robinson468
New Member
Hello
If the following looks familiar I talked about my situation in the Introductions section Hello from Bakersfield, CA. Moderator, if I picked the wrong section for this post please move or let me know. Thanks
My wife's aunt found a tortoise in her backyard last weekend. She is preparing to move out of state, so we agreed to take the tortoise and see if we could find its owner, if not we would take it in ourselves. We posted a pic on the other thread and someone confirmed it to be a Russian tortoise.
We currently have a craigslist ad in lost and found, plus we've been watching for ads posted, flyers in her neighborhood, etc. It's been a week now since she found him but no luck so far finding his home.
So we are in the situation of learning about tortoises after acquiring one; which is opposite of how it should be I've learned.
We want him to be safe while we learn about care, acquire supplies and build the perfect enclosure. Unfortunately this process will take a few weeks or more with our schedules of work and kids. So currently we are looking for the best temporary option until we can prepare a more ideal enclosure and diet, etc.
Currently he is in an above ground planter that we dug out the weeds and cleaned up. From our other post, @Tom recommended switching substrates and gave us the proper care sheet. I'll be trying to acquire the substrate tomorrow. (orchid bark, cypress mulch or coco coir)
My initial question is this:
1.) Until we devise a suitable enclosure which may take several weeks should we:
a: Keep him in the outdoor above ground planter with umbrella for shade (Current Bakersfield Temps Highs 100-108; lows 75-80)
b: buy a kiddie pool or similar and keep him indoors for the meantime (temp between 78 -80) No lamps purchased yet
c: both of the above and split his time between out and in
d: look for a more suitable caregiver until we can get set up properly
e: something else we haven't thought of
I know none of this is ideal, but it's gonna take time for us to be able to afford and acquire and build all the right stuff, and I want to do the best I can in the meantime. And I'll be going out of town for about a week on Tuesday so I probably won't be able to get thermometers, lamps, etc. until I get back.
And I realize you can't provide me a perfect answer without coming and seeing everything firsthand. But if anyone has some input on how they think I could provide the
least harm to the little fellow in this situation, I'd appreciate it
If the following looks familiar I talked about my situation in the Introductions section Hello from Bakersfield, CA. Moderator, if I picked the wrong section for this post please move or let me know. Thanks
My wife's aunt found a tortoise in her backyard last weekend. She is preparing to move out of state, so we agreed to take the tortoise and see if we could find its owner, if not we would take it in ourselves. We posted a pic on the other thread and someone confirmed it to be a Russian tortoise.
We currently have a craigslist ad in lost and found, plus we've been watching for ads posted, flyers in her neighborhood, etc. It's been a week now since she found him but no luck so far finding his home.
So we are in the situation of learning about tortoises after acquiring one; which is opposite of how it should be I've learned.
We want him to be safe while we learn about care, acquire supplies and build the perfect enclosure. Unfortunately this process will take a few weeks or more with our schedules of work and kids. So currently we are looking for the best temporary option until we can prepare a more ideal enclosure and diet, etc.
Currently he is in an above ground planter that we dug out the weeds and cleaned up. From our other post, @Tom recommended switching substrates and gave us the proper care sheet. I'll be trying to acquire the substrate tomorrow. (orchid bark, cypress mulch or coco coir)
My initial question is this:
1.) Until we devise a suitable enclosure which may take several weeks should we:
a: Keep him in the outdoor above ground planter with umbrella for shade (Current Bakersfield Temps Highs 100-108; lows 75-80)
b: buy a kiddie pool or similar and keep him indoors for the meantime (temp between 78 -80) No lamps purchased yet
c: both of the above and split his time between out and in
d: look for a more suitable caregiver until we can get set up properly
e: something else we haven't thought of
I know none of this is ideal, but it's gonna take time for us to be able to afford and acquire and build all the right stuff, and I want to do the best I can in the meantime. And I'll be going out of town for about a week on Tuesday so I probably won't be able to get thermometers, lamps, etc. until I get back.
And I realize you can't provide me a perfect answer without coming and seeing everything firsthand. But if anyone has some input on how they think I could provide the
least harm to the little fellow in this situation, I'd appreciate it