Squirt’s upgrade

[Alex and the Redfoot]

Don't be too nervous about 90F hot spots. They are just "very warm spots", no more than that. She moves around the enclosure, picking the best places to stay and sleeps in comfort zones. Opening and closing the viv too often brings humidity and temperatures down, making CHEs to power on frequently causing the hot spots.

 

[Littleredfootbigredheart]

Don't be too nervous about 90F hot spots. They are just "very warm spots", no more than that. She moves around the enclosure, picking the best places to stay and sleeps in comfort zones. Opening and closing the viv too often brings humidity and temperatures down, making CHEs to power on frequently causing the hot spots.

Thanks for the reassurance, I only opened it once to do those temp gun checks, seems to have done the trick, impressed how much different the curtain made!😊

 

[Littleredfootbigredheart]

150 has been on about 3 hours now and interestingly enough, it’s taken that 90 spot down, so the bulbs must be working together nicely to spread the heat, there’s currently no hot spot under any of them, they all read about 86/87, I don’t doubt 88 at times but they don’t seem to constantly stay there, the whole viv is pretty much in the 80-86 range now, small 75 spot by the glass, so I’ll keep checking today and may consider plugging the 150 into the mains after all, provided it doesn’t throw out a hot spot today🙂
SO close to Goldilocks temps 24/7!!🤞🏻

She’s currently tucking into a salad! Tell you what, she’s not acting like your typical tort placed into a new environment! She’s constantly exploring the whole viv and b-lined for her food😂

 

[Alex and the Redfoot]

Maybe she was reading the TFO and knew what to expect I'm really happy to know, that she "feels at home" in the new enclosure. You've done it right from the first try!

 

[Littleredfootbigredheart]

Maybe she was reading the TFO and knew what to expect …

lol imagine!😂

 

[Littleredfootbigredheart]

Ok so after todays temp gun checks(about an hour before the 150 is meant to be going off) in my opinion, they’re a bit better, the 100 that is in line with the 150 is 86/87 underneath and same with the 150, there’s hardly any of the viv reading in the 70’s, just one corner by the glass, even the hides are 80, most of the viv reading 80-85, she’s currently in her cave, shell read 87, now the only issue is the 100 the other end is throwing out a slight hot spot of 88-90 now🫤which I guess was the case with the other one last night, I’ve turned the thermo on that one down ever so slightly, barley anything just to see if it helps.
I guess ultimately I’m looking for opinions on whether I should plug that 150 in and have all 3 run 24/7 and watch where she falls asleep again, or whether it’s just worth leaving as is, the temps were definitely a bit better last night, but the entire strip on glass side was in the 70’s still, where as with the 150 that isn’t the case. I’m just paranoid about the possibility of her repeatedly falling asleep in a 90 spot🫤I’m kind of struggling to bring these spots down though, I stop one bulb doing it, then one of the others do it🤪
I’ll wait to hear from one of you lot cause it doesn’t matter when I plug it in or not once the lights are off🙂perhaps I should use my last night here to experiment with the 150…

 

[Alex and the Redfoot]

I would stick for all CHEs running for some days. She might tend to sleep in hot spots when she is not warm enough, so if ambient temperatures are high she has more options where to stay at night.

 

[Littleredfootbigredheart]

I would stick for all CHEs running for some days. She might tend to sleep in hot spots when she is not warm enough, so if ambient temperatures are high she has more options where to stay at night.

Fair point, I did leave the 150 off in the end just to check where she slept again, she decided to be in her cave in the middle, her shell read 87, so I think I can trust her to be picking out the safe spots. I’ll be heading home soon so ill go ahead and do some finale temp gun checks, if im happy with the day temps being safe with less hot spots, ill just go ahead and plug that 150 in, i think what may potentially be happening when that 150 goes off, the other two bulbs start working harder to heat the space, creating those spots, whereas when its on I personally think the heat is disrupted better.
He did back track a little bit on me plugging that 150 in 24/7, I think he’s still got it in his head she needs lower temps at night and that I’m gonna cook her😣

 

[Alex and the Redfoot]

What temperatures are set on the thermostats now? Perhaps, 82F on 100s and 86F on 150W with the probe placed closer to it should work.

 

[Littleredfootbigredheart]

What temperatures are set on the thermostats now? Perhaps, 82F on 100s and 86F on 150W with the probe placed closer to it should work.

The 100’s are set at about 80 and the 150 82, I did try the 150 on 86 with the probe close but it threw a little too much heat

Still in her cave bless her, think the new home nerves may have finally hit🥲

 

[Alex and the Redfoot]

Ok, with 80/82 it sounds fine.

Well, she has explored her new home and now is simply "just enough bored", I guess.

 

[Littleredfootbigredheart]

Ok, with 80/82 it sounds fine.

Well, she has explored her new home and now is simply "just enough bored", I guess.

Lol yeah think the novelty has worn off😂definitely need to get some plants in there to break up her eyeline, I’m conscious she can pretty much see the whole viv atm so I get why she’s like eh I’m good here🥲

 

[Littleredfootbigredheart]

Oh @Alex and the Redfoot whilst I have you, I went onto the tortoise table last night and saw that bell pepper should only ever be fed sparingly to fruit eaters, which obviously I know she is, but we’ve been adding them to most feeds😣I didn’t realise they were so high sugar, should I suggest we scrap those altogether?

Think I’m going to reach out on what people have found their red foots enjoy on the reg, her diet isn’t bad by any means but I definitely want to expand her greens more tbh, sometimes it’s overwhelming just looking at the long feeding lists, I find it better hearing from owners directly..

