Tiny Redfoot Herd

ZEROPILOT

REDFOOT WRANGLER
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Cool! Not just Redfoot, but Cherry Heads!
Don't feed many grapes.
I give mine fruit at least once a week, but never grapes. Although I must admit I have forgotten why I was also told that they shouldn't be fed to tortoises.
 

NDevon

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It's just a settling in treat, they got 10 mins at that plate then it's back into their vivarium and lots of yummy (boring) greens! The two youngest I picked up yesterday and just wanted to get them to eat something, so they had a plate of everything. Although they all wanted the mazuri anyway!

And yeah, not sure why I said Redfoots really, I specifically wanted Cherryheads. I will show some close up pics soon, they have lovely colouring, one I'm sure is a blood relative of Darth Maul....
 

Oxalis

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They are very pretty! Life is a buffet to the tortoise... and they always choose Mazuri! :D
 

Linhdan Nguyen

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They are so beautiful ! I would like a "herd" of redfoots also... In a couple of years when i get more space . I know they can be kept together with little problems but does this include a couple males also? I worry that if i buy a few hatchlings, they'll be more than one male and i know males can be aggressive towards each other.
 

NDevon

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Thank you, they are very cute. The guess was 1 male and 3 females, the breeder knows a man who apparently is rarely wrong, but I'm aware I could have any combination. They all get along well, they are siblings, any sign of a randy tortoise will mean they get split up, but for now they are fine as they are so teeny.

The aggressive/assertive one was the oldest girl, she gets stroppy but the boy who is 2nd youngest and most confident is now settling in as the leader, he doesn't take any nonsense!

I'll get individual pictures up later so you can see them, I'm really happy with their colouring, gorgeous little things and I would never thought something like a teeny tortoise could have so much personality, I thought they were rocks with legs and a mouth!

I have the tortoise bug now, there is an old falling down animal shed used for keeping young calves in at the moment, it's right next to our house and it's a great size - we live on a farm. I'm looking at a complete rebuild and building a tortoise house and then looking for some adult tortoises who need new homes. I have space and time and have been searching for something to really get into for sometime now, I may just have found it. I will need tons of advice if I do move forward though, I've only been keeping tortoises a very short time so I know very little.
 

Linhdan Nguyen

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Thank you, they are very cute. The guess was 1 male and 3 females, the breeder knows a man who apparently is rarely wrong, but I'm aware I could have any combination. They all get along well, they are siblings, any sign of a randy tortoise will mean they get split up, but for now they are fine as they are so teeny.

The aggressive/assertive one was the oldest girl, she gets stroppy but the boy who is 2nd youngest and most confident is now settling in as the leader, he doesn't take any nonsense!

I'll get individual pictures up later so you can see them, I'm really happy with their colouring, gorgeous little things and I would never thought something like a teeny tortoise could have so much personality, I thought they were rocks with legs and a mouth!

I have the tortoise bug now, there is an old falling down animal shed used for keeping young calves in at the moment, it's right next to our house and it's a great size - we live on a farm. I'm looking at a complete rebuild and building a tortoise house and then looking for some adult tortoises who need new homes. I have space and time and have been searching for something to really get into for sometime now, I may just have found it. I will need tons of advice if I do move forward though, I've only been keeping tortoises a very short time so I know very little.
They sound so cute ! Yes i would love pictures ! Their coloring is very beautiful and strong. I have 2 russian tortoises at the moment and boy, do they have personality ! Haha. It must be lovely living on a farm with all that land. When i buy a house, i also want either a big back yard, or alot of land. Just so i can house more tortoises as you are thinking. I honestly think tortoises are much more fun than hamsters, which ive had many of. Its hard not to catch the tortoise bug and once its here, its hard to get rid of! I look forward to pictures of the baby red foots & the adult tortoises you will be taking in! Im also new but its a good thing we found this forum. So many experienced tortoise owners and such great advice !
 

