Wanted to share these guys, and hopefully get some advice from more experienced keepers!
I took these two in as rescues from a local Craigslist ad on the 20th. Some back story can be found here: http://www.tortoiseforum.org/thread-71428.html
To sum it up, they are two young Russians... Both absolutely tiny.
One is missing one of his back legs, supposedly from a bird attack. He's a hatchling--estimated to have hatched in November of 2012.
The second one is even smaller than the "tripod," and, according to the previous owner, is a yearling, having hatched around August of 2011.
They came to me with soft plastrons, and somewhat lethargic, but still alert and eating. The tripod seemed very puffy.
I've been taking them outside as much as possible and soaking them daily in squash babyfood/water/liquid calcium mixture. They haven't eaten much of anything until the last day or two (finally decided spring mix is acceptable), but their plastrons seem a little more solid (could just be my wishful thinking, though) and the tripod seems less puffy. They're both fairly active, thermoregulating well. The tripod's eyes seem to bother him (he rubs at them frequently), but I don't really know why. His eyes look good... They were under a Reptisun CFL before, but it was one of the newer style bulbs that are supposed to be okay (they aren't under it anymore, though--I let the previous owner keep it, no use for it here).
Here is their enclosure, as it is right now. One little dish for water, one for calcium, one for food. It's small enough that I just take the whole thing outside during the day (usually take them out in the early afternoon when I come home from lunch, and leave them out til dusk). Inside, they have a small heat lamp. I keep a wider gauge tank screen secured to the top to keep would-be predators out.
If anyone has advice on what else I can or should be doing for these guys, I'm all ears! Thanks!
I took these two in as rescues from a local Craigslist ad on the 20th. Some back story can be found here: http://www.tortoiseforum.org/thread-71428.html
To sum it up, they are two young Russians... Both absolutely tiny.
One is missing one of his back legs, supposedly from a bird attack. He's a hatchling--estimated to have hatched in November of 2012.
The second one is even smaller than the "tripod," and, according to the previous owner, is a yearling, having hatched around August of 2011.
They came to me with soft plastrons, and somewhat lethargic, but still alert and eating. The tripod seemed very puffy.
I've been taking them outside as much as possible and soaking them daily in squash babyfood/water/liquid calcium mixture. They haven't eaten much of anything until the last day or two (finally decided spring mix is acceptable), but their plastrons seem a little more solid (could just be my wishful thinking, though) and the tripod seems less puffy. They're both fairly active, thermoregulating well. The tripod's eyes seem to bother him (he rubs at them frequently), but I don't really know why. His eyes look good... They were under a Reptisun CFL before, but it was one of the newer style bulbs that are supposed to be okay (they aren't under it anymore, though--I let the previous owner keep it, no use for it here).
Here is their enclosure, as it is right now. One little dish for water, one for calcium, one for food. It's small enough that I just take the whole thing outside during the day (usually take them out in the early afternoon when I come home from lunch, and leave them out til dusk). Inside, they have a small heat lamp. I keep a wider gauge tank screen secured to the top to keep would-be predators out.
If anyone has advice on what else I can or should be doing for these guys, I'm all ears! Thanks!