 

[Alex and the Redfoot]

Sugar contents is not the primary concern with bell pepper. Poor Ca ratio is worse. No food is good enough to be fed alone hence "safe to feed as a part of varied diet".

Radicchio, chickory, white mushrooms, endive, any animal protein, papaya, mango, prickly pear fruit, squashes are Besha's favorites. Occasional pak choi, purslane, cherry tomatoes, green lettuce. She likes to graze pothos plant as well. Surprisingly, she is cold to strawberries and blueberries. Still fighting over cactus pads (you can get them from The Tortoise Hut online shop). She likes hibiscus and mulberry leaves which are great fiber and calcium sources (I'm afraid they are hard to find in UK). Some mallow and dandelion-like plants don't excite her, but she eats them sometimes. Catched her a couple of times grazing fresh festucca grass...

Probably, you have to ask UK keepers specifically, in different climates options are different.

 

[The_Four_Toed_Edward]

Oh @Alex and the Redfoot whilst I have you, I went onto the tortoise table last night and saw that bell pepper should only ever be fed sparingly to fruit eaters, which obviously I know she is, but we’ve been adding them to most feeds😣I didn’t realise they were so high sugar, should I suggest we scrap those altogether?

Think I’m going to reach out on what people have found their red foots enjoy on the reg, her diet isn’t bad by any means but I definitely want to expand her greens more tbh, sometimes it’s overwhelming just looking at the long feeding lists, I find it better hearing from owners directly..

Have you checked out this site yet? https://www.thetortoisetable.org.uk/ I wouldn't scrap bell pepper completly, but I would feed it more sparingly.

 

[Littleredfootbigredheart]

Sugar contents is not the primary concern with bell pepper. Poor Ca ratio is worse. No food is good enough to be fed alone hence "safe to feed as a part of varied diet".

Radicchio, chickory, white mushrooms, endive, any animal protein, papaya, mango, prickly pear fruit, squashes are Besha's favorites. Occasional pak choi, purslane, cherry tomatoes, green lettuce. She likes to graze pothos plant as well. Surprisingly, she is cold to strawberries and blueberries. Still fighting over cactus pads (you can get them from The Tortoise Hut online shop). She likes hibiscus and mulberry leaves which are great fiber and calcium sources (I'm afraid they are hard to find in UK). Some mallow and dandelion-like plants don't excite her, but she eats them sometimes. Catched her a couple of times grazing fresh festucca grass...

Probably, you have to ask UK keepers specifically, in different climates options are different.

Ah ok fair enough, it was when I saw this I panicked a bit lol, but I’ll say to just add the bell pepper once a week maybe instead, oooo thanks for all your suggestions! She loves most of those you’ve listed, especially her papaya! Definitely want to get my hands on some cactus pads, always wanted to try her with those, and always wanted to give her some hibiscus leaves too but yeah so hard to find here😣yeah I’ll try n reach out to some uk owners, I’m on a uk red foot owner page on facebook so I’ll have a look on there.

Went ahead and plugged the 150 in, the gun readings were giving better levels in my opinion, she’d of probably still be fine it going off but tbh the heat seems to be distributed better with all 3, directly under the 150 was 86, same with the 100 that’s in line with it, and under the other 100 was 88, that’s after 6+ hours of them all being on so I don’t see that spot going any higher, it was 90 last night without the 150 so I think my theory that the two bulbs working harder to heat the space was correct, having them all seems to bring the ‘hot spots’ down safer, she has a small area by the glass thats raging 72-77, so she does have a slightly cooler spot should she ever feel she needs it. After observing her these last few nights I feel confident I can trust her to find comfortable safe spots to sleep, so I’m definitely less worried about that 88 bit😊the whole viv pretty much reads 80-84, I’m pretty damn happy with that, humidity has come down nicely from the 90’s to the 80’s which they’ll keep on top off, all in all I’m chuffed with the levels we’ve managed to achieve for her now, thanks so much for all your help as always!🥰
Caught her having another mooch just before I left lol

 

[Littleredfootbigredheart]

Have you checked out this site yet? https://www.thetortoisetable.org.uk/ I wouldn't scrap bell pepper completly, but I would feed it more sparingly.

Yeah that’s the site I was looking at last night, I panicked a bit when I saw this lol, but we definitely won’t be adding it to each feed from now on😊I’ll have another look through tonight🙂

 

[The_Four_Toed_Edward]

Yeah that’s the site I was looking at last night, I panicked a bit when I saw this lol, but we definitely won’t be adding it to each feed from now on😊I’ll have another look through tonight🙂

Yeah, some say this site is a bit overly cautious. But I like it since it lists why they have ranked the foods as such and give details instead of just listing good and bad plants with no context. They also have a good list of UK native plants to feed.

 

[Littleredfootbigredheart]

Yeah, some say this site is a bit overly cautious. But I like it since it lists why they have ranked the foods as such and give details instead of just listing good and bad plants with no context. They also have a good list of UK native plants to feed.

Yeah I definitely appreciate the format of it and find it helpful🙂
Think I’ll come up with a little rough weekly meal plan some point this week n post it to see what people think☺️

 

[Alex and the Redfoot]

Yeah that’s the site I was looking at last night, I panicked a bit when I saw this lol, but we definitely won’t be adding it to each feed from now on😊I’ll have another look through tonight🙂

Redfoots can have up to 60% of fruit in their diet. But just not 60% of bell peppers