Oxalis

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They sound so cute ! Yes i would love pictures ! Their coloring is very beautiful and strong. I have 2 russian tortoises at the moment and boy, do they have personality ! Haha. It must be lovely living on a farm with all that land. When i buy a house, i also want either a big back yard, or alot of land. Just so i can house more tortoises as you are thinking. I honestly think tortoises are much more fun than hamsters, which ive had many of. Its hard not to catch the tortoise bug and once its here, its hard to get rid of! I look forward to pictures of the baby red foots & the adult tortoises you will be taking in! Im also new but its a good thing we found this forum. So many experienced tortoise owners and such great advice !
Yes, you will both definitely find lots of advice and inspiration for building tortie enclosures all over the forum! :) I have my male Russian outside at the moment, since we finally have some nice sun and higher temps here in the mitten state -- and on a weekend day!! Soon I'll be back outside modifying the garden to make it more interesting for my Russian, weeding, planting more fun treats! Let me know if you ever need help with gardening too; I recommend The Tortoise Table for selecting all the best nom noms. Can't wait for spring!!
 

Linhdan Nguyen

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Yes, you will both definitely find lots of advice and inspiration for building tortie enclosures all over the forum! :) I have my male Russian outside at the moment, since we finally have some nice sun and higher temps here in the mitten state -- and on a weekend day!! Soon I'll be back outside modifying the garden to make it more interesting for my Russian, weeding, planting more fun treats! Let me know if you ever need help with gardening too; I recommend The Tortoise Table for selecting all the best nom noms. Can't wait for spring!!
They must be very happy being outside! I went to buy a little greenhouse and some soil and seeds yesterday so i could being planting vegetables and food for my russians also ! I will definitely be asking for gardening advice. My mom wasnt never all that great at gardening so im nervous about my luck. And yes, i use The Tortoise Table to make sure all the plants i feed my russians are safe also. Thank you!
 

NDevon

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I took some pictures tonight as they were having a soak, not good lighting so the pics are not great.

From left to right we have Freckles, Perrie, Bahia and Toastie

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This is Toastie, she has wonky scutes but that's why we chose her. Although she's the eldest she's very shy and very grumpy.
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This is Toastie after she had enjoyed a hard boiled egg for breakfast

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This is Bahia, he's 2nd youngest but thinks he's the leader of the gang. Very brave, doesn't flinch and constantly exploring, loads of character.

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I think he has really lovely read colouring.

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This is Perrie, she is 2nd eldest. Slowly gaining confidence, she didn't eat much for a while but she's eating more now. She likes to sit in the hide and watch what's going on, likes a tickle under the chin too.

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She's older than Bahia but a little smaller, not worried about her as she's very alert, loves her daily soaks and eats when she wants to.

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This is Freckles, very small but very confident, she likes to sit in my wife's hand and eat (I did explain this may be tricky when she's a foot long!)

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Although she is the smallest she doesn't let the older ones push her around. She is very sweet.

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This is from the other day, Bahia on the left Toastie on the right sharing their dinner. Just after this Bahia decided to sit in the middle of the Mazouri, didn't get a picture but it's something he always does, not sure if he's trying to stop the others from getting it.

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A couple of Bahia exploring, when the others sleep he is often patrolling the vivarium, probably plotting his escape...

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Please excuse the state of the background, I stupidly applied silicone to the pond liner I sealed the vivarium with and then stuck coco soil. It looked great but then started to peel off, I'm currently building a huge extension to make their home about 5 times larger, once I've done the extension and they can move across I'm going to sort the walls out on this section as it looks a mess.

Bahia was giving me a look, I just wanted to know what he was doing!

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So that's the little Cherryhead gang. They have had a big impact on my life, can't believe I'm saying that, 4 little things so small, but they have given me a new hobby and I spend a chunk of my day caring for them and planning for a new tortoise barn. That won't happen quickly as it will be a demolition and rebuild from foundations up, but it will happen, just got a lot of other things to pay out until early next year then I can go full speed. In the meantime I can continue my planning and research, I learn a lot of new stuff every day, I want to make sure I do everything I can to give these little creatures a fantastic life.

