Tortoise \ Reptile room pics

[chadk]

Things are always changing around here... I moved the russians into my mini-reptile room. I think they like it much more than the tort table in the cold garage (even with multiple heat lamps going)!

The bottom area is about 5x4ft. Carpet has plywood on it cut to fit the space. Then I lined the floor and walls with contractors plastic liner.

I have the hard to reach areas covered with aspen. Will replace with cypress later, but that is what I had at the time. The areas around the basking spot, feeding area, and watering hole are covered with slate, tile, and flag stones. There is organice garden soil here and there and some seeds planted.

You can see a few shots of the plastic bin used for a humid hide, digging area, and basking area on top. It works really well.

Olga and Timmy live here. Olga was aquired this summer\fall from another forum member. She is great. Full of personality. Comes literally running to me. She is very sweet. She looks like she has been overfed or something. Not sure what to think of her shell \ growth patterns and coloring. Any thoughts? She is so much bigger than Timmy (who likes to nip at her - but not too bad). She is quite the climber too. You can see her in 4x4 mode crawling over things in the pics

Here she is climbing:

Olga and Timmy. Different sub-speices I guess?

Olga drinking:

Olga rock climbing - actually she likes to bask there...

Need to get a conduit for these wires. They are out of reach, but look too messy...

A look at the hide with the tile off the top:

Better shots of the area. My 2 Dumeril's Boas in the plastic bins...

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Here is the full room taken from the hallway:

And here is one of the green chinese water dragons who live in the area above:

 

[TylerStewart]

Nice setup. I wouldn't say they're a different subspecies, though... She is an exceptionally light color for a Russian tortoise (where the other is a bit more normal, or a hair on the dark side). I'm not convinced there's enough define-able differences in Russians with any consistency to start buying the sub-species thing with them. In Greeks, for example, there are clear differences between races (color, shell shape, size, etc). With Russians, there's just not these differences. Maybe should be a debatable topic ???

Keep us updated on the seed growth where Russians have access to it. I can't keep new growth in place with Russians on it in a large outdoor enclosure. I think it'd be hard to keep alive and/or rooted indoors (when they eat it, it just pulls out the roots).

 

[dreadyA]

Very nice Chad. I like it

 

[chadk]

Yeah, I'm not expecting anything special from the seeds... Just sprinkled some around - if nothing else, gives them something to look for while waiting for the real meal I bring them.

yeah, I'm not up on the sub-species stuff. Doesn't matter to me one way to the other. Just curious as to why they look so different. My guess is that the differences are in diet and environment as they grew. I always thought he was average size for an adult, but compared to her, he's just a runt!

 

[K412]

That looks great! Nice work!

 

[Yvonne G]

All of the yellow on the female is just from very fast growth and doing it (growing) indoors.

 

[chadk]

That's what I've been thinking. Do you think she is wild caught? I'm sure the male is, but not sure about the female.

She also had quite the overgrown beak when I got her. I gave it a trim and she looks much better. May trim a bit more at some point.

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Also, any guesses on age for either?

 

[DoctorCosmonaut]

Sweet set up!

 

[chadk]

Thanks. It's not pretty (working on that), but I think it works great for them. Plenty of room and lots of hiding spaces and climbing areas. Besides the plastic bin area, there are 3 log hides and the area under the ramp. They can walk the perimeter of the enclosure if they want (the bin is pulled away from the wall in the back) and have lots of bright areas and dark areas. There is a CHE above the plastic bin that is on 24x7. Keeps the hide warm and humid. They love it. The heat lamp is a mega-ray UVB. And there is another regular florescent (sp) light on the timer just for more light.

 

[terryo]

Chad your set up looks so great. I am torn between my kids growing up and moving out, and taking the pool table with them, and me getting a big room for my animals...hmmmmm.....

 

[spikethebest]

very nice setup. they look very happy!

 

[Stephanie Logan]

Lucky reptiles to live at Chad's Boarding School and Animal Park!

I love the photos of Olga and Timmy. Their personalities radiate from the image! Timmy gazing at Olga: "Is she ever going to play with me?" Olga high up and liberated on her rock as the young Timmy looks on wistfully.

 

[Yvonne G]

I'm wanting to say wild caught, but I'm sorta' on the fence about it. I've seen quite a few cb with a lot of fast growth and they look a bit bumpier. She's pretty smooth and if you try to imagine away all the yellow and bring the dark portions of the carapace in together, it looks wild caught. I'm willing to venture a guess on the age, I THINK around 10 years.

 

[chadk]

Hmmm. Her growth also seems irregular. Note in the second pic where you see up at the front the dark spots are crammed together with little growth between shcutes (sp?) on one side, but the other ones are pushed far apart.