Tortoise first week

[THEADEMARCO]

Ive had my tortoise a little more than a week now. He wanders around his enclosure a bit, sometimes nibbling on the various plants I have in there. However, he mainly just stays under his basking bulb. I give him baths daily but do not see him use his water bowl. I'm not sure if he is using it without me seeing or just not using it! He has been in his hide once and only once. Every day he eats and he seemed to LOVE the bok choi i have him yesterday.
Is this all good behaviour? He is a 1yr old Hermann's. Im wondering how to get him to walk around a bit more for exercise purposes.

 

[Pák]

If he has acsess to all the things what he need to thrive, he will just do the thing what is good for him. Its hard to care for such a fragile animal, because you will always worried for something, but you need to chill out. The first 3-4 month was the hardest for me
If you set up a camera where you can watch him during the day, its help a lot to calm down, and proof yourself that he is okay.

 

[wellington]

Maybe the rest of the enclosure is too cold and this is why he hangs under the basking.
No area of the enclosure during the day should be below 75. It should have a range or 75-80 and then the basking area.

 

[THEADEMARCO]

The basking area is 38C, middle 30C and end 22C.

 

[Alex and the Redfoot]

Can you post a photo of an enclosure (I haven't found any in your previous posts)?
And as far as he eats and wanders around the enclosure some times probably nothing to worry about. You can weight him every 2-3 days to check he's not losing weight.

My tortoise almost never use a water dish, but I keep it available still. Maybe someday she'll discover how it works

Tortoises need more time to feel comfortable (maybe month or more) as they don't really like changes.

 

[THEADEMARCO]

Annoyingly I can't post any pictures of the enclosure as I'm out of town for a family situation. I will make sure to post pictures when I get back on Monday.
Ps yes the tortoise has someone feeding and bathing him while im gone

 

[Alex and the Redfoot]

Ok, no worries. Come back with updates whenever it's convenient

 

[THEADEMARCO]

Hey I am back home and SO glad to see my tortoise, I missed him so much! So far I have given him his daily bath and I have been watching him walk around the whole of his enclosure for about 15mins. I got the terracotta water bowl when I was coming back from the train station and I have seen him in it multiple times already which is something he hasn't been doing with the grey one. Honestly I don't really see the difference but I guess he likes this one more. I've even watched him go into one of his hides. This is all making me really happy to see him active and i am very hopeful he keeps it up. Not sure if he just feels energised after the bath or if he has suddenly gotten more comfortable with the enclosure.
Anyway, as promised I will attach pictures of the enclosure. It is 200 x 100cm which I think is fine because he is so small but I will get a much bigger enclosure in a couple years or just when he gets bigger. Sorry if you can't see too clearly. I was going to take off the mesh lid but didn't want to have to remove all the lights and disturb him. Let me know if there is anything I should be doing to improve this enclosure.

 

[THEADEMARCO]

:

 

[THEADEMARCO]

ps i have some big sheets of glass that I put over the mesh to keep in warmth when I feel is needed.

 

[Alex and the Redfoot]

Looks like a really spacious place for your little guy! Very nice!

 

[SinLA]

I would put more things in there to block his sightline, make him walk around things, it will make him feel like his space is even bigger. I'd also do more things for him to hide under.

I have a few of these i put up as vertical, s-shaped barriers that he needs to walk around, making it almost like a bit of a maze: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0893RHYKS/?tag=exoticpetnetw-20

you can go on pinterest and get some good ideas

 

[THEADEMARCO]

Thank you, i will order some tomorrow. I recently saw someone with one of these (admittedly on YouTube) but it looks fun and i was wondering if you think my tortoise might find joy in pushing this around and what not? https://a.co/d/3ptlQkP

 

[SinLA]

I've seen people talk about those, but I have no experience.

This gives you some good ideas:

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/477381629264608125/

 

[THEADEMARCO]

Wow that is amazing i will definitely take some inspiration.
Also i kinda just like the idea of my tort pushing round a ball so i will take a chance and buy it. If he doesnt like it then oh well i will remove it

 

[Alex and the Redfoot]

Wow that is amazing i will definitely take some inspiration.
Also i kinda just like the idea of my tort pushing round a ball so i will take a chance and buy it. If he doesnt like it then oh well i will remove it

You might try to make landscape more "challenging", just to get started by shaping hills and ridges in substrate. They won't last long (you have a little powerful bulldozer in the enclosure), but every day you could make small changes here and there.
Balls might be fun, but it's rumored, that tortoises perceive them as rivals and try to bully out of their territory.

 

[Alex and the Redfoot]

One thing about lightning setup - UV lamp should be near the basking bulb.

 

[THEADEMARCO]

Ah, thank you. I'd never really thought about the organisation of the lights but i will switch it over so they are close together.

 

[THEADEMARCO]

Honestly I'd kind of been using the uvb strip to also light up the rest of the enclosure,because the lights in my room dont actually light up the inside of the table well at all. Maybe i will buy just a normal light bulb to put on the mesh on the other side of the enclosure.

 

[Alex and the Redfoot]

The idea behind placement of UV source close to basking bulb is simple: to mimic natural sun. Basking lamp turns on, giving some heat and light, then "midday" comes with UV and more light for 2-3 hours and then only basking bulb again (like warm but not fierce afternoon sunshine). Tortoise naturally goes to bask in a sunny spot and "understands" that there is an UV.

Ambient light fills the whole enclosure for 10-12 hours to signal that it's bright summer day and there is no need to brumate. Some tortoises do fine without it, some brumate no matter what, most stay active with ambient lights. Non UVB LED strip is an excellent light source for this purpose.