Thanks for reading, I hope the pics make you smile a little :)
 

Anyfoot

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Ha. You got the bug. It's taking over my life.

They look fantastic. Can't wait to see what you come up with on future enclosure builds.
 

Anyfoot

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Thank you, they are very cute. The guess was 1 male and 3 females, the breeder knows a man who apparently is rarely wrong, but I'm aware I could have any combination. They all get along well, they are siblings, any sign of a randy tortoise will mean they get split up, but for now they are fine as they are so teeny.

The aggressive/assertive one was the oldest girl, she gets stroppy but the boy who is 2nd youngest and most confident is now settling in as the leader, he doesn't take any nonsense!

I'll get individual pictures up later so you can see them, I'm really happy with their colouring, gorgeous little things and I would never thought something like a teeny tortoise could have so much personality, I thought they were rocks with legs and a mouth!

I have the tortoise bug now, there is an old falling down animal shed used for keeping young calves in at the moment, it's right next to our house and it's a great size - we live on a farm. I'm looking at a complete rebuild and building a tortoise house and then looking for some adult tortoises who need new homes. I have space and time and have been searching for something to really get into for sometime now, I may just have found it. I will need tons of advice if I do move forward though, I've only been keeping tortoises a very short time so I know very little.
Get a move on with your tort house or youll keep missing bargains like this. :D If I had the space I would snatch these up.

http://www.preloved.co.uk/adverts/show/114065544/breeding-group-of-redfoot-tortoises-for-sale.html?link=/adverts/list?keyword=Redfoot+tortoise
 

NDevon

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Ha. You got the bug. It's taking over my life.

They look fantastic. Can't wait to see what you come up with on future enclosure builds.


Thank you, your build inspired me if I'm honest. It's difficult, I don't want to come across as an idiot who got so,e tortoises and a few weeks later is building a zoo, but the truth is I have the space, the resources and the time, and I really need 'something' to do. I had to give up my career to care for my disabled children, so a lot of the time I'm not doing much (I avoid housework as much as I can!). I used to have my own successful business and have been searching for something I could setup at home so I can always be here for my kids. I need something or I will go insane eventually - although some say that happened a while back....

Of course I've never bred tortoises, maybe I couldn't do it, but what I can do is read and learn, and others manage it, I hope that if a I could build he riht environment I could do something I enjoy and make a little money too. I will be pestering you for advice and asking questions of course, you are waaaaaay ahead of me with what you've done.

For now I'm going to get these littluns through their first year wih slow steady growth, my goal is really smooth shells and confident little animals. If I can do that I reckon I could say I know the basics and I could have a good go at taking this hobby further. I am taking it seriously, I've spent a fair bit on these little guys and give them a lot of my time. But yea, it's a real bug isn't it, I'm really enjoying it :)
 

NDevon

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NDevon

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I like the moss ramp you have! :)

The little hide one, wood with moss top? Or the big one with coco soil on? The little one was just one of the cheap little hides, I applied silicone over the top and patted moss onto it. No idea how long it will last, but it is quite humid under and they like it, looks a little more natural than a line of twigs tied together with metal!

The big one that Bahia is climbing, that I made from polystyrene sheets silicones together, I then covered it in spray expanding foam, dried it and then shaped it. It has a tunnel hide under that Toastie lives in, it's lined with coco soil and filled with moss, she loves it, sometimes the others join her. The top is all covered in coco soil, it's not holding up so well, I would make it a little differently next time, but when I first built the vivarium it had a second floor and that hill was how they could get up there. Unfortunately I had heating issues under the shelf, so it was taken out he day after the tortoises moved in. The build I'm working on now has 2 floors but each floor is much bigger with its own heating and lighting so I can control the environment.

