those that have one or a couple hatchlings and will not be having any more, 4-5 hundred bucks + is ridiculous for a year or two of use.

 

[daniellenc]

I did straight up target bin and cut a hole for the CHE. $20. If he weren’t a basker he’d of been fine in my cheap enclosure. Fast forward his AP cage will be here soon but even for one hatchling buying something or building something that will last forever is well worth it.

 

[wellington]

I did straight up target bin and cut a hole for the CHE. $20. If he weren’t a basker he’d of been fine in my cheap enclosure. Fast forward his AP cage will be here soon but even for one hatchling buying something or building something that will last forever is well worth it.

How big is the cage you ordered? I have doubts it will last forever. RF get pretty big.

 

[daniellenc]

It’s 8x3 and 24 inches tall which is their largest but I can add on in a few years and he’ll be outdoors half of the year once he’s bigger. He’s maybe 4 inches long and 240 grams at a year now.

 

[wellington]

It’s 8x3 and 24 inches tall which is their largest but I can add on in a few years and he’ll be outdoors half of the year once he’s bigger. He’s maybe 4 inches long and 240 grams at a year now.

I don't know how much they are, but I'd rather do a insulated heated shed that is of proper adult size. For what your possibly spending one two of them
and maybe needing three, you probably could do a nice shed.
Either way it's just not practical for most with a single tort in my opinion. If it could actually house it for it's life it might be different. Their largest isn't even the minimum for a Russian.

 

[daniellenc]

You’re correct too small for full grown but you can add. I wish I could do outdoors full time but like you in Chicago, Maryland gets too cold 5 months out of the year. I keep red foot so too tropical for a shed sadly. I’ll take a side down in a few years to add another few feet but I knew this before bringing him home. With lighting and RHP it was close to $1,400. To add it’ll be another $500 easily and my welder brother in law. His current enclure less than $100 with lighting enclosed. I wish I could build but never learned

 

[Sterant]

I tried this with sulcatas and it didn't work well. Check it out:
https://tortoiseforum.org/threads/2015-growth-experiment.119874/

Not exactly like your set up, but pretty similar. Let me know what you think. I'm all for trying to do it again with adjustments that you can point out. I tried this after being inspired by the @zovick radiata care sheet. It is clear that this works very well for radiata, but I couldn't make it work for sulcatas very well. They seem to need to get under a "sun" and get hotter than ambient. Share your thoughts?

I'm all for the notion that radiata are more forgiving when it comes to the conditions that can yield smooth shells. As you know, the T5 HO fluorescent tubes I use put out some heat. I often catch the babies basking under those lights, but they always retreat when they reach a body temp of 95. I run my chamber at about 92 during the day (70 or so at night) so they are grabbing at least a few degrees from the fluorescent tubes. The nice thing about the tubes as a basking source is that it is a very wide source - not a spot or even a flood. I hope that this avoids the desiccating carapace "hot spot".

For those that haven't read this before......
http://www.tortoisetrust.org/articles/baskinghealth.html

So, perhaps the only thing different in my setup vs. yours (other than the basking lamp) is that my fluorescent tubes hang lower than yours do, thereby giving the tortoises a viable basking option. I don't know this for sure, but I think you mount your tubes to the ceiling and use arcadia 12% bulbs? (am I remembering correctly?). I use reptisun 10.0 and a 6500k grow light - and they are about 12" off the carapace.

 

[Yvonne G]

I took a couple more pictures of "Leonard" this a.m. Looking at him in real life he really looks smooth, however, the camera doesn't lie. In the picture, he still looks like he has a pretty high hump in the middle of his back:

5/17


6/19:


7/11:


I really love this Vision cage. I've asked William if he could use some of my profits from baby sales to buy me another one.

 

[Yvonne G]

Leonard hatched a full month before the rest of the clutch. This is the whole clutch in March after they all hatched. Leonard was totally black when he hatched.