None of the others have done much exploring, they sort of eat and sleep, but Bahia wants to know every corner of the place and sleeps somewhere different each night, the rest are in pretty much the same spot every day. Fascinating characters :)
 

Oxalis

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The little hide one, wood with moss top? Or the big one with coco soil on? The little one was just one of the cheap little hides, I applied silicone over the top and patted moss onto it. No idea how long it will last, but it is quite humid under and they like it, looks a little more natural than a line of twigs tied together with metal!

The big one that Bahia is climbing, that I made from polystyrene sheets silicones together, I then covered it in spray expanding foam, dried it and then shaped it. It has a tunnel hide under that Toastie lives in, it's lined with coco soil and filled with moss, she loves it, sometimes the others join her. The top is all covered in coco soil, it's not holding up so well, I would make it a little differently next time, but when I first built the vivarium it had a second floor and that hill was how they could get up there. Unfortunately I had heating issues under the shelf, so it was taken out he day after the tortoises moved in. The build I'm working on now has 2 floors but each floor is much bigger with its own heating and lighting so I can control the environment.

None of the others have done much exploring, they sort of eat and sleep, but Bahia wants to know every corner of the place and sleeps somewhere different each night, the rest are in pretty much the same spot every day. Fascinating characters :)
I like the wood one with the moss on top. My boyfriend mentioned seeing aquarium-safe silicone; that's something completely new to me! :) Sounds like it makes a good humid hide for your redfoots, at least for the time being, anyway. What kind of moss are you using? That looks nicer than my sphagnum peat moss. I think we're ready to try something else. So many people on the forum have mentioned how much they love the coco coir, so I'm excited to open the brick of that I bought on Amazon! It probably won't be until we expand the tortoise table though.

What "spray expanding foam" are you using? Not the scary stuff from the hardware store? I heard that may not even be all that good for humans! :eek:

They are cute little babies with such unique personalities, aren't they? Steve (my male Russian) just kind of fell into my hands, so I haven't had any other tortoises, but I can tell he loves me for the most part. ;)
 

NDevon

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Ahh yea well that little hide took about 3 minutes to make then! I picked up the bare wood hide for a few pound, then I used a brown silicone, spread a thin layer over it and then firmly pressed handfuls of moss onto it. Kept shaking it off and repeating then left it for a few days to completely dry and the smell to go. The moss is the usual sphagnum moss, I think I killed it as I 'cooked' it in the oven. I wanted to dry it a little as it was just soaked through, seemed far too wet to be of any use, maybe it was fine, but yea it went in the oven. I then forgot about it! It was brown and dry when I took it out, I needed to use something somI put it in. As it happens it seems to work fine, no horrible smells or anything, it soaks water when I mist and then drys out, the tortoises drag it into hides and bury in it and it's really soft and springy, I wouldn't mind a huge bed made out of it myself if I'm honest!

The spray foam is just a general one you can pick up in any hardware store, it's only scary when you first spray it, don't do it in a confined space and stick your head in, you will have a serious headache! Obviously don't spray it up your nose or down your throat, and it's a pain if you stick your fingers together, takes ages to come off! Not that I did that of course, I wouldn't stick my fingers together..... :D

It is fine to use in vivarium so as far as my research shows, but it needs to fully cure before you put an animal in there. I would worry more about the fumes from the silicone than he foam, the silicone stinks, made my eyes water and sting. I left the whole thing open to the air for a week then heated and humid I left it for another week, en there was no smell and everything was set hard.

They are great little creatures yes, I've never been at all interested in reptiles, most give me the shivers and if I see a small spider I run screaming like a 10 year old girl. Ironically my 10 year old daughter comes to the rescue and removes the spiders! Never been keen on lizards, never really saw the attraction of that sort of pet, I've always had fluffy animals, I love cats and dogs, had unusual pets, huge marine reef tanks, horses, cattle, chickens. My daughter wanted a pet, and asked for a tortoise, I would never buy any animal without a ton of research, so started looking, at first I thought I wanted her to have leopards but then I discovered Redfoots and here we are. I do like Pancakes, I have future plans for some Pancakes but for now it's just the Cherryheads - they keep me occupied!
 
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